Bauxite aldermen and the mayor are at a stalemate.
For months, three aldermen and Mayor Johnny McMahan have bickered. The mayor has scolded some aldermen for what he called an illegal meeting. He asked one alderman to resign because he said she didn't live in her ward. The aldermen have fought with the mayor over an appointment to a vacant council seat and complained that he won't give them access to city records.
On Monday, it reached a breaking point.
The City Council passed a 3-1 vote of no confidence after heated discussion during its monthly meeting. Alderman Brenda Haney voted it down. The move, some aldermen said, has been at least six months in the making.
"A vote of no confidence -- I take with a grain of salt," McMahan said Tuesday. "It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't kick me out of office."
Alderman Mona Struble, who introduced the no-confidence motion, said McMahan has done "several things" that she didn't feel comfortable with. She had approached the city attorney before Monday's meeting to see how she could oust McMahan.
"When we questioned him, we were pretty much shut down and locked out of City Hall," Struble said. "If we disagree with him, then he gets mad and he will veto anything. There's no agreeing to disagree with him."
McMahan said he is trying to keep the city of 487 people together, but the council is trying its best to unravel his accomplishments.
"[Monday's] meeting was straight out of Jerry Springer's TV," he said. "I don't know any remedy."
Monday's council meeting began with disagreements over who would take minutes. Alderman Paula Matthews has taken minutes in previous council meetings, but she decided against doing it again.
"No. 1, it's not my job. It's not my responsibility," Matthews said. "I'm not able to do my job as a council member in a meeting when I'm taking minutes of the meeting. I get so wrapped up with what everybody's saying that I can't even participate."
McMahan then asked City Attorney Pam Perry to take the meeting's minutes.
Also Monday, the council agreed to remove Alderman Karen Brooks from signing paychecks and the city's bills. McMahan signs the city's checks, and an alderman needs to sign a check afterward.
Brooks had been signing the checks but asked to be removed from the task. McMahan asked each of the council members to step up to fill the void, but none did. Some said they had more than one job; others said they had children to tend to.
Matthews said her main concern with being a co-signer was that the city was issuing checks without knowing for certain whether they were for a city employee or a contract worker.
"I'm not putting my name on anything that could be illegal," she said.
Brooks, who shared Matthews' concerns, later agreed to sign the checks until the city hired a new recorder/treasurer, but she refused to sign some checks.
Aldermen then questioned the mayor on why the city hasn't hired anyone for that position. The former treasurer, Sheryl Johnson, resigned from the position in November, saying she felt harassed by a former alderman.
On Monday, the council considered ordinances for the second time to reduce salaries for aldermen and for the mayor, beginning Jan. 1.
Under those ordinances, the mayor's monthly salary would fall from $865 to $740, and an alderman's salary would fall from $175 to $50. McMahan, who backed the ordinances, has pointed to surrounding cities' pay for their elected officials, claiming Bauxite's is too high.
The pay deductions are unfair, Matthews said. Aldermen would see a 71 percent salary reduction, while the mayor would see only a 14 percent reduction, she said.
The mayor puts in more hours than a council member, McMahan contended.
"I am a council member 24/7, 365 days," Matthews said. "If someone calls, I answer. If someone emails, I email them back. If someone stops by my house, I'm outside. No matter what, I'm available."
Aldermen tabled the ordinances after Struble and Brooks asked to reconsider them after state auditors complete their annual audit. For Struble, that move was a matter of knowing how much money the city actually had available.
Monday's meeting left the council and the mayor at an impasse, and they aren't quite sure how -- or if -- they can progress in the next six months. Each council member's seat and the mayor's spot are up in the November election.
McMahan has said the no-confidence motion was a "retaliation" move on Struble's part. He has called for her resignation, after pulling her water bills and alleging that she doesn't live in the city. Struble has maintained she lives in the city, refuses to step down and denies the vote was retaliation.
"It's very clear that the council is not going to do anything progressive for the rest of the year, probably," McMahan said. "Anything I try to promote, they're going to be against just because I'm for it."
For Struble, the relationship is irreparable.
"Once that trust and respect has been broken -- it's like a marriage -- there's no fixing it," she said. "And I don't see it getting better. If he doesn't do his job, it falls back on us. If we don't know what's going on, we can't stop it or help it or fix it."
Metro on 07/23/2014