Greene County Democrat

Category: Politics

  • National Police Group apologizes for past racial injustices, but not current ones

    Julia Craven Reporter, The Huffington Post

    police-in-charlotte

    Police in riot gear walk outside Bank of America Stadium before a football game in Charlotte, North Carolina in September. Protests disrupted the city after an officer fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old black man.

    The president of the largest police organization in the country issued an apology on Monday to communities of color for the “historic mistreatment” they have suffered at the hands of law enforcement officers.

    Terrence Cunningham, the police chief of Wellesley, Massachusetts, delivered the apology during a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in San Diego. The IACP includes 23,000 police officials from across the United States, The Washington Post reports.

    “We must forge a path that allows us to move beyond our history and identify common solutions to better protect our communities,” Cunningham said. “For our part, the first step in this process is for law enforcement and the IACP to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.”

    “There have been times when law enforcement officers, because of the laws enacted by federal, state and local governments, have been the face of oppression for far too many of our fellow citizens,” he continued. “In the past, the laws adopted by our society have required police officers to perform many unpalatable tasks, such as ensuring legalized discrimination or even denying the basic rights of citizenship to many of our fellow Americans.” 1.

    Cunningham has a point. The relationship between law enforcement and communities of color has long been strained ― especially for African-Americans. Modern-day police forces grew out of slave patrols (at least in the South). During the height of the Jim Crow era, police officers were tasked with maintaining state-sanctioned racial oppression.

    “While this is no longer the case, this dark side of our shared history has created a multigenerational ― almost inherited ― mistrust between many communities of color and their law enforcement agencies,” Cunningham said.

    But racial discrimination in policing didn’t end with Jim Crow. Police officers are still required to enforce racially discriminatory laws ― such as SB 1070, an immigration law in Arizona that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they think is in the country illegally. Or New York’s “stop and frisk” policy, which was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in New York in 2013 for violating the Fourth Amendment rights of Black and Latino New Yorkers.

    As movements like Black Lives Matter note, people of color ― especially African-Americans ― are disproportionately killed, harassed and stopped by the police for mundane reasons. Because of this, trust toward the police is far lower in communities of color.

    Cunningham is certainly aware of this: He pointed to the high-profile police shootings of unarmed black people that have “tragically undermined the trust that the public must and should have in their police departments.”

    “Many officers who do not share this common heritage often struggle to comprehend the reasons behind this historic mistrust,” Cunningham said. “As a result, they are often unable to bridge this gap and connect with some segments of their communities.”

  • President Obama Talks about the Future of HBCUs, at North Carolina A&T

    By Freddie Allen (NNPA Newswire Managing Editor)

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    President Obama

      During a recent town hall discussion at North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, President Barack Obama said that historically Black colleges that are producing engineers, doctors and dentists serve as the foundation stone for building Black middle class wealth and success, and are also important to the entire nation.

    President Obama answered audience questions about the future of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), his signature My Brother’s Keeper initiative and social activism at the event hosted by “The Undefeated,” an ESPN website dedicated to the exploration of sports, race and culture.

    As the nation grows more diverse and educational opportunities that were once off-limits to Blacks are now more available, some have questioned the relevancy of HBCUs.    In 2011, the Obama Administration received sharp criticism after changes in the Federal Direct PLUS loan program, disproportionately affected Black students attending HBCUs, forcing many to either delay their dreams of earning a college degree or abandon them altogether. Three years later, the Department of Education issued updated guidelines that were praised by higher education advocates and included less restrictive credit requirements for the loan program.

    Obama said that the challenge with the Parent PLUS program was that some of the loans offered were “particularly expensive” and left too many students deeply in debt without graduating. “The notion was to try to improve the way in which young people were financing their educations,” said Obama. “Part of the challenge here is to make sure, not just that [students] enroll in college, but that [they] graduate from college.”  Obama said that HBCUs receive $4 billion a year from the federal government and noted that Pell grant funding to HBCUs increased by 150 percent, while he’s been in office. The president also expressed concerns over state-level budget cuts to higher education that have had a significant impact on the financial stability of HBCUs.

