Sand Mountain Reporter

The removal of an agenda item at Monday night’s council meeting may have shed light on larger issues at City Hall.

The Albertville City Council removed an item that would have allowed the city to lease 16 police cars, which would have replaced 16 patrol cars with more than 100,000 miles on them.

Mayor Lindsey Lyons said the lack of action on this item by the council is having an effect on the police force.

“The morale right now is sinking fast because of the perceived lack of support from the city council.” Lyons said. “They feel like they have been thrown under a bus.”

Lyons spent Tuesday night riding along with an officer who was driving one of the fleet’s high-mileage cars.

Council President Diane McClendon said getting new police cars was at the top of her priority list, but right now the council needs to watch every penny being spent.

“When we got there (Monday) night, we found out that the mayor had already leased three cars for the police, and we were not aware of that.” McClendon said. “We were not sure if those were in addition or if they were part of the sixteen.

“And, not knowing about the three that were leased and how and why and all. That’s what we wanted to hold up on,” she said.

The three cars were leased for the drug unit and paid for out of a special operations fund from the police department’s budget.

“Those three cars were not applicable to the sixteen,” Lyons said. “It was a totally different situation.

“Not only do I feel like they knew it, but if they didn’t know it, all they had to do is pick up the phone or come by the office and find out, instead of striking something off the agenda without even informing me or having any questions about it,” Lyons said.

Prior to Monday night’s meeting, there was a heated discussion where both Lyons and McClendon accused each other of being unavailable.

“We are learning things that you are not sharing with us, mayor,” McClendon said during the pre-council meeting. “You had not shared with us about the three cars.”

Lyons responded saying he had done that.

“I’ve sent ya’ll e-mails. My door is open,” Lyons said.

When asked later if there was a communication problem between the city council and mayor’s office, McClendon said it is not a common occurrence for the mayor not to tell the council about things the city is doing.

“We do talk,” McClendon said. “And, that could have been an oversight on his part. He may have meant to tell us.”

However, Lyons said there is a “severe lack of communication” between him and the council.

“It’s real. Sometimes I’ll get responses from their e-mails and sometimes I won’t,” Lyons said. “And, once again, it is really hard for city government to be functional when I see the council just on Monday nights.

“I do want to say this, Councilman Ellis and Councilman NeSmith are solid and I do want to commend them for their support in the effort to buy the 16 cars.

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Publisher: Ben Shurett

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