For anyone who missed the most recent City of Tallulah council meeting, heated is not a strong enough word to describe the proceeding.
During the little over an hour the meeting lasted, tempers flared, a speaker who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, observe the three-minute time limit was nearly removed by the chief of police and several voices were raised - by both city officials and those in the audience. But, most of those things aren’t necessarily bad.
With agenda items being scrutinized, subjects being changed mid-stream and a lot of questions floating around in, what seemed at the time to be a disorderly fashion, it was easy in the midst of it all, to think things had gone off the rails. One resident even went as far to describe the meetings as a “farce.” But, taking a step back and looking at the meeting as a whole might show you a different story.
City council meetings in Tallulah have never been without emotion, especially on the part of citizens who want to have their voices heard. That’s absolutely great; it’s part of why the meetings are held to begin with and it shows residents are, A. not content to vote in leaders without holding them accountable for their actions and, B. not afraid to question those actions, even if only to genuinely inquire rather than to only criticize.
That has not changed, and the majority of those who speak at council meetings, including Thursday’s, do so with respect to time limits and subject matter. What has changed at Tallulah’s meetings are the roster of city councilpersons behind the desk. And while that is bound to come with its own set of temporary hiccups, they aren’t necessarily bad things, either. In fact, when it became clear during Thursday’s meeting that newly elected councilman Toriano Wells didn’t have the firmest grasp on how the segregation of duties between the city clerk and the city’s CPA firm worked, things became a bit tense because of his continuing questions. But, taking a step back to consider this, shows a city councilman who is new to the job and is doing exactly what is necessary to understand the matters he is being asked to vote on: asking questions. Wells, it seemed clear, was having a hard time understating the CPA’s role in the city’s finances as it relates to the roles of the clerk and auditors. And yes, he asked the same questions several times. But, maybe the important thing to take away from that exchange is that he was willing to ask the same questions until he felt satisfied, rather than rubber stamping an agenda item in order to simply move on. It’s also worth noting that both the CPA and Wells were driving toward the same point - city finances must be scrutinized with a fine-tooth comb - even if the two were having trouble relating it to one another.
At the end of the day, despite some less-than-civil comments and a bit of a raucous environment, maybe what we can say was learned is that the council, mayor and citizens are all determined to push for what they feel is right for Tallulah, and that is certainly not a bad problem to have.
Now, that’s not to say there aren’t issue to address. The new council, the mayor, department heads and others will certainly need to get on the same page about some issues facing Tallulah. On others, it’s good to see the council and mayor will keep each other in check. It’s certainly not good to see pockets of citizens who seem to revel in laughing during meetings, commenting just loud enough to cause a stir and generally acting like children. It’s not good to see people abuse the rules purely for the sake of making a scene and causing division where it otherwise wouldn’t exist. But, Tallulah, like any place else, will have its share of those who only care about what the city can do for them. And maybe it’s cheesy to paraphrase President Kennedy, but it does seem this group of leaders is more concerned with what they can do for Tallulah.
The destination they have in mind seems to be the same, even if they have yet to agree on a path there. And, that’s okay. Hopefully, they’ll keep asking the right questions and will come to a consensus. In the meantime, a little bit of disagreement may be just the thing to get them to that point.
Blake Bell is the editor and publisher of the Madison Journal. He can be reached at bbell@madisonjournal.com.
