Sumrall's situation is a shame

Opinion

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January 23, 2010

Anonymous The Meridian Star Sat Jan 23, 2010, 10:28 PM CST

Things have gone from bad to worse with the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors.

    After months of consecutive meetings where they closed the doors to the public, now they're attempting to oust their county administrator for, of all things, providing the media with public records. Key word: public.

    It all started at the conclusion of Tuesday's regular board meeting. Supervisor Joe Norwood complained about a story that ran in this paper ("Supes kill use of credit card" Jan. 5, 2010) on the use of his county credit card. He blamed County Administrator Mike Sumrall for his handling of the situation, calling it a "modern-day lynching." Supervisor Craig Hitt also disapproved of Sumrall's actions, which included the county administrator writing a memo to Norwood for what he considered inappropriate use of the county credit card.

    In short, they blamed Sumrall for doing his job.

    But if Sumrall believes supervisors are spending taxpayer money inappropriately, specifically with how they're using the county credit card, it's his job to let them know.

On Tuesday, three supervisors — Hitt, Norwood and Hank Florey — voted no for a motion aimed to discourage Sumrall from resigning. As of the writing of this editorial, Sumrall has yet to officially offer it. Instead, he said he's waiting to talk to Florey. If Florey tells him he wants him to resign, he'll resign.

    We think it's a shame things have gone this far.

    Sumrall, a former employee with the state auditor's office, has been the most forthcoming when it comes to public information. Ironically, he had nothing to do with the information we used in our story. We were simply given a copy of the memo he sent Norwood about the credit card usage. Once it was verified, we used it in our story. It was certainly pertinent public information since supervisors had just voted to stop using the county credit cards.

    Instead of focusing so much on how the county's dirty laundry is aired, maybe supervisors should focus more on keeping their laundry clean.

    On a good note: supervisors have not closed their doors to the public and have not used an "executive session" in recent meetings. We applaud them for their efforts in this regard.

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