Meridian City Hall

The Meridian City Council wants to interview school board member Rebecca Combs-Dulaney before confirming her re-appointment to the Meridian Public School District board.

Mayor Percy Bland said he would present Combs-Dulaney, who didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting, as a candidate again at the next council meeting.

Bland said the council had interviewed Combs-Dulaney during her first appointment a few months ago, when she was appointed to finish a departing member’s term.

Council members seemed conflicted about whether or not they’d questioned Combs-Dulaney and asked to interview her before confirming the re-appointment.

Weston Lindemann, of Ward 5, said he would vote against appointing Combs-Dulaney. 

A few weeks ago, Lindemann published emails from the city administration he said showed the city’s reliance on private citizens to influence city projects, specifically the Crossroads II shopping center development. Dulaney-Combs was one of those citizens in an email on that development. 

“Ms. Dulaney, for instance, has shown a lot of interest in Chartre Consulting,” Lindemann said during Tuesday’s meeting, describing how that might affect the city’s decision on the Witherspoon school in his ward.

Lindemann noted that Combs-Dulaney, a vice president at Structural Steel where her husband, Tommy Dulaney, is the CEO and president, makes more than the Meridian median income, which he said is approximately $30,000 annually.

“To me, it is unacceptable to give up so much of our decision-making process to someone who does not represent Meridian,” Lindemann said.

In additional action, the council decided to:

• Accept a donation from Mitchell Companies to the Meridian Mardi Gras Festival; contracted with Unfazed Show & Band, LLC to perform at the event.

• Authorized the Crossroads Phase II, Hobby Lobby parcel, plat

• Granted an ad valorem tax exemptions to Highland Baptist Church & St. Paul United Methodist Church

• Established additional duties for the nine employees with updated job descriptions and salaries.