    “Unless state legislatures pick up some of this slack, there’s only so much the federal government is going to be able to do to fill the void through loans, because ultimately loans mean debt and it adds up and people can get into trouble,” said Obama. “If you’re really concerned about more resources for HBCUs then you better vote. If you don’t vote, you won’t have any say in the decisions that are made in state capitals or in Congress about the support that you receive.”

    Obama also talked about the future of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative (MBK), a program that was launched to address the unique challenges facing young men and boys of color.

    Obama said that the central principle of (MBK) is to have some adult who is taking interest in the young men, “to have somebody that is showing them here’s an alternative here’s a pathway here’s an opportunity that you can seize and you are worth something and you are important and you are a leader.”   Obama added: “It doesn’t take a lot to transform the lives of young men.” MBK has partnered with organizations like the National Basketball Association and major corporations like Sprint have committed to make sure that one million young people have broadband Internet access to start closing that digital gap. Obama said that 250 communities and cities have launched local MBK programs.

    “Some cities are doing better than others, some corporate citizens are investing more than others and we want everybody to get involved,” said Obama.

    When asked about what it takes to manage the challenges of raising a family and a successful career, Obama admitted that balancing professional achievement and family is something that he and the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama have had to wrestle with.

    Managing those responsibilities is particularly burdensome on the mom, said Obama.

    “There’s no doubt that Michelle carried a greater burden than I did, particularly, because the nature of my work required a lot of travel,” said Obama, adding that soon-to-be dads must understand the level of commitment required to balance work and family responsibilities successfully. He said that it was important to understand, that if you’re going to have a real partnership, you have to give and not just take and you have to be there and present at home.

    “On my deathbed I will not remember any bills I passed, I will not remember any speeches I gave, I will not remember getting the Nobel Prize,” said Obama. “What I will remember is holding hands with my daughters and taking them down to a park. That’s one thing I know, that on my deathbed, that is what I will remember and if you approach life with that attitude then you’re going to appropriately invest in what is most important.”

     

  • County Commission responds to Sheriff Benison’ suit

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    Greene Co. Public Works Shop held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, October 11, 2016 construction started on October 3, 2016 shown above L to R Commissioner Lester Brown, Clifford Safford of Safford Building Company, Commissioners Michael William, Tennyson Smith, Corey Cockrell and Allen Turner, Jr.
    The Greene County Commission, at its monthly meeting held Tuesday, October 11, 2016, authorized Attorney Hank Sanders to respond to Sheriff Jonathan Benison’s lawsuit filed last week which requests that the court enforce the Settlement Agreement with the commission.
    In an unanimous vote by the four commissioners present, the commission directed the attorney to respond that the county wants the Settlement Agreement enforced.
    Among the provisions of the Agreement, signed by the two parties last January, the Sheriff agreed to provide the county with $85 per bingo machine per month from each gaming facility beginning February 2016. The county’s records indicate that Sheriff Benison has not complied with this provision. These funds, if received from the Sheriff, would help support Sheriff Department personnel. The County agreed to make some upgrades at the jail, including improving the camera system. The commission explained it has been trying to get bids for the project.

