Before a full house at the Blytheville Municipal Courtroom Tuesday night, the Blytheville City Council returned from a 45-minute executive session and voted 3-2 to appoint Carol White to fill new Mississippi County Sheriff James Sanders' unexpired Ward 1, Position 2 council term.
Councilman Mylas Jeffers, who drew criticism for saying the appointee should be "a person of color," nominated White, and Councilman R.L. Jones seconded the motion to appoint the African-American woman.
Councilman Monte Hodges, the other Ward 1 representative, cast the other "yes" for White. Dissenting were councilwomen Shirley Overman and Shirley Connealy.
Both Connealy and Overman said their choices were Tommy Abbott, who attends church with Hodges at First Assembly of God in Blytheville. Adron Poole, Shane Spears, J.D. Harris, Scott Edwards and Curtis Johnson III were the other applicants for the position.
"We've always had a good relationship," Connealy said after the meeting, referring to the council. "We've always talked over most of the issues and come to an agreement. I think we're a little off-balanced. I'm going to do my best to get along. But I think that (White)'s a troublemaker."
In past meetings, Overman and White have been involved in heated discussions with one another, in particular once over the 2009 budget.
Asked if there will be tensions on the council, Overman responded, "We'll just have to wait and see how that works out. I don't know at this point."
"My choice was Tommy Abbott because of his business experience, college education and Christian values," Overman said. "I will continue to serve the citizens of Blytheville the best way I can."
Jeffers expects White to do well on the council.
"I do believe that she's going to be a thorough person," Jeffers said. "She will study what we do, and she'll learn what the council has before us. I believe she will voice her opinion and be totally honest about it. I don't believe that I'll always agree with her. I just believe everybody will be pleasantly surprised with what she brings to the table. I know that she investigates stuff. I see this being a breath of fresh air. Nobody has taken the council to task like she has on one or two issues in quite some time. I see that as being a good thing. I just hope that she will work with the council and we'll embrace her and she'll embrace us and we'll get some things done."
Toward the end of the three-hour meeting, Ward 1 resident Billy Rollin took a few verbal jabs at Jeffers.
"I live over in that ward. The way you were talking, we're 100 percent persons of color over there," he said, looking at Jeffers. "I know Monte, from seeing him around, know where he lives. I voted for him. I knew he could do the job. So do we have to have 100 percent representation? Or couldn't it have been 50/50?"
"Let's talk about this afterwards," Jeffers responded.
"That's something there, let's talk about it afterwards," Rollin said. "Ya'll remember many years ago that I came up here when there was a new ordinance being adopted for animal control and I had some issues with it. Tabitha, who was the animal control woman at the time, was back there, and I'd try to make a point and she would jump up and start screaming and hollering in order to talk louder than me. After a while, you put a stop to it. You said let's talk about it later. Let's get together and meet with the two of you and try to iron out some of these things. That meeting never took place. I feel like if I had been black, you would have seen to it that that meeting took place. The next meeting, which I happened to be out of town, the ordinance was reread and completely passed. Now as hard as (animal control officer) Terri (Gaines) works, and she does work hard, there is a lot of stuff in that ordinance as it was written that is not being enforced. It don't need to be enforced, but it's unfair to the people that any part of it is being enforced against. It was written wrong to start with. But I still feel like if I had been black you would have seen to it that meeting took place."
"Probably, probably not," Jeffers responded.
Rollin had hesitated to come forward, saying he would meet with the council members individually because the meeting had lasted so long.
After the vote earlier in the meeting, Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison invited White to the table, and her supporters erupted with applause.
White addressed the crowd briefly before taking her seat between Overman and Jones and across from Jeffers.
"We are in this all together," she said, facing the audience. "We want Blytheville to be the best that it can be. It can be if everybody comes together and works together. That is our commitment with all of you. We want everybody to have the same opportunities. We want to come together and be fair on level ground. I know that we can do that because God is here. Everything is possible when you believe that it can happen."
After the meeting White said she expects the council to be accountable to the citizens of Blytheville.
"We need to be able to communicate better each way so that when we have to do things that the community is aware and can support it so there's less controversy," she said. "And I'm just looking at being able to be the best government that this city can be."
Both Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson and Fire Chief Ivory Diamond welcomed White to the council as they made their remarks to the board.
"I think she has brought a ray of sunshine to the council, and I look forward to working with her," Diamond said.
White will chair Sanders' former committees, including Streets and Drainage and Code Enforcement.
Her term will expire on Dec. 31, 2010.
Before moving to Blytheville, she taught grades first through middle school at the Minneapolis Public School system from 1994-2007. She was director of the Minneapolis school system from 1989-1993, responsible for the polices of the Minneapolis School Board. She was also a social worker in Minnesota from 1989-1996, working in a variety of capacities for families, particularly those in the African-American community.
White's selection Tuesday was the second time in two years the City Council appointed one of the two Ward 1 representatives. In February, 2007, the council appointed John Singleton to fill John White's unexpired term.