Mount Olive board strips mayor of key powers

MOUNT OLIVE — In what was a contentious meeting that had citizens in the audience challenging the board at times, the Mount Olive Board of Commissioners held a special meeting on March 12. Immediately after the opening procedures, Mayor Pro Tem Delreese Simmons asked Mayor Jerome Newton to recuse himself from the meeting, which Newton refused to do.

The board voted unanimously to have Newton recused, which resulted in Newton asking town attorney Carroll Turner if the action was legal. After Turner advised Newton that it was, Newton stormed out of the meeting.

In what became a meeting requiring Turner to frequently tell the board how to proceed, the commissioners voted for Simmons to lead the meeting. Simmons then called for a closed session, which resulted in several comments from the audience asking for the reason for a closed session.

Duplin Journal asked Simmons if he would clarify the legal reason for the closed session. Simmons replied, “No.”

When citizens in the audience continued to challenge Simmons about the reason for the closed session, he said, “We’re going into closed session because of an item you guys don’t know about.”

Commissioner C.J. Weaver eventually cited the state’s Open Meetings Law and said they were going into closed session to discuss a “personnel matter.”

After a lengthy closed session, the board returned to open session where, again, Turner had to advise them that a vote was required to go back into open session.

The board then voted to pass a resolution that stripped Newton of several duties and privileges within town government before Town Clerk Sherry Davis read the measure aloud.

Under the resolution, Newton is no longer authorized to sign checks, contracts, deeds, leases or grant documents, negotiate agreements, appoint members to committees, set the board’s agenda or direct town employees. He was also removed from town bank signatory cards.

The resolution further restricts Newton’s access to the Town Hall Annex to Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon unless authorized by the board.

A source who asked to remain anonymous, told Duplin Journal the issue stemmed from the mayor signing deed agreements with nonprofits using the former Carver High School building, now owned by the town. Newton is president of one of those nonprofits, the Carver High School Alumni and Friends Association. Newton signing agreements with the organization on behalf of the town raises potential conflict-of-interest questions, and those documents had apparently not been approved by the town board.

In an interview with Duplin Journal the day after the meeting, Rebecca Fisher-Gabbard, assistant professor of public law and government at the UNC School of Government, said the closed session to discuss issues regarding the mayor appeared to violate the state’s Open Meetings Law. She said the board does have the right to a closed session to discuss town personnel issues, but the mayor would not fall under that category in the subsection dealing with personnel.

“However, that subsection explicitly says that a public body may not consider those same things, the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment or removal of a member of the public body,” Fisher-Gabbard said.

Adding more confusion to the events on March 12 was that more than one special meeting notice was sent to the media and the public that day, announcing specially called meetings at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. When the audience challenged the board on the notices, board members said the 2 p.m. notice was not valid.

As daytime highs begin to rise for spring, the political temperature in Mount Olive appears to be rising as well.