    The commission voted to support several of the State’s Constitutional Amendments, relating to county government, which will be on the November 8 ballot, including Amendments 3, 4, and 14. Amendment 3 addresses how local legislation is enacted; Amendment 4 addresses increasing local power of county government; and Amendment 14 addresses the lawsuit claiming thousands of local bills are unconstitutional. This Amendment would cure the potential constitutional effect. During the meeting Commissioner Allen Turner’s motion to go into executive session failed for lack of a second.
    In other business the commission approved the following:
    *Re-appointment of John Zippert to Hospital Board from District 1; Appointment of Eddie Austin to Hospital Board from District 4.
    *Recognized Blake McMillian for completion of training with the Alabama Jail Training Academy.
    *Accepted resignation of driver for county’s nutrition site. County will advertise to fill the position.
    *Approved a ABC License for Mr. James Robinson
    *Bids on materials for Highway Department.
    *Approved 2017 Severe Weather Preparedness Tax Holiday February 24-26, 2017
    *Approved hiring of one Equipment Operator I and one Equipment Operator II for the Highway Department.
    *Approved GPS flyover with G Squared and authorize chairman to sign all necessary documents.
    *Approved travel for Commissioner and staff. Commissioner- Leg. Conference- December 7-8, Montgomery,Alabama, CFO - Governmental Accounting and Auditing- Nov. 30 – Dec1- Birmingham, Tax Seminar- December 6-7- Bessemer AL (CFO pay for personally) Jail Administrator- Oct. 18-21 Mobile AL – Alabama Jail Association.
    Please remember that Solid Waste Exemption Program began October 3 and will end November 30. There is a $10 adminstration fee and the application must be renewed annually.

  • Hurricane Matthew death toll passes 800 in Haiti, cholera takes lives

     

    By Makini Brice and Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters

    Girls hold hands as they help each other wade through a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. Two days after the storm rampaged across the country’s remote southwestern peninsula, authorities and aid workers still lack a clear picture of what they fear is the country’s biggest disaster in years. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
    Destroyed houses are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

    Children stand in flooded street in Haiti; and Destroyed houses are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016.

     

    CHANTAL, Haiti/PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Hurricane Matthew’s trail of destruction in Haiti stunned those emerging from the aftermath on Friday, with the number of dead soaring to 877, tens of thousands left homeless and outbreaks of cholera already claiming more lives.

    Information trickled in from remote areas that were cut off by the storm and it became clear that at least 175 people died in villages clustered among the hills and on the coast of Haiti’s fertile western tip.

    Rural clinics overflowed with patients whose wounds including broken bones had not been treated since the storm hit on Tuesday. Food was scarce and at least seven people died of cholera, likely because of flood water mixing with sewage.

    The storm razed homes to their foundations. The corrugated metal roofs of those still standing were ripped off, the contents visible from above as if peering into doll’s houses.

    At least three towns reported dozens of fatalities, including the hilly farming village of Chantal, whose mayor said 86 people were killed, mostly when trees crushed houses. He said 20 more people were missing.

    “A tree fell on the house and flattened it, the entire house fell on us. I couldn’t get out,” said driver Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald, 27, who had been married for a year.

    “People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife who had died in the same spot,” said Jean-Donald, his young daughter by his side, crying “Mommy.”

    The death toll continued to rise on Friday in southwest Haiti. Dozens more were missing, many of them in the Grand’Anse region on the northern side of the peninsula.

    “We flew over parts of the Grand’Anse region. It’s a humanitarian catastrophe,” said Frenel Kedner, a government official in the town of Jeremie in southwest Haiti. “The people urgently need food, water, medicine.”

    Cholera cases rise

    In the town of Anse-d’Hainault, seven people died of cholera, a disease that did not exist in Haiti until U.N. peace keepers introduced it after a 2010 earthquake that killed some 200,000 people.

    Another 17 cholera cases were reported in Chardonnieres on the south coast.

    “Due to massive flooding and its impact on water and sanitation infrastructure, cholera cases are expected to surge after Hurricane Matthew and through the normal rainy season until the start of 2017,” the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a statement.

    With fatalities mounting, various government agencies and committees differed on total deaths. A Reuters count of deaths reported by civil protection and local officials put the toll at 877.

    Haiti’s central civil protection agency, which takes longer to collate numbers because it needs to visually confirm victims itself, said 271 people died asMatthew smashed through the western peninsula on Tuesday with 145 mph (233 kph) winds and torrential rain.

    Some 61,500 people were in shelters, the agency said.

    Matthew pushed the sea into fragile coastal villages, some of which are only now being contacted. Coastal town Les Anglais lost “several dozen” people, Louis-Paul Raphael, the central government representative in the region, told Reuters.

