McComb selectmen approved Mayor Zach Patterson’s nomination for the Pike County Economic Development District Board of Trustees, but rejected his nomination for the school board.
Selectmen appointed former city official Jacqueline Martin to fill the unexpired term of the late John H.“Bubber” White Jr. to the economic development district board.
They rejected the nomination of McComb optometrist Dr. Jarrold Harrell to the McComb school board, returning Maurice Chester, whom Harrell would have replaced, to another five-year term.
The vote appointing Martin to the economic development board was 4-2, with Selectmen Wade Lamb and Danny Esch opposing her.
After the meeting, Lamb repeated comments he made in an April 8 story on Martin’s nomination: “The mayor said we should look at everyone in the community when we consider appointments to these boards … I think that’s what we should do.”
Esch, who was repeatedly criticized during the meeting by Patterson, declined to comment.
Harrell’s nomination was defeated by a 4-1 vote, with Selectman Robert Earl Smith casting the only vote in favor of Harrell. Smith also cast the only vote against Chester. Selectmen Bobby Maddox abstained from voting both times because his wife is a school system employee.
Smith did not comment on his opposition to Chester.
Patterson criticized selectmen during the discussions on both appointments about their failure to nominate candidates, asking them several times why they didn’t present their own nominations for consideration.
“I put my name out there; where’s your names?” he asked the board.
Esch and Lamb asked Patterson to delay the decision and set a work session to discuss nominees for both positions.
“It’s amazing, the names that come up after I’ve gone out and received names and talked with people and gotten them to accept to come on a board,” Patterson said. “These issues only become very important then, after I put a name out there.”
Most of Patterson’s criticism of the board came during the debate on Harrell’s appointment to the school board.
It began when Esch said he received a letter from Chester on Tuesday saying that he wanted to serve another term on the school board.
Chester wrote that after serving on the board, “I was disappointed by the manner in which I was notified by Mayor Patterson that he would not be recommending me for reappointment.
“He didn’t ask me if I wanted to continue but instead told me of his decision.”
If reappointed to the board, Chester wrote, “I will continue to try and make fair and unbiased decisions in an effort to move the McComb School District forward.”
Esch said, “Mr. Maurice Chester still wants to be on the school board. I have nothing against Dr. Harrell, but I still recommend that we put Maurice Chester on the board.”
Esch offered a substitute motion to reappoint Chester to the board, but Patterson said the move was out of order because Harrell’s nomination was on the agenda, and “will be voted on — up or down.”
Patterson then brought up Esch’s comment in the April 8 Enterprise-Journal story about Martin’s nomination.
Esch criticized the mayor in the article for waiting until the last minute before telling the selectmen about board nominations and other issues.
Patterson said Tuesday night that he initially nominated Michael Nobles for the Economic Development District Board position two weeks before the meeting on April 1.
The mayor added that he did not know how much more time he could have given the selectmen to consider a candidate.
Nobles later declined the nomination, and Patterson nominated Martin in a letter to the selectmen sent on April 6.
“When I got to the school board issue, and by the time I found acceptable nominees that I wanted to nominate, it was Friday, and I rushed to make sure that I got that letter out (to the selectmen),” he said, reminding the board that April 10 was Good Friday, a holiday.
“I was working, trying to find nominees and get it to you on time,” he said.
Concerning Chester’s letter, Patterson said Chester knew his term expired on Feb. 28, and he should have indicated then that he wanted to serve another term.
Patterson added that the selectmen also were responsible for seeking nominees to serve on city boards.
Board members, he said, should notify the selectmen or the administration when their term on the board is up.
“That individual should come to you and tell you, ‘I have a desire to serve,’ ” he said. “I didn’t hear from Mr. Chester. You didn’t hear from him that he desired to stay on the board. He should have said so.”
Patterson said he noticed the term of Chester’s position had expired and contacted him about it.
“I told him I appreciated his service and we’re moving on,” he said. “He had ample opportunity (to say he wanted another term).
“What he said to me in that conversation was, ‘Fine, thank you very much,’ ” Patterson said. “We had a cordial conversation and I hung up the telephone, and I went about trying to find a replacement to go in that position.”
Nobles said he talked with Chester, who lives in his ward, about serving on the school board. He said Chester, told him “he would like to come back, but he was under the impression that the board — I mean all six of us including me — would not want him to come back.”
Patterson said he did not see how Chester got that impression. “My impression which I can prove, outside of our conversation, was that he didn’t notify us at all that he wanted to serve on the board until (Tuesday).”
On a critical position like the school board, he said, “I think it was incumbent on the individual to tell us what he wanted to do (and) not wait until I get out here and start looking for people to serve.”
Patterson said he was looking for “new blood, energetic blood — people who want to serve and take us in a different direction.”
He said he found it strange that Chester’s appointment was important to Esch, “who has no association with the school system — I’ve never seen you set foot in the school system.”
Esch said both of his children graduated from McComb High School, and that he is at the vocational school several times a year recruiting for Southwest Mississippi Community College.
Patterson said selectmen should get “actively involved in the public school system,” claiming that they haven’t done anything to check what was going on in it.
He criticized Chester, saying, “We have an individual sitting on this board who is not connected to the community. He does not participate in any events in the school system. We can’t even get Mr. Chester to attend a graduation ceremony over there. We’ve got to talk about his visibility.”
The school board met last night, and Chester was absent.
Patterson said he talked with a lot people during his search to replace Chester.
“There’s a perception out there that things are not fair and biased in some of the things going on in the school board,” he said.
“I’m trying to fight that perception. I’m trying to work on that, not only with this appointment, but in my day-to-day talks with citizens who talk to me about what’s happening in the school system — the current issues that are going on there.”
Patterson said selectmen need to attend school board meetings and conferences to find out what’s going on in the system. “We are ultimately charged with the McComb public schools,” he said.
The school board meets at the same time as selectmen.
“The only time I hear comments about the school board is when you sit up here and talk about the budget and how much money goes into it and how you can’t do anything about it,” Patterson said. “You can do something. You appoint the school board members.”He criticized Chester, saying, “We have an individual sitting on this board who is not connected to the community. He does not participate in any events in the school system. We can’t even get Mr. Chester to attend a graduation ceremony over there. We’ve got to talk about his visibility.”
The school board also met last night, and Chester was the only trustee absent.
Patterson said he talked with a lot people during his search to replace Chester.
“There’s a perception out there that things are not fair and biased in some of the things going on in the school board,” he said. “I’m trying to fight that perception. I’m trying to work on that, not only with this appointment, but in my day-to-day talks with citizens who talk to me about what’s happening in the school system — the current issues that are going on there.”
Patterson said the selectmen need to attend school board meetings and conferences to find out what’s going on in the system. “We are ultimately charged with the McComb public schools,” he said.
“The only time I hear comments about the school board is when you sit up here and talk about the budget and how much money goes into it and how you can’t do anything about it. You can do something. You appoint the school board members.”
