Land Asks For Resignations

By
MARY ANN ANDERSON
Resign for violation of oath of office.
That’s what Steve Land, Hazlehurst’s longtime but now-retired chief of police, said to Ward 3 Councilwoman Diane Leggett and Ward 4 Councilman John Bloodworth.
Although last week’s regular monthly session of the Hazlehurst City Council clocked in at just 20 minutes, it wasn’t until the citizens’ comments section near the end of the otherwise routine meeting when tensions rose to the simmering point over Land’s request that Leggett and Bloodworth resign.
The political imbroglio surrounding the city council since John Ramay, the former Ward 2 councilman who, by constitutional law and city charter, was required to vacate his seat earlier this month when he qualified to run for mayor in the Nov. 7 general election, was brought to the forefront by Land, who is also a resident of Ward 2.
In his short but commanding announcement to the council, Land referred to the called meeting on Sept. 7 when the council, in which Leggett and Bloodworth, in a 2/2 split, voted on two separate motions against Mayor Bayne Stone and Ward 1 Councilman Dywane Johnson and also against the legal advice of City Attorney Ken W. Smith, to have a special election to fill Ramay’s seat during the general election in November or in March 2024, the next scheduled date for elections. The tie votes killed both motions, leaving the election in limbo.
“During that called meeting,” Land started off, “the city attorney advised the council more than one time that by not calling for a vote, they were violating the city charter, violating the law.”
Land also said that the citizens of Ward 2 “deserve representation.” While the earliest a special election to fill the Ward 2 council seat is now March 2024, whomever is elected will not be able to take the oath of office until January 2025.
“Based on the actions of this council, it is going to be a long time before anybody is able to represent that district,” Land said. “And I sincerely think that [council members] Leggett and Bloodworth ought to resign for violation of oath of office. They have violated their oath of office by voting as they did. And I understand their reasoning. But it does not make an exception to the law.”
Almost a split second after Land thanked the council and walked away from the podium, Bloodworth, appearing to hold his apparent anger in check, countered, “Number one, I am not resigning, and number two, I contacted GMA with general counsel and I have not violated the constitution of Georgia nor have I violated the city charter. If you think I’m going to resign, you’ve got something else coming to you.”
The “GMA” to which Bloodworth referred is the Atlanta-based Georgia Municipal Association, the only state organization that represents municipal governments in Georgia and rules them with an iron hand.
Mayor Stone deflected the tension in the room by stating he thought Land wanted only to “state facts,” but added, “I think there were two or three of us who felt the same way at the time, and that we made a tremendous mistake legally by not doing that.”
Stone added that holding a standalone election would be too expensive, and that the “stalemate position” rendered by the split votes of the called meeting leaves the city in a “bad situation” without a council member in Ward 2 until next March’s elections.
“But at any rate, that’s water over the dam and now we’ll proceed with correcting it,” the mayor said. “I can assure you, Mr. Land, and the rest of the council, that we will in short time make corrective action.”
While Leggett, unlike Bloodworth, remained silent on Land’s request to resign, she took comments into another direction entirely and directly addressed what she termed “a rumor in town, all over town” that the council has “promised” the chief of police’s job, now held by James Mock in the interim since the resignation of Ken Williams, saying, “If you hear any of this, the council, as far as I can tell, has not promised anyone anything. If you hear the rumor, stomp on it because not a word is true.”
In other action during Monday night’s workshop, the council unanimously approved the annual intergovernmental agreement between the city and Jeff Davis County Board of Education to split the costs of hiring and equipping school resource officers. Also in the workshop the council, after receiving a request from Jeff Davis High School’s cheerleaders, authorized the homecoming parade that will take place on Sept. 28 at 7 p.m.
In other matters during Thursday night’s meeting, City Clerk Vernice Thompson announced Georgia Municipal Association’s District 9 fall meeting will be in Lyons on Nov. 1. The council also okayed last month’s water and sewer adjustments, departmental reports, and check register, and gave the go-ahead for travel expenses for Steve Faught to attend training at the Animal Protection Society’s Animal Protection and Wellness Expo in Alpharetta October 20-21.
After hearing Thompson read a written request from Empact Church to have permission TO clean up and repaint a building at the city-owned Mary Frazier McLean Community Park, the council quickly said yes. The letter, signed by Crystal Wood, said Empact Church is “looking to serve our community,” and that all expenses for the project would be borne by the church.
Thompson and Stone also clarified that regardless of notices of the city’s proposed property tax increase published in Sept. 20 edition of the Jeff Davis Ledger, increases that were also reported by Jeff Davis County Board of Education and Board of Commissioners, that the notices are corrective measures only and issued by the state. Stone assured the council that taxes will not go up. Thompson noted, however, that public hearings on the increase are necessary and will be held Sept. 28 at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and then again on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m., followed by a called meeting at 5 p.m., when the council will officially vote on the matter.