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Mark Berryman
[email protected]
The City of Bowman held another contentious called meeting on Friday at 6 p.m. to discuss formal complaints and an injunction. To be sure the meeting did not get out of hand, no less than four Elbert County Sheriff's Office personnel were present, including Sheriff Melvin Andrews.
The agenda did not stipulate what the formal charges were or what the injunction entailed. The meeting was requested by council members Leah Carey, Betty Jo Maxwell and Mary Clark.
Mayor Scott Harpold began by asking Councilwoman Leah Carey to speak on the formal complaints. Carey said she really didn’t know what to say about it because Harpold had said he would take care of those.
Harpold then asked City Attorney Douglas Kidd to speak first concerning the injunction item on the agenda.
According to Kidd, the injunction was related to the current litigation taking place between the city, Art and Jenny Lane, and Aubrey Lunsford. Kidd suggested the item be discussed in executive session but did say that was not a requirement.
At this point Councilwoman Betty Jo Maxwell made a motion to dismiss the current injunction against Lunsford and Carey seconded the motion. The mayor told her it was not an appropriate motion but Kidd said council could do so but that his legal opinion was that council should not follow through with the motion at that time.
Maxwell then repeated her motion to dismiss the injunction.
Harpold then addressed the injunction. According to Harpold, a judge had ordered Lunsford to stop building the chicken houses. Harpold said council agreed to the order and a judge signed that order.
Harpold said the city sent a letter to Lunsford but he continues to construct the poultry houses and an injunction was filed to stop Lunsford’s work on the poultry houses.
Kidd then said Superior Court Judge Chris Phelps signed a temporary order barring Lunsford from continuing construction and a hearing is set for later this month on the matter.
Harpold then attempted to take the matter into executive session but Maxwell said she would not do so.
Mark Carey attempted to speak and was warned by the mayor not to speak. Carey was issued a second warning later in the meeting and told he would be removed from the meeting if there were any more interruptions.
A debate ensued as to whether the matter should be discussed in open session or closed session and an attempt by Harpold to go into executive session failed.
Councilman Jeff Spratlin then told Carey and Maxwell the problem began when they voted for the poultry houses and that by repealing the injunction they would create even more problems. Spratlin then asked them to be patient and let the legal system work through the issue.
The mayor then called for a vote.
Henrietta Williams said the matter was already in the court and voted “no” on the motion. Spratlin voted “no” as well. Councilwoman Mary Clark said she could not reverse her earlier vote and voted “no.” Both Carey and Maxwell voted in favor of the motion, which failed by a 3-2 vote.
Jim Thomason then spoke, saying he had lived in Bowman his whole life with the exception of a stint in the Marine Corp. “When you’re elected, you’re elected to represent the people, regardless of the office you’re elected to, your district, your state, whatever. All city council members were elected were elected to represent the citizens of Bowman, not your opinion. Your opinion, it does matter to you but if the whole city of Bowman wants one thing and you don’t like it, it’s not your position to go against them. You’re supposed to go with the people.” Thomason said he did not see that happening now.
Harpold then called for a vote to go into executive session as the agenda called for but no motion was made.
Maxwell then complained about how she was being treated by Harpold, and was told she was out of order.
The meeting was then adjourned.
The meeting can be viewed in its entirety on our Facebook page for 30 days from the day it was streamed.
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