Tuesday's rather eventful town council meeting (Tuesday, June 14) began without any disruptions to the routine yet mundane responsibilities the council must undertake, such as approving the minutes of the previous meeting.
As the meeting went on, the council began a vote to approve the hire of Victoria Fletcher as a part time dispatcher, Angela Whaley as a full time dispatcher, and Christopher Mayeaux for the Police Department. After the approval to hire the new employees, the board of aldermen then approved the construction of a new fence surrounding city hall. The mayor was quoted $26,500 by a local company for the new 8-foot treated wood fence. The board was to approve the application of Noah Swanson for the door to door sale of education goods in the town of Franklinton. The application was approved by the aldermen with only one "No" coming from Seth Descant.
Next on the agenda was the approval of seven alcohol permits for local businesses in Franklinton. Alcohol permits were approved for the following businesses: Town Crier #7, Town Crier #12, Akita Sushi, Jack Brown's Food Store, 1231 Daquari's, Main's Market (Sav-A-Lot), and Don Juan Mexican Restaurant.
After the approval for the permits, the board then moved onto departmental reports, with the Police Department being the first to report. During his report, Police Chief Justin Brown informed the board and public that on June 10th there was an armed robbery at the Market Max on Washington Street in Franklinton. Chief Brown then explained that investigators had already identified the suspect and that an expected arrest is forthcoming.
Regarding the statistics surrounding the police activity since the last meeting Chief Brown said, "...our officers often conduct intervention type stops, and in doing so over the past two months we've seized over twenty-something firearms that were either stolen, the person couldn't legally possess them due to a criminal background, or they had narcotics with them on the same time."
Once Chief Brown's report on the Police Department was complete, Mayor Gregory Route began informing the public and board of aldermen that, "I, Mayor Gregory Route, by executive appointment, is making the following changes to the Franklinton Police Department, and they are as follows: Michael Tate will be promoted to the rank of major, William Brumfield will be promoted to the rank of captain and will become the department of internal affairs officer, ...and Jared Stubbs will be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. These promotions will take effect today, June 14th, 2022." The mayor then explained that the reason for these promotions is due to the new position of the internal affairs officer, which Mayor Route described as a necessary position because after many complaints from citizens, it's apparent that "a lot of people are afraid to go to the police station to fill out a complaint form."
Mayor Route then told the public that because the new promotions may change the town's budget, he will be meeting with Candace Bickham to adjust the budget as necessary. The town attorney, James Knight, then explained to the mayor, "If it is going to affect the budgetary constraint, you are the administrator, but if it affects the budget that is beyond your control to change the budget without the board of aldermen's approval." The Mayor then responded, "It's going to affect the budget."
Alderman Darwin Sharp then addressed Mayor Route with the question, "We are down how many police officers, four, and we're fixing to create positions… when we need men that we have money we can pay to go out there and protect those citizens sitting right out here?"
The mayor explained to Sharp that the cost of the raises would not exceed what it would cost to pay another full salary. Alderman Sharp responded, "You've got workman's compensation, you've got liability insurance, when you get through with all that you're looking at what, 75,000 dollars?" Mayor Route then said, "No, I didn't break it down, because this is something we need… It's not up for vote, it don't have to come up for vote."
The town attorney then addressed the mayor, "I would ask if we could maybe defer to the next meeting to get the cost associated so you can get that to the board to get a vote." The mayor responded, "But that's what I said, I said that we could wait until the next meeting to get a vote." However, the minutes of the meeting did not reflect that the mayor had previously said this. The conversation regarding the vote then continued for the next 30 minutes and then the meeting was adjourned, with the agreement that the discussion and a vote would continue at the next town council meeting on June 28th.
