All “you know what” is breaking loose at McComb City Hall. The so-called ‘powerless mayor’ has refused to allow his signature to be used to sign checks and legal documents. And, the majority of selectmen are now signing checks, another act that could eventually be determined as a violation of State Law! It’s a mess.

Without Mayor Zach Patterson’s signature on direct deposits and hand written checks, city employees and contractors won’t get paid. But, the selectmen, who called a special meeting on Wednesday to authorize them to sign written checks and use a machine that uses their signature to print on automated checks, appear to be violating state laws because their actions since June 9, 2009 appear to be unlawful, resulting in actions that were unauthorized. What a mess!

The selectmen are now in a position where they have to complete their coup of city hall by taking over the money, i.e., the signing power or risk a complete revolt by city employees and lawsuits by contractors. By taking matters into their own hands, they risk being arrested and going to jail. And, they brought all this on themselves!

You see, wrong is wrong. They were wrong from the beginning.

Disrespecting the first Black Mayor in the history of McComb and forming a voting bloc against him, his initiatives and his administration through four selectmen: Danny Esch,Wade Lamb, Robert Maddox and E.C. Nobles, led them to submit amendments to the city ordinances to strip the mayor of his powers and transfer those powers to themselves and their newly appointed city administrator, Quordiniah Lockley. McComb selectmen, on that fateful Tuesday night, June 9th, amended five city ordinances, including one that would strip Mayor Zach Patterson’s supervisory authority over city employees and department heads. This supervisory authority was given to the city administrator.

The acts of those four selectmen are so wrong, that even the well respected and white chief financial officer (CFO) for the city, Mary Adams, who is a CPA refuses to allow her signature to be used until the legal matters are resolved. And she was advised by the State Attorney General Office and the State Auditor Office not to allow her signature to be used during this current situation. But, she has been ordered, against what she feel is in her best interest, by Lockley to sign documents and checks.

No mayor signature. No CFO signature. Selectmen now signing checks or people don’t get paid. Oh what a mess!

But, the selectmen only brought this on themselves. Don’t take my word for it, let me share with you just some of the laws that those four selectmen and their participants appear to be violating:

The MCCOMB CITY CHARTER (Sec 2-92 Duties. (City Attorney)) says this:  The city attorney shall prepare all ordinances, resolutions, contracts and other legal papers required for the proper conducting of the business of the city, and shall act as the chief legal advisor for the city. The city attorney did not prepare those amendments.

Regarding STATE LAW: pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated Section 21-3-7 and Section 21-3-15(1) respectively, the board of aldermen serve as the “legislative body of the city” and the mayor has the superintending control of the officers and affairs of the municipality. MS AG Op., Croft (August 26, 2005); MS AG Op., Moore (February 14, 1997). Section 21-3-15(1) was amended in the 2006 Regular Session of the Legislature to clarify that the mayor’s authority is executive in nature.

And the 1982 AG opinion specifically for the city of McComb instructed the mayor and selectmen in very clear terms:

“Based upon the charter copy furnished and the information in your letter, it is the opinion of this office that the McComb City governing authorities have the power to employ a City Administrator as described in your letter and, provided that such Administrator may not be delegated any of the authority or duties of the Mayor, the Selectmen, or any municipal officer under the charter or any of the authority or duties of such municipal officers granted or imposed by statute or the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.”

That’s right, the selectmen violated the constitution of the state of Mississippi when they approved those amendments delegating the authority of the mayor to the city administrator. They went against directives that were given specifically to the city of McComb in 1982 when it created the position of city administrator. The state attorney general said to McComb and its elected officials that the city administrator can not be delegated ANY of the authority or duties of the Mayor. None!

So, I am convinced that anything done by this city board under that city administrator is illegal. No question about it. When those four selectmen presented and approved amendments to the city ordinances, those ordinances to strip the mayor of his authority and give it to the city administrator were all illegal. Can’t be done. If it is, it is in violation of the law.

Those selectmen, I believe, have no chance at winning the lawsuit that has been filed against them by Mayor Patterson. And, by the way, by State Law, the mayor’s authority is executive in nature, affording him supervisory control over all city employees and functions. This cannot be given to the city administrator.

And, finally, the amendments are illegal because they have to be prepared by the city attorney. An attorney clearly prepared those amendments, but he or she was clearly not the city attorney. There was no city attorney for the city of McComb at that time. The city charter is clear: only the city attorney can prepare those documents. So, who prepared those amendments? They are not valid!

And it is all the fault of those four selectmen, editor Jack Ryan of the Enterprise-journal, and all those others working behind the scene to go against, disrupt and sabotage the efforts of this current administration. I am convinced that what those four selectmen at city hall and others outside are doing to the polictical process in McComb is wrong. And wrong is wrong! You can’t get right out it. Not out of what they are doing to the mayor’s office and several of his initiatives.

It is hard for me to believe that E.C. Nobles, a selectman and a Black man could think for a minute that what he is doing is right. He has to know that what he is doing is wrong, wrong, wrong. And wrong is wrong.

Every attempt that I have made to talk with him since he started his very public and sad campaign against everything Zach Patterson, has been met with this statement, “I will not talk to you without my lawyer”. He refuses to answer to our readers, or even to the voters who elected him to the office he currently holds.

He seems to have personal hatred for the mayor. Business at city hall is not suppose to be personal or about personal vendettas. But, Nobles seems to be stuck on that too. And that is wrong also.

Nobles and I are members of the same church. So are some of his family members and my family members. His father is the chairman of the deacon board and the adult class Sunday School teacher. My father is also a deacon at the church. Nobles and I speak to each other, and sometimes shake hands, but that’s it.

This Thursday evening he appeared on a city of Jackson station news cast to discuss the situation at city hall in McComb. Mayor Patterson and Lockley were also featured in the story. Indeed, the only white person in the story was the reporter. All of the people from McComb were Black.

Before Nobles segment was shown, the reporter was shown talking to Mayor Patterson who indicated that his was the first Black mayor and race had a lot to do with the actions taken against him by the majority of the selectmen. Both statements are factual and not opinions. Nobles apparently was sent or volunteered to rush from his job to be interviewed. He was wearing a tee-shirt and shorts. Without blinking an eye he said that race had nothing to do with it. The reporter said that everyone involved in the situation/problem was “Black, right?” And, Nobles said that was right, everyone involved was Black.

What little respect I had left for Nobles, who has been carrying the water bucket for these white “good-ole-boys” since his election, is gone. He lied with out hesitation. Lied on television. Liar!

He knows that the other selectmen that have been voting with him without exception, against anything Patterson is for are all white! Maddox, Esch and Lamb. And, he is showing a lot of love for some of them white people and selectmen that he has been supporting. At the expense, I am convinced, of his own community and his own people.

He certainly loves the Enterprise-Journal newspaper. He keeps granting them interviews, even after he told me that his attorney had advised him not to grant any interviews or make any statements to the media. I guess that other newspaper is not the media. Wrong is wrong.

And, it’s not just Nobles, it’s the rest of them too: Esch, Maddox, Lamb, Ryan, Gillis, and the rest of the “good-ole-boy gang”. Wrong is wrong!

If you still don’t believe me, then put yourself in Mayor Patterson’s shoes. If you were Mayor, would you want this to happen to you? Yeah, wrong is wrong....