Natchez’s new mayor, Darryl Grennell, led a successful campaign running on themes of racial harmony and transparency.

Clearly, the controlling personality on the board of aldermen isn’t a fan of either.

Long-time alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis showed her card — her power-loving race card — Friday afternoon, just hours after she, Grennell and others raised their hands to be sworn into office.

If anyone wondered just how long racial harmony would survive in Natchez the answer became clear — just a few hours, or until Mathis gets her feelings hurt.

The challenge, it seems, first became evident in the sudden abrupt change of direction on the city’s choice for city attorney. Grennell had publicly said he planned to nominate former county attorney Bob Latham, who has significant experience dealing with both public government and public contracts. Latham seemed like a good fit. He’s organized and a skilled attorney.

Unfortunately, he had one strike against him, apparently. He is white.

Grennell, who is black, ran on the campaign promise of focusing not on black and white issues, but on green ones, the premise being if we simply stop the old-Natchez way of handling things, the city could quickly progress economically.

Instead, Mathis seems content with the “old way” particularly since she appears to have at least two other aldermen in her pocket.

Newcomers Felicia Irving and Billy Joe Frazier voted along with Mathis to go against Grennell’s suggestion and instead choose a former city attorney who is black.

Everett Sanders was a horrible city attorney during his earlier tenure. He routinely gave aldermen just flat bad advice on Open Meetings Law matters — always coming down on the side of effectively telling the aldermen, “Sure, you don’t need to involve the public here. It’s none of their business.”

Mathis’ choice of Sanders indicates she must like riding loose with the public’s trust and hiding behind closed doors.

Her reasoning for choosing Sanders was that Grennell didn’t ask her ahead of time for suggestions. Her self-assumed superiority to others is almost always at play in her politics.

If Grennell didn’t fully brief Mathis on his plans, the new mayor should have learned a lesson here. Mathis is a bully and bullies will take advantage of any weakness — real or perceived.

She’s apparently bullied the new aldermen to go along with her plans as well.

Putting Sanders in charge of city business again opens taxpayers up to huge liability. In 2011, the city lost a default judgment by a developer because the city failed to simply respond to the court action on time. Guess who the city attorney was then. Correct, Mr. Sanders. The city’s potential losses there could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, simply because the city didn’t lift a finger to respond to a million-dollar lawsuit.

He may be a nice man, but he’s ill equipped to handle public business.

On several occasions back during the time the City of Natchez was working to finalize a lease with casino developers for the city’s Roth Hill Road site, Sanders was unable to locate copies of the files as the newspaper’s staff made requests for the public documents.

He was recently also serving as the county attorney for Jefferson County as well. Does Mrs. Mathis know if Sanders plans to hold both positions simultaneously?

Clearly, the best move here is for the city to reconsider this decision and actually do some research on the people with whom they’re hiring on the taxpayers’ behalf. Natchez has enough financial problems to sort out already without a reprise of the city attorney that dug the hole deeper.

If you’re bothered by this potential huge liability, please contact your alderman and voice your concern. Even bullies can be silenced when a majority of the people stands up for what is right and what is fair.

Click here for contact information for the Natchez mayor and board of aldermen.

 

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