Earle mayor, councilman clash continues

Earle mayor, councilman clash continues

Jones tries to have Cross removed from meeting

news@theeveningtimes.com An attempt by Earle Mayor Carolyn Jones to have a city councilman removed from the meeting for what she claimed was disorderly conduct, instead ended with her being told by Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were present that she was the one being disruptive.

“Ma’am, you are causing more of an issue by still talking about it,” said Deputy Mike Nagy. “He wasn’t disorderly. I’m sorry that he doesn’t like you. Let’s get back to the issues. There is no point in talking about it for 20 minutes. ” Jones got into a back-andforth verbal confrontation with Councilman Kenneth Cross after she said his talking points which were on the council agenda were too vague.

Jones had just finished telling resident Lee Johnson, who was also on the agenda to speak about “City of Earle,” that he needed to be more specific, and told Cross the same thing.

“Again, I don’t know what talking points is,” Jones said. “You need to name specifically what you want to talk about. I don’t know what you want to talk about.”

Cross chose not to raise whatever points he had planned to discuss, but Jones wouldn’t let the matter drop.

“I will pass,” Cross said. “It doesn’t make a difference.”

“Every meeting you do that,” Jones said.

“I don’t do that every meeting,” Cross responded.

“You’re lying. You know I don’t.”

“Mr. Cross, I’m not going to argue with you,” Jones continued.

“I said it doesn’t matter,” Cross said.

“Okay. Thank you,” Jones pressed on.

“Thank you,” Cross added.

Jones then banged her gavel at Cross and said she was moving on.

“Mr. Cross, I’m going on,” Jones said.

“Go on then,” Cross answered.

Jones then asked the deputies to have Cross removed for being disruptive and for calling her a liar.

For the past several months Jones has started each city council meeting by reminding the council and the public that the meetings will be conducted in a civil manner and that she will not tolerate name calling or disrespectful behavior toward her.

“Sir, I have this trouble out of him every time,” Jones told the two deputies. “Would you please put him out? He called me a liar. I said there would be no name calling. You called me a liar. I’m not going to have this every meeting.”

Cross refused to leave.

“You can’t put me out,” Cross said. “I am a city councilman.”

“So sue me,” Jones responded.

Jones said that the Arkansas Municipal League advised her that she has the authority to remove anyone from a meeting if they are being disruptive.

“Don Zimmerman, head of the Municipal League, said I don’t care if he is a city council member. He can be put out if he is being disruptive,” Jones said.

City attorney Davis Loftin disagreed and told Jones that she didn’t have the authority to remove Cross.

“I thought this was a city council meeting” Loftin said.

“It is,” Jones responded.

“Don Zimmerman said nobody has a right to sit up here and call me names.”

But according to the deputies, Cross was not being disorderly.

“He hasn’t broken any law,” Nagy told Jones.

“He called me names,” Jones said.

“I didn’t hear anything that was disorderly,” Nagy responded. “His vocal pattern was acceptable. He wasn’t too high. And from what I heard him say, he was not being what we call disorderly conduct.”

“I said no name calling and no arguing,” Jones continued.

Deputy Nagy again told Jones that Cross wasn’t breaking any laws and urged everyone to calm down.

“I understand there is a lot of tensions here,” Nagy said.

“But let’s all be adults.”

Jones disagreed with the deputies.

“He called me a liar,” Jones said. “It’s my meeting.”

“People can call someone a liar,” Nagy answered. “That’s not disorderly in any way.”

Cross urged Jones to continue with the rest of the meeting.

“Move on with the meeting,” Cross said. “That’s all you have to do. Move on with the meeting.”

Jones refused to drop the matter.

“Does anyone else out there want to call me a liar?” Jones continued. “Go right ahead.

Just get up and call me a liar.

Call me a damn liar. They’re not going to do anything.

That’s not disruptive. You can sit up here any time and call folks liars.”

Jones again accused Cross of being disruptive.

“Mr. Cross, you’re being disruptive now,” Jones said.

“You told me to move on. I’m the chair. You don’t tell me to move on. He doesn’t conduct my meeting. I am the facilitator here. I’m also the mayor and he has been disruptive whether you say he has or not.”

Cross eventually walked out of the meeting.

“It’s not your meeting,” Cross said. “It is a city council meeting.”

Jones then accused the deputies of not doing their job and added that that kind of conduct would not be tolerated anywhere else.

“This man called me a damn liar one night and nobody said a word,” Jones said. “I say to the officers, that’s not disruptive — hollering and yelling when I’m trying to talk?

That’s disruptive. If you had gone to Marion or Parkin or somewhere or West Memphis and called the mayor a liar, you’d get put out of there. Or kept arguing yak-yak. I know.

I’ve been to their meetings.

There is no mess like this.

“Go over to Marion and call (Mayor Frank) Fogleman a liar and see what is going to happen. Go to West Memphis and call (Mayor Bill) Johnson a liar and see what is going to happen. Go argue with him and see what is going to happen. Then come here and tell me the person who did it is not disruptive. See what would happen to you.”

Deputy Nagy returned to the front of the room and again told Jones that it was she who was stoking the fire by not moving on.

“Are you trying to elicit an emotional response from me?” Nagy asked.

“No. I am talking to the crowd,” Jones said. “I am not talking to you. I’m telling them it was disruptive.”

“You’re the one who is emotional here. Nobody else,” Nagy replied.

“I am very emotional because I think I have been treated very unfairly,” Jones continued.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Nagy said. “Can anyone just be adults here? For God’s sake.”

Sheriff Mike Allen agreed that Cross was not being disruptive.

The entire incident was recorded on the deputy’s body camera.

“I reviewed the tape and he wasn’t disorderly,” Allen said.

“They realized that it didn’t meet the standard.”

Allen said it appears to him that Jones staged the whole incident on purpose.

“I honestly think she had agenda and tried to entice him into getting disorderly,” Allen said.

It’s not the first time Jones has tried to have Cross removed.

Deputies have been present at the past several city council meetings to keep order.

“They were there to keep the peace,” Allen said. “Kenneth Cross always calls and asks if we can have a deputy over there because he is afraid that Earle Police will do what the mayor tells them, and probably so.”

Allen said he is suspicious of this encounter because Earle Police Chief John Couch called him and told him that Jones wanted two deputies to be at the meeting.

“Couch called me and asked specifically for two deputies, not just one,” Allen said. “So I think she was going to try to entice him into being disorderly. And he wasn’t. She wanted to make a stand and have him arrested. I think that’s why she called for two deputies.”

Jones is facing a recall election in November.

By Mark Randall