    Les Anglais was the first place in Haiti that Matthew reached, as a powerful Category 4 storm before it moved north, lost strength and lashed central Florida on Friday.

    With cellphone networks down and roads flooded by sea and river water, aid has been slow to reach towns and villages. Instead, locals have been helping each other.

    “My house wasn’t destroyed, so I am receiving people, like it’s a temporary shelter,” said Bellony Amazan in the town of Cavaillon, where around a dozen people died. Amazan said she had no food to give people.

    Outside Chantal, stall holders at a makeshift market were selling vegetables and soft drinks, brought in from Port-Au-Prince as roads were cleared to the capital.

    “All our houses have been destroyed. This is our existence,” said one stall holder, who declined to give her name.

     

     

  • Why we need a posthumous Presidential pardon for Marcus Garvey

    “Almost 100 years after a grave miscarriage of justice, he is still considered a criminal in the US.”

     By: Julius W. Garvey, M.D.Board-certified surgeon, leading the effort to secure a posthumous Presidential pardon for his father and civil rights leader, Marcus Garvey

     

    Jamaica Marcus Garvey
    FILE – In this Aug. 1922 file photo, Marcus Garvey is shown in a military uniform as the “Provisional President of Africa” during a parade on the opening day of the annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World at Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. A century ago, Garvey helped spark movements from African nationalist independence to American civil rights to self-sufficiency in black commerce. Jamaican students in every grade from kindergarten through high school have began studying the teachings of the 1920-era black nationalist leader in a new mandatory civics program in schools across this predominantly black country of 2.8 million people. (AP Photo/File)

     

    Marcus Garvey was born in 1887 in Jamaica. This was two years after the Berlin Conference that divided the African continent among the major European countries and 50 years after the end of the slave trade. Garvey’s purposeful goal was to redeem African humanity and reconstruct African civilization. He launched the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League in 1914.

    During my father’s lifetime, which ended at age 53 in 1940, Marcus Garvey gathered millions of followers worldwide and was the forerunner of the Civil Rights Movement and an anti-colonial champion in the Caribbean and Africa. Along the way, he influenced ground-breakers who would become historic figures across Africa including Kwame Nkrumah (who led Ghana to independence and served as the first Prime Minister and President), Jomo Kenyatta (who led Kenya to independence and was the first President and Prime Minister), Sam Nujoma (who served three terms as President of Namibia), and Nnamdi Azikiwe (a leader in modern Nigerian nationalism), and Nelson Mandela who is revered and beloved all over the world. Just as importantly, in the U.S., Garvey influenced our historic social justice and civil rights leaders, Malcolm X Shabazz and Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Marcus Garvey is honored across the globe with statues, streets and parks named after him, multiple volumes of books written about his ideas, work and dedication to the liberation of people of African ancestry.  He is the first national hero of Jamaica and is the only Black leader honored by the Organization of American States. He was named by a leading British academic one of the fifty greatest political thinkers of all time. Yet, almost 100 years after a grave miscarriage of justice, he is still considered a criminal in the U.S.

    Here’s what happened and why it’s time to reverse it.

    Marcus Garvey led a movement, which espoused Black pride and Black self-reliance, economic independence and Black unity. These same ideas and actions today would be admired and supported as peaceful, positive and forward-thinking. Not so in the 1920s when the goal of African independence alienated him from many who favored the status quo. This included the very powerful J. Edgar Hoover who targeted Marcus Garvey as his prominence continued to grow as the major leader of the African American community.

    During the entire month of August 1920, Marcus Garvey’s U.N.I.A.-ACL organization held its first international convention in New York City. An estimated 25,000 Black people attended the opening of the convention held at Madison Square Garden. They came from all over the world and delegations from 25 African countries were in attendance. They deliberated for the entire month of August and promulgated the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro People of the World as well as a structure for the international unity for African people.

