My jaw nearly hit the floor Friday morning as I overheard a conversation between a Natchez alderman and a citizen.

Before my eyes and ears was an illustrious City of Natchez alderman telling an outright lie to a constituent who’d apparently called him to inquire about the non-binding recreation issue on Tuesday’s ballot.

“A vote ‘yes’ is a vote to raise your taxes, yes ma’am,” Alderman Bob Pollard said, repeating himself a second later, obviously because the caller was asking the same question in a different way to make sure she was clear.

Mind you, I was clearly in plain sight and had spoken to Pollard before the call, so it wasn’t like I sneaked up on him.

I challenged Pollard after he hung up the telephone, asking why he was fibbing to the caller.

“You know a ‘yes’ vote doesn’t automatically mean a tax increase,” I said.

He sheepishly denied any wrongdoing, attempting to justify what he’d said by pointing out that taxes might go up if a recreation complex was built.

Again, I challenged him.

There’s a big difference between “probably” or “might” and what he’d told the woman.

Ultimately I asked, “So you don’t support the recreation plan?”

“No, I support recreation,” Pollard said.

But his words to the caller indicated something completely different.

Why on earth would an elected official vote to support the plan and put it on the ballot and then attempt to kill the issue by misrepresenting the facts?

Ironically, Pollard was the first to offer support for recreation improvements at Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting.

In that very meeting the board unanimously adopted a resolution pledging support for the plan.

If Tuesday’s non-binding recreation referendum is defeated, it will be in large part because some elected leaders simply cannot be trusted — at least collectively.

Alderman Ernest “Tony” Fields, James “Ricky” Gray and Mark Fortenbery seem to have genuine promise. Personally, I’ve never seen one of them mislead the community.

Each seems — at least publicly — to share an interest in doing something positive for the youth of the community. The rest I find difficult to trust.

Fortunately, the recreation issue doesn’t raise our taxes — certainly not now and perhaps not in the future, either.

County supervisor Mike Lazarus is convinced the county can pay for a recreation complex’s construction on its own provided the city and school district agrees to pay for the upkeep.

Lazarus and I have disagreed on issues before, but I trust him on the recreation issue and how it might be funded. It’s his passion, and he’s among a handful of people who have really studied the issue.

All the referendum does is give city, county and school district leaders the understanding of how important the recreation issue for our community.

Remember, it’s called a “non-binding referendum” for a reason. It commits us to nothing beyond continuing to pursue the matter.

The results of the vote will shape the direction of any recreational developments in our community.

If the issue is defeated, it’s likely the grandchildren of our current elementary school children will continue to play on subpar fields and we’ll have no one to blame, except perhaps a few politicians who say one thing publicly and say another thing one-on-one.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.