Marion residents angry at mayor, aldermen

By By Lynette Wilson / staff writer
Oct. 9, 2002
It was standing room only Tuesday at Marion's town meeting as residents turned out to protest about $39,000 in spending.
The sum includes $5,000 raises for Police Chief Kevin Taylor and Charlotte Rosco, the town and court clerk, to bring their salaries up to the state average $28,246 for each position.
The remainder, $28,882.08 plus benefits, was used to hire Doyle McKee as the city's water manager.
Minutes from a meeting held Sept. 10 show the board of aldermen went into executive session to discuss hiring McKee, the city's part-time building inspector, to the water department with a $26,000 salary. The board also discussed raising waterman Willie West's salary to $26,000. The two men would share job responsibilities.
The minutes show that the motion fell flat with all five alderman voting "no."
Then, in a twist, Marion Mayor Malcolm Threatt called a special meeting on Sept. 11.
The minutes show the alderman voted 3-2 to hire Doyle McKee at $28,882.08 plus benefits to supervise the city's water operator and waterman, and to raise the salaries of the police chief and the town clerk.
At Tuesday's meeting, Alderman Luther Jones asked for a motion to rescind the actions taken by the board at the Sept. 11 meeting, but was denied.
Tom Goldman, Marion's attorney, said it was against Robert's Rules of Order, a leading manual of parliamentary procedure followed by the board of alderman, for an alderman voting "no" on a motion that passed in a 3-2 majority vote to rescind the motion.
He said request for a motion to rescind would have to be made by an alderman voting "yes."
Luther Jones and Elvis Hudson voted "no." Denny Bryan, Bobbie Sherrod and Joey Wagner voted "yes."