    Marcus Garvey was an innovative entrepreneur and began the Black Star Line Shipping Company created to facilitate the transportation of goods and people throughout the African global Diaspora. It was for this initiative that J. Edgar Hoover charged Marcus Garvey and three others with conspiracy to defraud. The fact that Marcus Garvey was the only one found guilty, and not the 3 others, is the real proof that this was all about his politics and not the truth. Through a trial replete with perjury, judicial misconduct and the evidence of an empty envelope, Hoover achieved his aim with Marcus Garvey serving 2 ½ years in federal prison in Atlanta, being deported, never permitted to return to the U.S.

    Over the years much has been discovered and written about the nefarious tactics of Hoover, but it’s been almost 100 years and nothing has been done about the grave miscarriage of justice for Marcus Garvey.

    The legacy of my father, Marcus Garvey, is a remarkable one as the foremost Pan Africanist of the first half of the 20th century. Today, his ideas and leadership are embraced, praised and honored, yet a cloud of criminality tarnishes his legacy, which is why a posthumous Presidential pardon is necessary.

    Justice has been delayed but it should not be denied. The time is now.

  • Ailing Obama health care act may have to change to survive

         By ROBERT PEAR, New York Times

    president-obama

    President Obama

    WASHINGTON — The fierce struggle to enact and carry out the Affordable Care Act was supposed to put an end to 75 years of fighting for a health care system to insure all Americans. Instead, the law’s troubles could make it just a way station on the road to another, more stable health care system, the shape of which could be determined on Election Day.

    Seeing a lack of competition in many of the health law’s online insurance marketplaces, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and much of the Democratic Party are calling for more government, not less.

    The departing president, the woman who seeks to replace him and nearly one-third of the Senate have endorsed a new government-sponsored health plan, the so-called public option, to give consumers an additional choice. A significant number of Democrats, for whom Senator Bernie Sanders spoke in the primaries, favor a single-payer arrangement, which could take the form of Medicare for all.

    Donald J. Trump and Republicans in Congress would go in the direction of less government, reducing federal regulation and requirements so insurance would cost less and no-frills options could proliferate. Mr. Trump would, for example, encourage greater use of health savings accounts, allow insurance policies to be purchased across state lines and let people take tax deductions for insurance premium payments.

    In such divergent proposals lies an emerging truth: Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement will almost certainly have to change to survive. The two parties agree that for too many people, health plans in the individual insurance market are still too expensive and inaccessible.

    “Employer markets are fairly stable, but the individual insurance market does not feel stable at all,” said Janet S. Trautwein, the chief executive of the National Association of Health Underwriters, which represents more than 100,000 agents and brokers who specialize in health insurance. “In many states, the individual market is in a shambles.”

    Mr. Obama himself, while boasting that 20 million people had gained coverage because of the law, acknowledged in July that “more work to reform the health care system is necessary.”

    “Too many Americans still strain to pay for their physician visits and prescriptions, cover their deductibles or pay their monthly insurance bills; struggle to navigate a complex, sometimes bewildering system; and remain uninsured,” Mr. Obama wrote in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The marketplace faces a major test in the fourth annual open enrollment season, which starts on Nov. 1, a week before Election Day. In many counties, consumers will see higher premiums and fewer insurers, as Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth have curtailed their participation in the exchanges, and many of the nonprofit insurance cooperatives, created with federal money, have shut down.

    Mr. Trump has said that Congress must “completely repeal Obamacare,” and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly tried to do so. But parts of the law appear to be here to stay. One such provision, now widely accepted, says that insurers cannot deny coverage because of a person’s medical condition or history.

    For their part, many Democrats are clamoring for a public insurance option, as they did nine years ago.

    “Supporters of the public option warned that private insurance companies could not be trusted to provide reliable coverage or control costs,” said Richard J. Kirsch, who led a grass-roots organization that fought for passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010. “The shrinking number of health insurers is proof that these warnings were spot on.”

    On Sept. 15, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, introduced a resolution calling for a public option. The measure now has 32 co-sponsors, including the top Senate Democrats: Harry Reid of Nevada, Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

    “You need competition to make the exchanges successful,” Mr. Merkley said in an interview. “A public option guarantees there’s competition in each and every exchange around the country.”

