It wasn’t on the original agenda, but the Leflore County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to replace Robert Collins as its president.
District 1 Supervisor Phil Wolfe added the item to the agenda at the beginning of its first meeting of the new year and quickly moved to nominate District 4 Supervisor Wayne Self for the post.
Discussion of the move took less than five minutes. Self, Wolfe and District 3 Supervisor Anjuan Brown voted to replace Collins with Self. Collins, who represents District 5, was the lone dissenter.
District 2 Supervisor Robert Moore arrived late for the meeting and missed the vote.
Collins said he was under the impression that he had been elected for a four-year term and wasn’t sure if the move squared with state law.
“I was appointed for four years. How can you change? State law says I stay for four years,” Collins said at the meeting, before adding, “If you all feel that way, fine with me, I’m ready to go.”
The board, however, has been making one-year appointments to the presidency since 2008. Self was the first to fall under that rule and held the job through 2012, when he relinquished it to Collins.
Reached this morning, Collins said he was caught completely off-guard by the move and felt betrayed.
“I was shocked yesterday about the president,” Collins said. “When your friends turn on you, you’re in trouble then.”
Collins said no one spoke with him about the possibility before the meeting.
“It’s just the principle of the thing that my colleagues, my friends, did me the way they did,” Collins said. “That my friends on the board didn’t have the decency to come to me and consult with me.”
Wolfe said it was time for the board to head in another direction.
“I wasn’t really happy with the way it was going,” Wolfe said. “I don’t have anything against Mr. Collins or anyone else that’s served as president. It’s a new year, and I just think we needed change.”
Collins, for his part, said he believes a disagreement with County Administrator Sam Abraham cost him the presidency.
Collins spoke out last week against a plan to move Emergency Management Director Troy Brown under Abraham’s supervision.
Abraham and Brown have had a number of disputes and clashed recently after Abraham cut off Brown’s budget and Brown accused Abraham of jeopardizing grant funding by going over his head.
At the time, Collins told the Commonwealth the issues were between Abraham and Brown and not the board. Collins added that he didn’t understand how placing Brown under Abraham would resolve the dispute, but “the county administrator thought he should be over the emergency manager.”
This morning, Collins said, “Disagreeing cost me.”
Later during Thursday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted to move Troy Brown again, this time placing him under the supervision of Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks.
Self said, although he has a great deal of respect for Collins, his decision to support replacing him was at least in part motivated by those comments Collins made to the Commonwealth following last week’s closed-door session.
“He came out last week and did some things that really bothered me,” Self said. “When he left the board meeting, everything was straight, everything was OK, and then the next day some articles came out in the paper that make us really look bad in front of a lot of people.”
For his part, Collins said he thought Abraham engineered the vote against him.
“The Leflore County Board of Supervisors is being run by the man that’s supposed to work for them, and that’s terrible,” Collins said. “That’s sick, and it really makes me mad that we don’t have people that can stand up and speak for themselves. We don’t have the freedom to vote the way we want to vote and be able to go home and sleep without being threatened.
“You’re held hostage by the man that works for you because he’s power-hungry. He wants to run the county and does. He likes to divide and conquer. I’m just tired of it.”
Abraham strongly disagreed with Collins’ characterization.
“To insinuate that I threatened anyone is a bare-faced lie,” Abraham said, adding that he played no part in replacing Collins as president.
“I really can’t tell you why the Board of Supervisors replaced him,” Abraham said. “I don’t have a vote in that. That’s a decision of the board. I can’t force the board to do anything.”
Abraham said that, as county administrator, he makes recommendations to the board based on the best interest of the county. He said that, although he occasionally disagrees with board members, he expects all of the supervisors to vote with their convictions. “I don’t know how any individual who can’t vote on the board could run the board,” he said.
Moore said this morning he was shocked such an important vote wasn’t placed on the agenda ahead of time.
“I had absolutely no idea that was going to be on the agenda,” Moore said. “How do you add that kind of major decision to the agenda? Surely that should’ve been a matter on the agenda to be discussed.”
Moore added it seemed like Collins might have been set up.
“This sounds like an ambush,” Moore said.
According to Brown, Self was a strong choice to serve as the new president.
“Mr. Self has proven himself as a leader,” Brown said. “He’s been president prior to me coming in and from the outside looking in, he seems to have done a good job.”
Self said he would like the presidency to continue to be put up for a vote every year.
Also Thursday:
nGary Fulgham, fire coordinator for Leflore County, asked the board to approve contracts between the county and the Greenwood Fire Department. Fulgham said the contracts are normally rolled over year to year, but since Greenwood was raising its fees, the contracts needed fresh board approval.
The city’s Fire Department raised the charge for each fire it responds to in the county from $650 to $1,000.
Wolfe questioned whether that arrangement was equitable. He said the county pays alone the cost of covering ambulance service for the indigent in both the city and county.
“We’re having to pay for fire truck service in the county, but they’re not paying for any ambulance service in the city,” Wolfe said.
Abraham said city residents pay some taxes in the county, which likely cover the cost of the indigent ambulance service to the city.
Wolfe said he supported approving the contracts, which were passed unanimously, for insurance reasons. Nonetheless, he said he’d like to examine the financials to make sure the county is getting a fair deal.
Fulgham said that the county, which is otherwise served by a volunteer firefighting force, benefits by having a response agreement with the city. Fulgham said the Greenwood Fire Department makes approximately 20 runs every year in the county.
“Volunteers may be at work; they may be somewhere else,” Fulgham said.
“The reason we initially started this thing is because we know Greenwood has people on call 24 hours a day and they can get there twice as fast as volunteers. If it’s my home, I’d want the fastest one to get there. Greenwood doesn’t have to do this.”
nThe board approved by a 4-1 vote a three-month trial contract with Jackson lobbyist Abe Hudson Jr. to represent the county at the upcoming session of the state Legislature. Hudson will receive $1,750 per month for his services.
Collins cast the lone dissent, saying the county supervisors and the state supervisors’ association should be able to handle any lobbying that needs to be done.
“We’ve got people we can talk to anytime to ask them to get what we need,” he said.
nNorth Central Narcotics Task Force Director Martin Roby received permission to sell off several items of seized property, including four cars and two televisions.
nThe board voted unanimously to renew appointments of several board employees, including Board Attorney Joyce Chiles and Abraham as county administrator.
nContact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
