Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
During the regular meeting of the Greenville Town Council on Monday, June 12, friction between Greenville Mayor Brittni Brown and Councilman Calvin Malone seemed to take over the meeting at times. The tension between the two council members has been brewing for months with each one frequently interrupting the other during meetings.
The conflict on Monday, June 12, began before the meeting actually started when Malone stated that the way one of his requested agenda items was worded was “an attempt to smear” him. Malone had requested an agenda item to address “possible ethic violations.” However, a separate agenda item, to which Malone objected, read “several ethnic violations.” Malone had sent his request for items to be added to the agenda to the town’s administrative assistant, Julie Inglett. In his original email Malone requested four items to be placed on the agenda for discussion during the June 12 meeting. They were: Tracy Stevens park policies, the location of the floating dock [at Haffye Hayes Park], “Actions being done pertaining to grant funds without regards to council as a whole,” and “possible ethic violations.” Greenville Town Manager/CEO Lee Jones responded to Malone’s request by advising him that the council does not “hear, process, prosecute nor adjudicate alleged ethics violations.” Jones also informed Malone that the dock location could not be changed “due to engineering and depth requirements.” Malone responded to Jones with the following message: “I’m requesting all of my items be placed on the agenda as with Julie my grammar was and is understanding. I feel that because my requests doesn't [sic] fit your and the mayor's agenda your [sic] choosing [sic] to dismiss them. As for the arrest, there was plenty time for a response from you and who felt so threatened to call the law. Or was that a [sic] attempt to have me eliminated from the election process? Remember the citizens who attend the meeting see and hear [sic] our actions. I've made several requests verbally to you and no response, it's sad to see again the citizens are being taken advantage of. Wisdom tells me that with respectful dialogue and a willingness to compromise for the best interest of all the [sic] can we work together. Failure to list my agenda requests made by the citizens make us all look suspicious. The mayor does not represent the mass, hopefully the election results will educate all.”
Malone then sent another email to Jones stating: “Yes Mr. Lee I would like to revisit your contract as there is the appearance of several ethnic violation. And I'm well knowledgeable on the process. I've had my agenda request ignored and I'm not to be ignored as I only wanted an explanation for the location of the dock. As I'm a voice for citizens and you don't get back to me, I wanted to get the citizens opinion as we are looking like a group incompetent being looked over by you and the mayor. It's always a slippery slope to not include the citizens whether there [sic] present at meeting or not. To say that the community don't voice there [sic] concern to me is a crucial mistake.”
When the agenda was presented, it included the “several ethnic violations” and “removal of town CEO/CFO and/or termination of the contract.” During the meeting, when it was time to approve or amend the agenda, Malone voted to approve the agenda without discussion.
During discussion on the location of the dock at Haffye Hayes Park, Malone brought up the events of Wednesday, May 31. These events are what lead to Malone’s arrest on charges of disorderly conduct. “It was never my intent to stop anything, but I do want to establish, for lack of word, incompetence,” said Malone. “Because if you were going to put a dock out there, it should have been consulted by a professional what would go where. It could be 50 yards from there and it would have been plenty better and it wouldn’t have mattered if the old one was there or not. But all the way around to the back. Now, when I was questioning, I was totally ignored. All I wanted to do was to find out who authorized it? What was the reasoning behind it? It was my understanding, at that time, Mr. Lee here, was on the phone with the mayor and it would’ve been so simple to say, ‘Have any problems? Let me explain to Mr. Malone why it’s there.’ But you make sworn statements that I jumped on top of stuff, and all that kind of, I mean, really? There was no threat of physical harm, no verbal threat to anybody, so again, at the park, police was [sic] called, at the thing here, the police was called. Is the police being used as a broom stick?” At this point, Mayor Brown sought to get the conversation back to the item at hand, namely, the dock. “I would like to have the citizens’ input on this dock,” continued Malone. “Because the dock is made for visitors, for people to enjoy, walking out. Is that the full extent of the dock? I was told that it would not or cannot be moved. But I think it would be in the best interest of this town. Because we have so many incomplete initiatives going on, the grocery store, now we’ve got a floating dock at the back of the pond. I think it just gives a negative impression of the council, with all these incomplete things and this inconsideration of the public for their enjoyment.”
Mayor Brown later responded to Malone’s comments. “You [Malone] have consistently come to the meetings saying, ‘I don’t know this, I have a question about this, is there a policy related to this?,’” said Brown. “You said that, you used the word ‘incompetence,’ and you used the word ‘negative reflection of the board.’ I think those things are applicable to you. Because you are the one that consistently comes to the meetings not knowing what’s going on. Haven’t done the due diligence, because the other three council members are not coming with that same. So I would say, talk about you and what you don’t know and what questions you have that you’ve not sought out the answers until you get to the meeting. It’s not this board, it’s you.”
When asked to speak on the “possible ethics violations” he wanted to discuss, Malone responded with, “Several … I don’t know what they are, but I’m sure there are some.” Malone was reminded that the Town Council does not adjudicate possible ethics violations. Any suspected ethics violations should be sent to the appropriate authorities in Tallahassee.
The next meeting of the Greenville Town Council is scheduled to take place on Monday, July 10, at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place at Town Hall, located at 154 SW Old Mission Ave., in Greenville.