COLONY, Ala. – The Colony Town Council on Tuesday evening cranked up its pre-meeting work session around 5 p.m. and did not finish its regular meeting until shortly before 8 p.m. Members sparred with each other, sometimes aggressively, in front of a packed house of local residents who came to voice a variety of complaints and concerns about things that have happened in the town, as well as the current direction of the divided council.
When Councilman Eric Carwell asked the crowd what the citizens of Colony would like to see the council do, he sparked a series of responses and sometimes heated exchanges that would carry beyond the work session well into the official meeting time, concerning:
- A desire for residents to be able to view the Town budget, especially sources and amounts of revenue, so they can know how much money the Town has available.
- A call for the reopening of the Community Center. One audience member observed that, in years gone by, Colony had the gym, water park, day care and other amenities that are no longer available, concluding, “I don’t see how the people of Colony are benefiting from being a township.” Carwell said that reopening the facility should be one of the council’s first goals.
- The ongoing lack of cooperation between council members, who have divided themselves into two equal camps: Mayor Curtis Johnson, Mary Parker and Jasmine Cole on one side and Mayor Pro Tem Ethel Alexander, Sam Ashford and Carwell on the other.
Asked why they did not go with Johnson to the Cullman County Probate Office to be sworn in Nov. 2, Alexander, Ashford and Carwell argued that they were not notified. Johnson said that he tried to call but got no answer.
The legality of the organizational meeting held Nov. 2 was questioned, as it was held in Johnson’s absence. Asked why the meeting, which included Cole along with the mayor’s three opponents, was held when Johnson was not there, Carwell pointed out that Johnson was there but left.
- A desire for the council to assign specific office hours for Town Clerk Patricia Ponder and to require her to be in the office during those hours. Birmingham attorney Louis Willie, on hand at the request of Johnson, told the council and crowd that, since the council did not assign hours at its organizational meeting, the mayor is free to assign the hours. Ponder argued that she has been working from home more in the last few months to be COVID safe, but that she has continued to perform her duties. She also noted that she has supplied her own printer and ink, as well as Wi-Fi router, for the town hall office due to inadequacies in the Town’s equipment. Former clerk Gwendolyn Purifoy, who led the call for the establishment of the clerk’s hours and required attendance on Ponder’s part, told Johnson that he needed to provide Ponder with the equipment she needed. Purifoy also called for the council to establish and publish the Town’s holiday hours.
- Carpenter’s Cabinet food pantry operating in leased space in the Educational Complex. A common concern among those speaking was the distribution of food to people and families from outside Colony. When an audience member asked how much the Town spends on the food, Ponder responded, “Not one penny.” Noting that Ponder spends time working in the pantry, and that the pantry distributes food to people from outside Colony as well as local residents, a guest asked why Colony is paying someone to give food to people who are not residents of the town.
- Use of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) funds. Guests questioned the distribution of sanitizing supplies from the food pantry and asked who applied for the funds from the State. Ponder responded that no one applied for the funds and that the County contacted the Town to inform it of the availability of funds. She also noted that supplies were kept in a storage room at the Educational Complex and that overstock was kept on unused shelves in the pantry, separate from the food, adding that the pantry itself had not taken any CARES funds. People complained that certain people and churches had received supplies while others had not received anything; Carwell responded that the council could not be aware of every need around the community but tried to do what it could.
A particular point of contention was a large payment made to a cleaner and crew for the complete top-to-bottom sanitizing of three municipal buildings- Colony Town Hall, the Educational Complex and Community Center/gym- at a cost of $20,000. Audience members argued that the amount was highly excessive, especially for the two buildings that are seldom used, claiming that one local church building was sanitized by an established company for only $250; one asked Ponder if the head of the crew was her brother. Ponder responded that the head of the crew was her son.
Town attorney?
Within the council itself, finance committee chair Carwell questioned a $500 payment made from a Town account by Johnson to Willie to come and represent the mayor in his conflicts with council members over the clerk and his effort to remove Ponder from her post. The bank counter check was not approved by the council. According to Johnson, a town ordinance or council resolution allows him as mayor up to $500 in discretionary funds to spend as he sees fit. Carwell asked to see the regulation and said that he would accept the expenditure as long as it was allowed. No ordinance or resolution was presented at the meeting.
For his part, Willie told the council and crowd that he would like to be Colony’s town attorney, and, if hired, that he would represent the entire town, not any one person within the town government, saying, “I will respond to everybody if I’m hired as city attorney.”
During his remarks, Willie admitted that a claim he had previously made that Ponder was disqualified from office because she lived outside Colony had been proven incorrect, but he also told the council that Ponder’s previous claim that the mayor’s vote cannot create a tied council vote was also incorrect.
Willie said that he had provided “50-60 hours of work” for the $500 he was initially paid, and that he has not submitted an additional bill. He added that he has an interest in helping Colony that goes beyond legal services to the mayor or council, and that he would provide his services at a good fee rate for the town.
Council business
The council actually had four items on the agenda:
- $200 renewal of membership in the Cullman County Mayors and Commissioners Association – approved
- $200 renewal of membership in the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors – approved
- $20 renewal of membership in the Arbor Day Foundation
- A resolution to move the start time of the work session to 5:30 p.m. and the start of the regular meeting to 6 p.m. was tabled without a vote.
- In addition to the agenda items, the council also voted to move the next meeting from Dec. 22 to next Tuesday, Dec. 15, because of the Christmas holiday.
The Colony Town Council meets again Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020 at Colony Town Hall, with a work session at 5 p.m., followed immediately by a regular meeting. The public is invited to attend.
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