    As they did before the Affordable Care Act was enacted, insurance lobbyists are mobilizing to kill the public option. The main trade group for the industry, America’s Health Insurance Plans, says it would do nothing to stabilize the exchanges, and in an urgent “action alert,” the group asked member companies to lobby against Mr. Merkley’s resolution.

    Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate health committee, said the Democrats’ public option plan would compound the problems it seeks to solve.

    “Obamacare exchanges are collapsing because of federal mandates and a lack of flexibility,” Mr. Alexander said. “We need to give states more flexibility and individuals more choices so more people can buy low-cost insurance.”

    Mr. Trump would replace the Affordable Care Act with an assortment of conservative policies, including some that are similar to ideas favored by House Republicans and by think tanks like the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute. But Democrats and some Republicans say that Mr. Trump has not laid out a comprehensive, coherent alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

    Mr. Trump would eliminate the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. He would encourage the sale of insurance across state lines, in a bid to increase competition. And he would convert Medicaid, now an open-ended entitlement, into a block grant, giving each state a lump sum of federal money to provide health care to low-income people.

  • Eutaw City Council accepts bids on water project; disputes claims to pay Sheriff’s Department for setting up voting machines

    In its regular meeting on September 27, 2016, the Eutaw City Council approve bids for the proposed $3.1 million water improvement Project from USDA Rural Development.
    The Council approved two bids, one from Caldwell Tank Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky for $1,092,000 for replacement of the water tank behind City Hall; and a second bid from Apel Machine and Supply Company of Hanceville, Alabama for $1,557,344.92 for the replacement and extension of pipes, digital meters, fire hydrants and other improvements.
    Mayor Edwards said “The city is still negotiating the interim financing for this project and hope to have this completed soon so we can sign contracts with these low bidders so the water project can get started.” The Mayor also reported that work would begin within thirty days on the Prairie Avenue resurfacing project. S. T. Bunn was selected as the contractor for this project.
    The City Council was presented with an invoice for $6,000 for “delivery, set-up, technicians fee and pickup of electronic voting machines,” for the October 4th City runoff elections. The invoice specified that payment be made, prior to delivery of any equipment, to Jeremy Rancher or Charles Davis, who are on the staff of the Sheriff’s Department.
    Mayor Edwards explained that the same deputies had submitted a bill for $6,000 for the August 23 City elections and that she had paid $5,000 of that bill. The total request from deputies Rancher and Davis was $12,000 to provide the voting machines.
    Both the Mayor and Councilwoman Shelia Smith protested the high cost of the election arrangements and whether the Sheriff’s Department or individuals working for the Sheriff’s Department could legitimately charge for providing voting machines that belong to the County.
    After some discussion, new Probate Judge Judy Spree made the machines available to the City of Eutaw for the election and had members of the City police force transport and set up the machines. The Mayor is still disputing the original $5,000 payment and requesting a refund.
    In other business the City Council approved travel for council members and staff to various conferences and training events.

  • Sheriff files suit to enforce Settlement Agreement

    sheriff

    On September 30, 2016, just one day after the Greene County Commission finalized its budget for 2016-2017 fiscal year, the Greene County Sheriff Jonathan Benison, through his attorney Flint Liddon, filed a suit with the Greene County Circuit Court alleging that the Greene County Commission had “fulfilled essentially none of the terms of the Settlement Agreement and the Sheriff had fulfilled all of the terms of the Settlement Agreement.” The agreement referenced here is the settlement reached in February, 2016 between the commission and the sheriff in which the sheriff would provided additional bingo resources to the county and the commission would utilize a portion of those resources to support the sheriff’s department including providing some upgrades at the county jail.
    The Sheriff’s suit, among its attachments, lists the particulars of the February agreement including the provision that the Sheriff would provide to the county an additional $5 per bingo machine per month totaling $85 per machine from all the gaming facilities in the county. According to the Greene County Commission, the sheriff has not paid the additional $5 per bingo machine since the agreement was reached in February.
    In reviewing the entire agreement, it is apparent that the commission’s ability to meet the budget request of the Sheriff Department is contingent on the sheriff complying with the payments of the $85 per bingo machine to the commission.
    The sheriff’s suit asks the court to enforce the terms of the Settlement Agreement signed by both parties. The court’s enforcement would necessitate that the sheriff pay the county $85 per bingo machine per month from February 2016 through the county’s 2019 fiscal year from all gaming facilities in the county.

