TIM PRATT
New Light Road residents Fred and Tamara Allen have attended nearly every meeting of the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors for the past six years, but the couple stormed out of the board meeting Thursday afternoon after a heated exchange with supervisors.
“That was totally out of control,” Fred Allen said Thursday evening, several hours after the meeting.
Trouble started during the public comment period, when Fred Allen presented supervisors with a packet of information on possible funding strategies for road improvement projects in the county. He also said the Oktibbeha County Hospital, when it turns a profit, should pay money back to the county for the $27.5 million hospital renovation bond issue, and cited a complicated revenue agreement in place between the hospital and the county as a precedent for a new deal.
When Allen’s three minutes were up, board President Marvell Howard struck the table with his gavel and asked Allen to return to his seat. Allen continued to speak, however, and asked for an additional minute, but Howard was insistent on the three-minute time limit.
When Fred Allen sat down, Tamara Allen stood and asked the board to listen to her husband and meet with him to listen to his ideas.
Tensions flared again later in the meeting when District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said he was “embarrassed” by the way the board has treated constituents throughout the years.
“I think when (Allen) comes to us and brings us all this stuff, it has merit,” Trainer said.
Howard countered, however, saying all people must abide by the three-minute time limit and that not all information presented by the public should be treated as fact. He then cited Allen’s statements earlier in the meeting about the hospital giving revenue back to the county and said Allen doesn’t understand the agreement.
It was then when the Allens gathered their belongings and stormed out of the meeting, voicing their displeasure with the board as they went.
“Don’t misquote us,” Tamara Allen said to Howard as she walked out the door.
Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.
I think that county government ought to be conducted in the light of time when working citizens of Oktibbeha county can attend its meeting. When working people cannot attend meetings it tends to spack at a system of closed government at the county level.