HANCEVILLE – The Hanceville City Council met for their work session and regular meeting on Thursday night at Hanceville City Hall. It’s rarely a dull meeting, and the most recent one certainly didn’t disappoint.
Business was taken care of as the council voted to pay invoices from Fuller, Willingham, Fuller and Carter, LLC to provide city attorney services for $2,100 and Staples for the purchase of supplies for Kid’s Night Out in the amount of $3,412.04.
Resolutions were passed to recognize Jimmy Sawyer as an elected without opposition councilman for the second time and the acceptance of the list of polling officer names. Additionally, a request to close Bulldog Lane on Aug. 5 for the repainting of paw prints was approved.
Pam Reid of the Hanceville Civitans announced the Hanceville Political Forum to be held on Aug. 15 at 6 p.m. All members of the council, including the mayor and his challenger, were invited to participate in the event which will be held at Hanceville High School located at 801 Commercial St. in Hanceville.
Hanceville Police Chief Bob Long, after his report, stated, “There’s already rumors circulating that a certain candidate wants to disband the police department or cut it by 60 percent and so forth and, again, I just want to express my concern and there’s no way one officer can safely or effectively do this to serve the city like it needs to be. Hanceville is growing and it’s not like it was 10 to 15 years ago. You just can’t run it on a one-man crew.”
Before the agenda had moved on to the new business part of the show, Mayor Kenneth Nail took to the podium during public comments and presented eight years of audits on Hanceville’s financial statements. Noting that the years of 2008-2014, when his administration took office, had no financial discrepancies, Nail stated, “Clean and clear for your inspection with no money missing” for each of those years as he dropped the individual reports on the table beside him.
At the end of his public comments, Nail presented the last report from the year before he took office. “Alabama State Auditor’s Department of Examiners of Public Accounts 2007 (reported) over $18,000 missing before my administration took office. So, I just wanted to set the record straight. We’ve had a lot of crap going out there about crookedness and about this administration being crooked and money this and money that. Well, here it is, folks. Feel free to look at it. Read it and you can see when the money come up missing and it was before I come along. There it is right there,” Nail stated before tossing the last report on the table.
The report with the referenced $18,860.50 deficit noted the money was directly charged to former court magistrate Darlene Coker over a two-year period from Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30,2007 during the Katie Whitley administration.
Taking his place behind the council desk, the major continued along the agenda and all systems were go until the meeting was adjourned.
After the meeting, Whitley explained that, while the money did go missing during her term as mayor, the employee who took the money paid it back and therefore it should be a nonissue.
As Nail invited the public to review the reports, Whitley approached him and said, “You didn’t tell that the money was repaid, did you” to which Nail responded, “It sure was, but it was stolen, wasn’t it?”
Nail went on, “You’ve been yapping your mouth all over town.” When Whitley responded she had not been speaking of the mayor, he stated, “You’re a barefaced liar, Katie Whitley. You’re going to keep on and I’m going to have to sue you. I’ve got people ready to come forward about your lies.”
Nail wrapped things up stating, “Katie, when your mouth’s moving, you’re lying. If you spend half the time trying to do good things in this town instood (sic) of trying to knock things down and be negative, you could do a lot of good.”
Please note that Whitley is not running against Nail but is campaigning for the council position held by Kim Brown. Nail’s opponent is Bobby Brown. Whitley and political newcomer and recent council attendee Sharon Porter were the only candidates vying for a council seat who were in attendance.
All members of the council were present including Charles Wilson, Greg Baker, Brown, Sawyer and Doug Batemon.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 11 at Hanceville City Hall. The work session will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the regular meeting is at 7 p.m. The public is strongly encouraged to attend.
The municipal election will be held on Aug. 23.
