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REDUS, TURNER SQUARE OFF AT PB COUNCIL MEETING

By Larry Fugate/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:55 AM CDT

Pine Bluff Mayor Carl Redus Jr. and the Rev. Jesse C. Turner, coordinator for the Pine Bluff Weed and Seed Program, traded verbal broadsides during and after Monday’s City Council meeting.

Redus vetoed a $14,458 appropriation to help underwrite the cost of a computer education program for the University Park Weed and Seed and Martin Luther King Jr. Park areas that was adopted by the council in an 8-0 vote July 2.

The city’s chief executive officer, in a written explanation of the veto, said he rejected the appropriation because Turner failed to provide answers to 10 basic questions about the program.

He said he asked where the classes would be held, how many students were projected, how many instructors were proposed and their salaries and qualifications, how is the site obtaining funding since federal funding has been exhausted for the University park area, had the steering committee approved the classes and why isn’t the computer lab being funded through the Central Park program.

Redus maintained that Turner failed to follow standing procedure and take the funding request before a council committee before making a pitch before the full council. Aldermen were asked to approve the proposed appropriation “very cold, without much detailed information,” the mayor added.

Turner countered that Redus never bothered to contact the Weed and Seed office for answers to some of the issues raised in the veto message. He said he addressed other issues when he spoke to the council on July 2.

Turner said he wanted to deal with the “inaccuracies” in Redus’ veto explanation.

“I don’t appreciate how you handled this,” Redus shot back.

Turner replied that he was simply asking the city to invest in the University Park area in north Pine Bluff, adding that Redus’ veto message was both “unfair ... and untrue.”

It was not necessary to obtain permission from the steering committee, Turner added, because he was operating under an earlier mandate.

It was obvious, Redus answered, that Turner did not take the time to read the veto explanation, appear before the proper council committee and was “selectively” picking issues for argument.

“We are not abandoning the Weed and Seed Program,” Alderman Janice Roberts added, or the residents of north Pine Bluff.

In other action Monday, the council approved an addition to the policies and procedures manual for the Pine Bluff Police Department dealing with the use of electronic restraint devices known as Tasers by a 7-1 vote.

The proposal was placed on three readings and adopted with an emergency clause.

Alderman Thelma Walker cast the only vote against the proposal, explaining she told several residents it would be up for only first reading Monday and they would have time to comment later.

Police Chief John Howell said the department has bought 20 Tasers using funds that were donated by businesses and individuals, adding the policy requires that only officers who complete a training course can carry a Taser.

A proposal ordinance closing an alley bound by 4th and 5th avenues, Maple to Spruce streets, was placed on third reading and adopted.

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