Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes has vowed to continue his fight against a local newspaper as a result of a recently printed article questioning the validity of his travel to several conferences.
In an article published in The Clarion Ledger, it noted that Stokes made several trips at taxpayers expense. It included a $2,745.54 trip to the American Association of State Highway Transportation meeting in Chicago in August 2009.
At issue is accountability.
The council has a yearly budgeted traveling expense of $35,000. As it stands now there is little follow-up as to why council members travel and very little paperwork is required detailing trips. Council members also are not obligated to report their findings after attending conferences or conventions.
This issue hasn’t been addressed in 19 years.
There is a law on the books that was last updated and looked at in 1991 that gives guidelines on travel requests. Some council members didn’t know it existed or what was required.
“I must admit that I didn’t know what was required of me as council president when it comes to traveling,” Ward 4 Councilman Frank Bluntson said. Under the existing policy the council president is required to approve all out of town trips in advance. “I plan to enforce that part of the policy from this day forward and perhaps that would eliminate some of the problems that we are having,” said Bluntson.
Bluntson, who has long been a critic of out-of-town trips, signed Stokes’ request for his Chicago trip Aug. 18, nearly two weeks later.
Stokes shared at a press conference where he countered some of the items he brought back from that Chicago trip and others including a name badge, conference agenda and an area hotel’s memo pad that included handwritten notes.
“I have no reason to lie and for The Clarion Ledger to print something like this, insinuating that I wasn’t there, is wrong,” Stokes said. “I want a front page apology.”
Stokes took his claims to the council meeting June 15.
“A newspaper cannot arbitrarily and capriciously lie like The Clarion Ledger did on Kenneth Stokes,” he told council members while holding a sign that read, “Clarion Liar.”
Stokes asked the council to hire a lawyer at taxpayers expense to investigate The Clarion Ledger. That request was denied on a 5-2 vote with Councilman Chokwe Lumumba voting in favor.
Stokes plans to appeal the vote and the rules committee will take up the 1991 travel policy June 21. This meeting is open to the public.
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