By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Courtney Barb appeared before the City of Parsons City Council for the second meeting in row following the suspension of her son from the Fitness 24 Center ran by the City. Barb’s follow-up address to the City was a response to her view that she had been lied to and deceived by representatives of the City. “I was obviously in here at the last meeting and I don’t like being lied to and I don’t feel this is a place we come to and get lied to,” Barb said. “I don’t like being told that I am wrong when I bring up a certain order of events. If you don’t know, you probably shouldn’t say you’re wrong because I wasn’t wrong.”
Barb maintained that she was correct in her timeline of events. “When I brought up the timeline of how these member things happened with the parks and rec, it happened exactly the way that I said,” Barb said. “I double checked that. You shouldn’t tell people they are wrong if you don’t know.”
Barb also said that the meeting minutes from the Parks and Rec Committee showed that specific people were being discussed in executive session and read from the minutes during the meeting. “Specific people are, they were talked about in these meetings,” Barb said. “I was told by the President that that’s not true. That they don’t discuss specific people, however, the minutes read that an executive session happened and a member’s behavior was discussed and the solution was that Mistee would keep an eye on it. So, unless you are discussing specific people, how would you know who to keep an eye on?”
Barb said she had requested information on other City Committees, as well. According to Barb, she only received what she termed “generic” agendas from her request regarding the Committee for the Benefit of the Citizens of Parsons account. “After that, I thought we have the Benefit of the Citizens of Parsons. It’s a whole committee,” Barb said. “That should follow the same guidelines as council does. They should have meetings, they should have agendas, they should have minutes.”
Barb told the Council that she is looking into matters on behalf of the children of Parsons. “I’m just looking into that sort of thing,” Barb said. “Like how and who because kids are citizens, too and not just the little kids, the older kids are, as well.”
Barb accused the Council of not spending money on the older children of Parsons as well as “frivolous spending.” “I think maybe aside from the drainage at the ball field, there was maybe $2500 given to kids who are older than the age of five, I mean for kids over the age of five,” Barb said. “And not really much else for older children. There’s a lot of frivolous spending.”
Barb also questioned the Council’s use of executive sessions and alleged that the Council was using the privilege to exclude public scrutiny. “You can’t use executive sessions to keep things a secret,” Barb said. “The point of an executive session is NOT to thwart public criticism. People should know. At the last meeting I was at, there was a possible litigation. For what? What is it? When there’s a land acquisition, what land and for what reason? We don’t really hear about it until after the executive session and then it’s voted on immediately. There’s no time for public to speak about anything. We don’t know what’s going on until after its set-in stone and that’s not really how it’s supposed to work.”
Council Member James Humphrey, Jr. clarified a question that Barb asked regarding who sits on the City boards. The question was raised by Barb in regards to the recently vacated seat on the Parks and Rec board. Barb had requested clarification of how her residence is outside the City limits was designated since her mail is delivered within the City of Parsons and she owns a business inside the city. “Do we have any boards where there’s people outside the City limits on?” Humphrey said.
Council Member Melissa Jones responded that the Fire Fee Committee has members who are business owners within the City among its members. “But there is a board that has business owners on it,” Jones said. “And that’s to deal with the Fire Department. The Fire Fee Committee.”
Acting Recorder Tim Auvil addressed some of the issues Barb raised in her comments to the Council. Among the clarifications was the issue of the executive session from the last meeting that regarded the possible litigation and whether her son’s issue had been discussed. “I do want to clarify a couple of things that really do need clarified,” Auvil said. “We did not discuss your issues in executive session. That was stated that that was what happened and it did not. This was on a client-attorney issue and it had nothing to do with that issue whatsoever.”
Barb also questioned how the public is informed of Council and Committee meetings. The Council responded that all meetings are posted on the door of City Hall and are open to the public. Barb said she felt that the information would be better distributed to the public if posted online as well. “We can post it on the doors, guys, but we can post it online,” Barb said.
