Union Co. Supervisors: everybody came but there was no party

The meeting of the Union County Board of Supervisors on Monday morning, March 14, 2016, was eight minutes long, Board President Randy Owen presiding.

Courthouse veterans say it was not, however, the shortest ever county board meeting. Those denizens claim that Sammy Coffey, while Supervisor for Union County’s second district, presided over a meeting during which he completed the morning’s agenda and adjourned in just three minutes.

There were eight items on the agenda Monday morning, two of which were the call to order and the declaration that the board would recess until 10 a.m. on Monday, March 21st. The other six items, all approved unanimously, were as follows:

–Two school bus turnarounds.

–An agreement with American Municipal Services (AMS), under which that company will attempt to collect past due fines and other assessments by the Union County Justice Court. (See NAnewsweb.com’s two stories from last week during which the matter of Justice Court fines was discussed.)

–A contract with the J. A. Vance accounting firm of Tupelo to provide audit services for 2014 and 2015 fiscal years.

–Declared old county-owned tar trucks to be surplus property and authorized their sale.

–New per diem claim forms for election commissioners.

–Authorization of registrar payments due to the circuit clerk’s office.

There was overly much “news media” coverage at the meeting. Besides this reporter for NAnewsweb.com, the meeting was covered as always by the New Albany Gazette. Uncommonly, a reporter/camera operator for Channel 99 in New Albany and another reporter/camera operator for WTVA-TV, Channel 9 in Tupelo, also covered the meeting. That works out to about two-minute’s worth per news reporter present, and very damned little news to report. Hardly enough to go around.

You’ve heard the old expression: “Gave a party but nobody came.”

Monday morning it was: “Everybody came but there was nearly no party.”

All that said, it was a pleasant contrast to more typical meetings of public boards in Mississippi during which five minutes worth of business are routinely crammed into two hours.

For more insight on contracting to collect Justice Court fines, see:

Mercy and Justice in MS Justice Courts

Supervisors hear plan for collecting Justice Court fines