A special meeting was held one week after the regular council meeting in Oberlin to attempt to approve several items from the previous agenda that failed due to a second motion or was tabled by the council. (Editor’s Note: All council members were present for the Monday night meeting, August 11. During the meeting, the mayor vetoed one item. After the meeting it was discovered the mayor could not take this action, so another special meeting has been called for today, August 18, to address the issue.)
Representative Dewith Carrier was in attendance at the meeting and asked to address the council. He voiced concerns over the town not taking immediate action to secure funding he and Senator Heather Cloud has secured for the town. He also said he was available on phone to all members of the council to help the council seek funds for projects to improve the community.
“We spend a lot of time on committees,” Carrier said. “And it sits for eight months. That’s ridiculous.”
Carrier also referred to last week’s regular council meeting when the council could not receive a second to motions made to move forward to secure monies set aside for the town. He said there was a half million dollars waiting for the town and they were fighting about $19,000 they would owe to use the funding. “We’re not going to continue if you are not going to move on the money.”
Carrier went on to say the FBI was not coming back to investigate. “It’s fake news. This town is dying,” he said as he tried to reach the council members about working together.
Councilman Bobby Thomas said he was going to speak since Carrier had said his name. He said he was concerned, because he believed the council “got caught with our pants down. I’m just making a point.”
Thomas was referring to the town having to pay money up front to receive the money it was awarded for a road improvement project. Now, the town is waiting for that money to be returned to them, and the town is in a financial bind.
Carrier said Thomas could have picked up the phone. He said sometimes monies could be waived.
The veto came in regards to American Rescue Allocations. Three board members, Thomas, Romelzy Willis Jr. and Linda Boulden cast votes against it while Ryan Daigle and Chris Davis cast votes for it. The motion failed, and Mayor Wayne Smith said he was going to cast a veto vote and the monies would be distributed.
The proposal for the Rescue allocation of $319,922.30 includes $35,000 toward the community center, $110,280.80 for Cleco, $28,650 to the auditor, $10,000 to the council’s attorney, $1,200 each to the finance clerk and city clerk, $38,836.19 for the balance on the water project, $54,953.01 for employee pay, $4,000 to the financial consultant, $10,000 for a maintenance truck, $10,000 for a dump truck, $15,000 to CSRS and $800 to Bourque’s Signs. This would leave $2.30.
There are questions about an allocation for the police department of $25,000. Some members of the council thought when they decided to purchase police cars for the police department the $25,000 for cars would not be needed. The council also allocated $50,000 for four cars to be outfitted with law enforcement tools.
Another issue is the council doesn’t have all invoices for the auditor despite several requests. Thomas said online at the auditor’s site, the town’s auditor has a different cost. He wanted to know why, and the council would like to see what they are being charged for in regards to audit services.
The council also doesn’t want to discuss the payment to USDA to close out its water project. The contractor has attempted to settle this project since September. The contractor has hired an attorney and has informed the council they will go to court if they don’t get paid. Charlotte Artis, town clerk, explained the town initially owed about $17,000. Another $10,000 in penalties and interest leaves the town owing $38,808.16. She said that was until August 31.
Council members suggest mismanagement of the project and other issues. Mayor Smith said, “I think we need to close this. We are going to be sued and it will cost the town more money. He said they were already out of money. He also said if they thought someone had did wrong then sue them. Otherwise he believed it was time to close the project and pay them.
Davis said the council could pursue legal action in the future. He believed it was time to pay the contractor.
Thomas said he wanted his I’s dotted and T’s crossed.
Davis said the money was sitting there, and Thomas said no because it had not been allocated. Davis said they had been trying to solve this for the last three meetings.
Daigle’s concern was that the town would use the Rescue monies to pay its bills, and the town would soon be in trouble again. He said the council had been working on this deficit, but it was not getting out of debt. “It takes care of us today; what will we do tomorrow.”
Daigle said they had all made promises but they were not solving the reoccurring debt.
Smith said they were managing the best they could and with what they had to work with because Oberlin had no tax base.
In other business, the council:
•Did approve the July bills.
•Approved the resolution to pay Carl Capone and accept the grant he secured for the town.
•Approved the hiring of Parker Cole, CSRS, to secure FEMA funding to conduct a study to apply for over a billion dollars FEMA will be distributing through the president’s infrastructure program. The cost is $15,000.
•Approved hiring an independent auditor to investigate the alleged mismanagement of funds in regards to the police chief’s retirement funds.
•Learned Pan American Engineers are applying for a water sector project monies to make sewer improvements.
