The City of Indianola may be bringing its prisoners back to Sunflower County.
During the open portion of Monday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Steve Rosenthal made several announcements including that Sheriff James Haywood and Indianola Police Chief Edrick Hall had reached a consensus regarding “the city receiving the services provided by other surrounding county jails.”
“This will preserve the safety and well-being of all citizens of Indianola and hopefully benefit Sunflower County as well,” Rosenthal said.
The city had included an item on the original agenda to sign an inter-local agreement with Leflore County regarding the transport and holding of Indianola’s prisoners. That item was removed from the agenda before the start of the meeting.
The city has been taking prisoners to Leflore County for some time, but it was recently revealed through talks with the county that municipalities likely need to have an inter-local agreement with whatever outside county they are operating in, and that agreement likely needs to be approved by the Attorney General’s office.
Most of the municipalities in Sunflower County are doing business with county jails other than Sunflower’s, with the City of Moorhead presenting the only inter-local agreement, a document that was originally signed in 2010.
During Ruleville’s last city board meeting, the board attorney suggested the city look into an inter-local agreement with Bolivar County, since the police department has been using the Bolivar County jail to house prisoners for some time.
Later in the meeting, Alderman Sam Brock asked why the inter-local agreement item was removed from the agenda, and Rosenthal answered that they were waiting because an Attorney General’s opinion was being sought as to whether an agreement was actually required.
Alderman Marvin Elder then wanted to know what was being done in the meantime.
Rosenthal responded, “If the sheriff can provide what we need, we’ll do business with the sheriff.” Elder expressed a desire to hear what Chief Hall had to say about the matter, but was reminded by Rosenthal, “That’s not on the agenda right now, we’ll move forward.”
Though Elder and Brock persisted, Rosenthal stood firm in his stance on the item no longer being on the agenda for discussion and that he “believes” an agreement has been worked out between the two agencies.
Elder then insisted that all of the aldermen should have known about the agreement, “Since we got to pay the bills,” he said.
In a conversation with Hall and Haywood after the meeting, Hall said the two met and a resolution was forged.
“The prisoners have been back in Sunflower County jail for a week or so, now,” Hall said.
Haywood confirmed city prisoners were back at his jail.
An official agreement between the city and the county has been in place since 2008, Haywood said he simply agreed to assist the city in transporting prisoners with medical needs that could not be addressed by the county’s medical team. “Our first option is Sunflower County jail,” said Hall.
The discussion of the animal shelter by the humane society and the claims docket were scratched from the agenda as well upon full board approval.
The decision to remove the claims docket from the agenda evidently stemmed from an announcement by Rosenthal to revert to paying the claims docket once per month instead of twice, as they do now.
He said the docket will be available the second Friday of each month and approved at the last meeting of the month to allow the aldermen more than a week to review it and call to get answers to any questions that might arise to expedite matters during the meeting.
In other business,
Rosenthal also announced the upcoming date for a leadership institute on Creating and Managing City Budgets, which will be held at Delta State University. He encouraged all of the new aldermen to attend since this will be their first year dealing with the budget process.
He then reminded the public that approval was granted in a March session to establish the cutoff time for adding things to the agenda as the Wednesdays before the meeting at noon. “Only time-sensitive items will be considered for addition,” Rosenthal added. He then asserted that all future audience comments would now be limited to three minutes.
He also issued an official statement of congratulations to citizen Jameshia Attaway who was recently presented with the Prudential Spirit of Community award.
The city lawmakers heard and approved departmental reports from the cemetery, fire, parks and recreation, public works and the animal shelter.
They voted to accept the bid from Community Bank to finance the city’s new vehicles. Community’s bid was slightly higher than Gulf Port based Hancock Bank but according to information disclosed at a previous meeting, the city has a policy to consider local businesses if their offer comes in less than 10 percent of the lowest outside bid.
Upon the recommendation of City Engineer Ron Cassada, officials voted to accept the lowest bid of $335,490 from Avis Construction of Greenville to repair pump stations and conduct a city-wide sewer rehab. Cassada said although the bid is over and above the engineer’s estimate of $310,000, he recommends accepting it because it is a “unit priced” contract so areas can be deleted to fall within budget if necessary.
The other bids were $388,696 from Delta Constructors, $422,579.91 from Hemphill Construction and Red Oak Construction bid $485,921.83.
Voted 3 to 2 to accept an offer from developer Anthony Wansley of AW Design & Build Co., to purchase 4.2 acres in southwest Indianola. At their February meeting, Wansley pitched a proposal to the mayor and aldermen to purchase a plat of city-owned land at the end of West Davis Circle in Ward 4. He initially wants to put three two-family duplexes there that could eventually evolve into 18 units.
The final motion and vote came after a prior motion to table the issue for later, failed. Alderman Marvin Elder raised issue with some work that the city is supposed to be doing with regard to that area. Rosenthal alluded that it had to do with the dredging of some ditches.
Elder said he hasn’t heard anything from Wansley since he first appeared before the board and was under the impression they would meet with him again before a decision was made. “I hate to rush through this,” he said. Then, referencing the $1,000 good faith money, Elder said, “But if he wants the property, he should have put up the $35,000 and paid for it outright.”
He stated that before the property is sold he wanted it spelled out in black and white what the city was responsible for as well as the buyer’s responsibilities. He and Brock voted to table it, but the other aldermen voted no. Without delay, Aldermen Gary Fratesi then introduced a motion to sell, alderman Darrell Simpson seconded and they, plus alderman Ruben Woods voted yes, Brock and Elder voted no.
The aldermen accepted a $35,000 non-matching NRPA Healthy Out of School grant that parks and recreation director Carolyn O’Neal applied for and received. However, Brock asked that she supply the board with a breakdown of how the money is going to be spent, and Elder wanted to know if O’Neal would receive any compensation for securing the grant.
On the advice of Attorney Gary Austin, voted, 4 to 1, to allow a Clay Street property-owner until the second meeting in May to either sell his dilapidated property and have the new owner present plans for renovation or tear it down. If that doesn’t happen, the city will demo it. Brock voted no.
The aldermen also announced a pay increase for a police officer that graduated from the academy and the termination of a maintenance employee for undisclosed reasons.
