Letter to the Editor

Dear Citizens,

When executive sessions are in progress, employees and the public have always been allowed to remain in the lobby of the public service building. On April 11 at 4 p.m., an executive session (which is closed to the public) was held for the City Administrator interviews. During that time, an individual was seen by an employee recording the audio directly outside of the doors/room where the executive session was taking place. Many people have reported we (the council) can be heard in the lobby during our executive sessions. Therefore, it has been determined that everyone needed to either go into another room in the building (away from the lobby) or outside of the building to prevent anyone from listening in or recording during an executive session. Moving forward, the council will leave the room and hold executive sessions in another space inside the public service building, at which time the public will not have to vacate the room or the building.

I also want to address the altered police surveillance video of the public service lobby. There will be an investigation as to how the media received access to the video without going through the appropriate channels.

This form of government is controlled by the Council, not the Mayor. As the Mayor, I have one vote. I do not control/make decisions for the City of Bennettsville, the entire Council does.