What Happened? — By Tommy Purser

I wanted to speak up and ask a question at Tuesday night’s called budget meeting of the Hazlehurst City Council. But the meeting agenda didn’t include allowing public comments and, if it did, I’ve learned my lesson so I wouldn’t have said anything anyway.
More than a year ago, I went to a council meeting and offered my advice but I found out quickly that my giving advice to the council is nonproductive.
The mayor called me a few weeks back and invited me to attend a …. hmmm. I think he called it “a circus” or perhaps he called it a “clown show.” I really don’t remember exactly what he called it but it was clear to me he thought the meeting would be somewhat comical. I went to the meeting, which he did not attend. I didn’t find the meeting comical at all. I did find it disturbing and I’m still disturbed by what I heard at that event.
A couple of weeks later, someone suggested that I should attend another council meeting because, according to the source, there was someone on the council that wanted to raise the 2026 millage rate.
I went to that meeting and, again, I found that meeting disturbing. Not only disturbing but confusing. So, during the public comments section of that meeting I told the council that I didn’t have a comment but I did have a couple of questions because what I had watched transpire during the meeting had me confused. In an attempt to get someone to clear up my confusion, I asked a question.
I did not get an answer.
Instead, I got an argument. I wasn’t looking for an argument, I truly didn’t understand what the council was doing or why they were doing it and I honestly wanted to understand. But, no answer was given.
I tried a couple of times and asked different questions but got no answers until I finally asked, bluntly, “When are you going to balance the budget.”
The mayor gave me an answer, not the answer to the previous questions I had asked, but an answer nonetheless. I was so happy to hear an answer, any answer, I said, “Thank you,” and left the meeting.
But back to Tuesday’s meeting. That meeting was called to, presumably, decide what to do with the excess property tax the council levied on city homeowners, property owners, businesses, etc. They decided what to do with the proceeds from the one mill increase in property taxes but they did not address the more than $100,000 in additional tax revenue for which they had not addressed in the budget they approved months ago. That excess revenue was never addressed. I wondered why but, like I said, I learned the hard way not to ask.
There are other things I’d like to ask but past experience tells me my questions would not be well received.
Such as —
Why does the mayor not follow the City Charter which he took an oath to support and defend?
Why does a council member call a meeting in violation of the charter which he took an oath to support and defend?
Why was the operation of the water and sewer department turned over to a private company who, I’ve been told by a reliable source, is costing the city a lot more money than they bargained for? (To be clear, I didn’t verify that claim but that doesn’t mean the claim didn’t come from a a source I consider to be reliable.)
And why doesn’t someone pick up the trash at my office after over 50 years of reliable service?
And why, when I call City Hall to ask the above question, instead of getting an answer, I’m given a number to call to solve my problem myself?
For decades, the city has performed admirably in addressing any city-related problems I have. What happened?