By Ida Brown / senior staff writer
What has been described as "an honest mistake" has led to an alderman's resignation and a bit of confusion in the town of Marion.
"Everyone is thinking something illegal has been done, when it really wasn't," said Beverly Grant, Marion's newly appointed town clerk.
Grant is referring to the recent appointment of Bernice Martin as an alderman for the town of Marion. Martin will replace Norman C. Coleman, who resigned on May 14.
In his official letter of resignation Coleman wrote:
"I cannot continue to stress over decisions that I feel are harmful to this town. It seems that our town is becoming more and more divided, and even our board of officials are divided and not on one accord. It appears that many of us have our own agendas, and that is not what is best for the town of Marion. I will always want what is best for our town, and will pray that you who make decisions will make wise ones."
Martin was appointed – not elected – to the post due to an incorrect deadline given for filing papers. This, and the fact that she is the sister of Marion Mayor Elvis Hudson, has led to some dissension within the community.
According to Grant, after Coleman's resignation she began the process of scheduling an election for his position. Although she had worked an election before, Grant said she had never overseen one.
"I didn't have any training because the girl who was here before me (Charlotte Rascoe) was already gone," Grant said. "I asked Ms. Kaye Furline, the deputy clerk, about it and she said she didn't know anything about running an election either."
Grant called the town of Enterprise and was referred to Diane Brown of Pachuta. Brown, who had overseen an election in 2006, faxed Grant paperwork she had used for the required newspaper advertisement announcing the position as well as the deadline for candidates to
submit paperwork to qualify.
"I mimicked her sample, just changed the names, and ran the ad," Grant said. However, the number of days to qualify before an election date had changed.
"A week or two after the ad was published (in The Meridian Star), one of the aldermen came to me and said I had the ad stating the deadline was 10 days to turn in the paperwork and it should have been 20 days; I did not know it had changed."
Grant called the state's attorney general's office to verify the information and was informed that after 2006 the qualifying deadline was changed from 10 to 20 days before the date of an election.
"Although the same code number (#2315857) for the ad was the same, the deadline for qualifying was changed," she said.
Two candidates had submitted their paperwork to qualify for the Marion election. However, only one had met the 20-day deadline – Martin.
"We called over to Jackson to the attorney general's office and talked to several people about this and were told that the code says if 19 days before the election only one person has turned in their paper work, that person has to be appointed," Grant said. "We even had the other candidate to call and they told him the same thing."
Martin's appointment has stirred some emotions.
"It just so happens that the person (who met the deadline) was the mayor's sister," Grant said. "And it's been a mess ... The wrong deadline was an honest mistake. I can stand on a stack of Bibles, I can take a lie detector test, but it was an honest mistake; and that's all it was."
The situation prompted the resignation of a second alderman, Larry D. Thrash, who resigned on June 26. Like Coleman, Thrash said he feels decisions are being made that hurt rather than help Marion. He said he was not happy with how the matter was handled once it was discovered that the date published as the qualifying deadline was incorrect.
"It was in the paper three times that all applications had to be in 10 days before the election; the state's statute says 20 days," he said. "They would not honor the fellow who didn't know any different; he went ahead and ran for the 10 days like it was advertised. They did not change it, nothing was said about it and when he turned in his paperwork they said it was too late and that it should have been 20 days before."
Thrash said if the town of Marion would not honor the advertisement published in the newspaper, he could no longer serve as alderman.
"They (officials) said we wouldn't be in compliance because we wouldn't be following the 20-day rule; I understand that," Thrash said. "But we should have thrown everything out and started over, or something else – not just declare the other person a winner. When they found out that it was 20 days, not 10 days, why didn't they change it (the ad)? Why didn't they let the people know?"
With Thrash's retirement comes an election, scheduled for Aug. 5. Grant assures there will be no question about the qualifying deadline this time.
"Every 'i' was dotted, and every 't' was crossed on that," she said. "Three people have picked up paper work – no one has turned them in. I made sure I have the correct date from the state Election Commission's Office. The election has to be held on Aug. 5, and the paperwork for qualifying has to be turned in on July 16 by 5 p.m."