  • Sheriff reneges on agreement; Commission reduces sheriff’s budget request Greene Co. Commission approves fiscal year 2016-2017 budget

    The Greene County Commission, at an emergency meeting held Thursday, September 29, 2016, approved its fiscal year 2016-2017 budget, reducing the Sheriff Department’s allocations by $138,727.73. According to the commission, this amount represents the additional resources Greene County Sheriff Jonathan Benison agreed to provide to the commission from increased fees generated from Bingo machines. This agreement between the Greene County Commission and Sheriff Benison resulted from a directive of Circuit Court Judge James Moore at the December 15, 2015 hearing and provides that the sheriff will raise the fees on Bingo Machines at each facility in the county from $80 to $85 per month, beginning February 2016. To date, the additional $5 per machine has not been provided to the commission.
    The court agreement stated that the $85 per machine, collected by the sheriff for the commission, would be earmarked and allocated with 60% of the funds to be used for infrastructure projects and 40% for use by the commission to meet needs of the county general fund. The commission explained that part of the 40% would be allocated toward the sheriff’s budget, however, without the increase of $5 per machine, the county does not have sufficient income to meet the sheriff’s budget as requested.
    The commission reported that various communications have been sent to Sheriff Benison, requesting the agreed upon funds for the county and explaining the process that authorized the sheriff to impose and collect the additional $5 fee per Bingo machine. The commission reported there has been no response from Sheriff Benison in this regard.

  • Raymond Steele wins run-off for Mayor of Eutaw

    mayor-raymond-steeleRaymond Steele was elected Mayor of Eutaw in Tuesday’s run-off election by a vote of 718 (58.4%) to 511(41.6%) for Hattie Edwards the incumbent Mayor. Steele previously served three terms as Mayor of Eutaw from 2000 to 2012.
    Steele carried five of six voting boxes including decisive victories in Branch Heights and the Absentee Box (see chart of results on page 7 of this paper). The mayor’s race was the only one on the ballot while all City Council seats were determined in the August 23 primary election.
    There was little drop-off in the voting between the first election when 1,233 votes were cast and the run-off where 1,229 votes were cast, based on unofficial voter returns that will be confirmed on October 13, 2016.
    The new city officials will take office in November. Mayor Raymond Steele will be joined by City Council members: Latasha Johnson (District 1), LaJeffrey Carpenter (District 2), Shelia H. Smith (District 3), Joe Lee Powell (District 4) and Bennie Abrams (District 5).
    In an interview with the Democrat after his victory, Steele said:
    “I want to thank the citizens of Eutaw for their confidence in me. I look forward to working with the Eutaw City Council, other agencies and the citizens of the city to move Eutaw forward. I hope to continue with the proposed water improvement project. I want to encourage business and commercial development at the Interstate Exit 40 to bring jobs and raise our tax base.
    “I want to ask the City Council to unconditionally accept the roads and streets in Branch Heights, so that we can seek federal and state monies to fix these roads. I am open to hear the concerns of city residents and hope we can build a brighter future for our city.”
    Hattie Edwards said, “I thank my supporters for their support and believing in me.”
    The Democrat learned on Tuesday that incumbent Mayor Ollie Vester of Forkland postponed the municipal run-off election in that city despite instructions from the Alabama League of Municipalities to proceed with the election. Vester is disputing the results of the August 23 election and asked for a recount, however her request was filed beyond the deadline for such challenges.
    A special municipal election in Boligee is now scheduled for October 24.