NATCHEZ — Newly appointed school board member Dr. Benny Wright almost wasn’t interviewed for the position because his application came a day late.

Mayor Jake Middleton said when he made the announcement that he would be accepting school board applications, he set a deadline of two weeks and meant it.

“I had set my deadlines, I gave them two weeks to get it in,” he said. “You’ve got to have deadlines.”

But when Alderman Dan Dillard brought Wright’s application in the following day, Wright still got the interview.

Dillard said he was turning in Wright’s application because it was his idea for Wright to apply for the position.

He said his involvement with Wright began several months ago.

“When I was thinking about running for aldermen, I decided I would talk to a couple of different people and see if it was a good idea. Being a good representative of the black community, I met with him to discuss it,” Dillard said.

The conversation then led to a discussion about the school board, and Dillard meshed with the thoughts Wright had.

So Wright immediately popped into Dillard’s head when it came time to fill the position, Dillard said.

He was tardy in turning in the application because he was in Hattiesburg the day of the deadline and unable to turn it in, though the application was already in Dillard’s possession.

Still, Middleton said he still didn’t want to budge on the issue.

“I guess Dan had it, but it wasn’t in my office. I still wasn’t going to accept it, so I said I’d leave it up to the board.”

With a 3-2 vote, the board allowed Wright’s late application to be considered.

Alderman Ernest “Tony” Fields, a employee of the school system, recused himself from the interview process.

Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis and aldermen James “Ricky” Gray and Dillard were the votes that got Wright the interview.

Gray said the application should not have even been considered late since it was in a city official’s possession.

“I can’t see what the big deal is,” he said.

Mathis said as mayor pro tempore she also felt that once an application is submitted to a member of the board it is valid.

She also said with such an important decision, there shouldn’t be such a rash cut-off date.

If it had been a week late, it would have been different, but turned in a day late by a city official who already had it is acceptable, Mathis said.

“We didn’t think we ought to be splitting peas over that,” she said.

Aldermen Mark Fortenbery and Bob Pollard carried the two dissenting votes to reject the applications.

Fortenbery said it wasn’t until the other aldermen realized that Wright wasn’t on the interview list that they brought it up.

He said that’s when the division started.

“After our first day (of interviews,) one of them asked, ‘Where is Benny Wright,’ and (Middleton) said his application was received late,” Fortenbery said.

Fortenbery said he strongly disagreed with giving Wright an interview.

“I think that was very unfair,” he said. “This is not good for this administration to already allow something to come in under the radar.”

He said the decision to accept the application was wrong and not for the good of the city.

“When people go by their own agendas, that takes us a step back,” he said.

Pollard said deadlines are put in place for a reason and should be adhered to.

“He didn’t make the deadline — he had two weeks,” Pollard said. “I deal in contracts. If a contract says 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, at 10:01, they won’t accept my bid.

“I voted nay because I felt like his resume should not have been accepted.”

Fortenbery, Pollard and Middleton all said the city is a business and just like accepting bids, if the deadline isn’t met, the opportunity is missed.

However Dillard, in his argument, said this situation is unlike a bid because accepting Wright’s application a day late did not give him an unfair advantage.

“If you were bidding on something, we have a hard deadline because someone may have an advantage over someone else, but in this case, I don’t see how that would make one difference one way or another,” he said.