In the wake of a residency hearing this week regarding Selectman Danny Esch, McComb city board members shared reservations about a hearing on Mayor Zach Patterson’s qualification for election.
The hearing on Patterson, on a motion by Esch, was approved by a 3-2 vote at a city board meeting last month. Patterson has called it a politically motivated “high-tech lynching.”
The hearing date has not been announced.
Selectmen who voted for the hearing stopped short of saying it should be called off, but Selectman Wade Lamb said Tuesday he would not vote to hire an attorney in the case.
Selectman E.C. Nobles today questioned whether Patterson’s qualifications should be determined by the city board.
Nobles’ position echoed statements by Selectmen Melvin Joe Johnson and Robert Earl Smith, who voted against Patterson’s hearing, and have argued it is a matter for city election commissioners to take up.
“I think the qualifying to become mayor was no homestead exemption or anything, so that should come before the election commission,” Johnson reiterated this week.
Nobles, who was sworn in May 27 after winning a special election to fill the Ward 3 seat vacated by state Rep. David Myers, did not vote on motions to hold either hearing.
He was not on the board when a vote to hold Esch’s hearing was called and abstained from voting on Patterson’s hearing — a decision that led to protests outside his business, which Nobles called “cowardly.”
“I’d just like to see it in work session and see what’s going on,” Nobles said, explaining that he wants clarification on how such hearings, including Esch’s, can be properly called.
“None of us are lawyers,” Nobles said. “We don’t need the city to be bogged down in legal issues forever.”
Lamb, meanwhile, said he would see a vote against the hiring of an attorney as consistent with his previous vote against hiring attorney Ronnie Whittington for the hearing on Esch.
“I asked not to hire an attorney because I didn’t feel like we needed one,” Lamb said. “I just did not think we should hire an attorney when I felt like we could all sit together as gentlemen and ask for the documents we need.”
Esch, who has referred questions on residency issues to his attorney, has indicated he wants the hearing on Patterson to go forward. He declined comment on Patterson’s situation after his hearing concluded Tuesday but told the board in May to “show the same respect to him as you did to me,” saying, “this matter’s not going to go away until we get the hearing set.”
Lamb said he was still for the hearing, too, but cautioned that “this has basically become a conflict of personality.”
“When I voted on the hearing for Mayor Patterson it had nothing to with Mayor Patterson’s case against Danny,” said Lamb. “It had to do with the documents he (Patterson) passed out. … I’m not saying Mayor Patterson has done or did anything wrong. … A hearing is nothing more than a presentation of the facts.”
Johnson and Smith maintained their opposition, with Smith expressing concern that votes on “interpretation calls” were following the same lines board members often follow politically, but saying he has faith individuals are deciding independently.
Smith said he voted against affirming Esch’s residency in Ward 1 on the basis of the facts he saw during that hearing but was comfortable with the conclusion.
“I think now the mayor and board of selectmen, we need to put all that behind us, and I hope we’re men enough to do that,” Smith said. “People have a right to their opinion. I gave my opinion by my vote … but it’s difficult to get politics out of things.”
Smith said a question on whether the hearing should be dropped could best be answered by Esch, but added: “I think the public is ready for this board to unite itself. … I think people want to hear what can we do as a whole to enhance the City of McComb. It’s not bringing development to McComb. It’s not fixing roads.”
Selectman Bob Maddox, meanwhile, said he isn’t ready to call the vote at Esch’s hearing political, but he feels it is important to remind political adversaries that he holds both sides in high regard.
“We’ve only had one hearing, so you can’t say that there’s anything showing up there yet, because you had Nobles, who was there for the first time, and you could see from the way he voted he had nothing to do with it,” Maddox said. “He didn’t know who was who. … It’s a judgement call.”
“I admire Danny, and I admire Mayor Patterson,” Maddox added. “McComb is a great place to live.”
