The Hinds County Election Commissioners have had two meetings so far this year and both meetings ended with board minutes not being approved. “I can not affix my signature to minutes that are not approved by this body,” said Lelia Rhodes, former chairwoman for the commissioners who represents District 5.
This discussion during the meeting held Tuesday, Jan 11, became heated. “We need to get these minutes approved so that we can move forward with other work that we have to do,” said Connie Cochran, newly elected chairwoman who represents District 4. “Jermal, we talked about this at our last meeting and you agreed to have the minutes here.”
Jermal Clark, commissioner for District 3, is the former secretary of the body and has repeatedly maintained that he distributed the minutes and that board members are not doing their due diligence in reading and responding. “I brought some of these minutes last week and I’ve given all of you correspondence about our failure to approve minutes,” said Clark. “I don’t think we are handling the people’s business when we have this type of work ethics.”
All five of the election commissioners acknowledged that they had read some of the minutes if not all of them and that it has been so long that they had forgotten some of the items discussed.
Another hot button item of discussion at the meeting was the approval of Pat Wilson’s contract.
In December 2010, it was determined by Crystal Martin, the attorney for the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, that the contract Wilson was working under was not legally binding and, in fact, his hiring was not legal.
Martin told the Board of Supervisors then that the Election Commission never submitted Wilson’s most recent contract, which dates back to December 2009, to the board for approval. Moreover, Martin said, only one commissioner, Marilyn Avery, signed the contract, which is a departure from standard practice.
Based on minutes from the board and the commission, Wilson’s contract with the Election Commission is “probably not a binding contract,” Martin said.
Martin added that her partial review of the commission’s minutes had not turned up evidence of a formal meeting to approve Wilson’s contract, raising the possibility that the hiring did not follow the commission’s hiring procedures either. She recommended that the Election Commission meet promptly to formally authorize Wilson’s contract and submit it to the Board of Supervisors for approval.
Avery, who represents District 1, submitted a contract for approval in this week’s meeting. However, after much discussion, the contract was not voted on. “I have several issues with this contract as it is written,” said Clark. “First and foremost, it should not be written in third person language.”
Other changes included Wilson’s title as manager, his duties and responsibilities and payment. The board will take up the contract issue at its next meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 18.
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