Tempers flare at Marion City Council meeting

Tension that has been brewing for quite some time finally came to the surface last week as Marion Mayor Rodney Berry and Marion City Councilmen Bobby Davis had a battle with words.

It began when Davis questioned why the word “dispute” was omitted from the agenda when he specifically asked for the words “dispute between Marion and Marion County” be placed as the topic he wished to discuss.

The dispute in which Davis mentioned is concerning the use of the Marion County landfill by the City of Marion. County council voted for the landfill to be sub-contracted out to Griffin Brothers and the new company is not allowing the City of Marion to use the landfill without paying a tipping fee, Marion Administrator Alan Ammons said. The City of Marion is now trying to make a case that they should have the right to use the landfill, because they pay county taxes.

Berry said as long as he is mayor the word dispute would never be placed on the agenda, because he feels it could reflect negatively on the city.

And so the fireworks began.

Davis moved on from the word placement to address why the city hired attorneys without the permission of the entire council and before the council had an opportunity to speak with county officials about the issue at hand. Berry then interrupted and said Davis had no idea what he was talking about.

“Are you going to let me finish?” Davis asked.

Berry said he was not, because he is fed up with Davis speaking “half-truths.”

“I’m going to interrupt you when you are speaking nonsense, because that’s what you’re doing,” Berry said. “You tell half-truths. For three years I’ve been listening to half-truths.”

Davis then accused the mayor along with the Atkinson’s (Councilmember’s Ronald Atkinson, Ralph Atkinson and Betsy Atkinson) of making the decision to hire attorneys to look into the county about the landfill. However, council actually approved the decision four votes to two during a special meeting on Jan. 19, according to the meeting’s minutes that were approved by council at last weeks meeting, to allow Battle and Vault Attorney’s at Law to advise the council on the resolution of the Marion County landfill and limit it to that; the council is not threatening litigation they are collecting information to put council in the best stand in order to meet with county council and resolve the issue. Councilmember’s Davis and Gregg voted in opposition. Councilmen Michael Baker did not attend the meeting.

Davis continued with his presentation saying that he along with Councilwomen Odessa Gregg were firmly against such a “dispute” with the county, because it could harm the relationship between the two.

“This is information that needs to be presented to the public, so that they know that Bobby Davis didn’t have anything to do with it,” Davis said. “What I want the public to know is that we hastily hired attorneys (at rates ranging between $125 - $215 per hour) for something that we probably wouldn’t have to go to these attorneys for in the first place, because we could have gone and talked to county council. That’s why I said dispute between Marion and Marion County is going to hurt us in the community. And a matter of fact, it already has.”

Berry then refuted Davis’ claims that hiring attorneys would harm the relationship between the two by saying he works with the county on a daily basis including on the

I-73 committee with County Councilman Milton Troy II and County Administrator Tim Harper.

“The county administrator and I speak three times a day,” Berry said. “This is not going to hurt the citizens of Marion. In fact, if we had not made this move the citizens of Marion would be in a tax hike, because we have to find somewhere to take this trash.”

If the city is unable to use the Marion County landfill then the city will be forced to ask American Waste Systems to ship all of the city’s construction and demolition (C&D) trash elsewhere which could raise taxes, because the cost is not included in the city’s budget. Ammons said taxes could not be raised without the consent of council.

Berry added the problem with city council is not him, it is because of a “divisive person” on council.

“I’m going to tell you I’ve been sitting here for three years and I’ve heard it time and time again and I identify the divisive person, its simply whether you like it out not … the divisive person sits directly to my right (Davis sits to Berry’s right) and I’ve seen it time and time again and folks I’ve just about had enough of it,” he said.