The circus is still in town — for now

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The circus is still in town — for now

The political clown of Crittenden County, Earle Mayor Carolyn Jones, is up to her familiar antics, this time during another official city council meeting where she threw one of her conniption fits accusing Councilman Kenneth Cross of being disruptive and attempted to have him escorted by sheriff’s deputies from the meeting.

The embarrassing tirade backfired on Mayor Jones when Deputy Mike Nagy declined to escort Councilman Cross from the meeting and told Mayor Jones that she was the one being disruptive.

In her typical manner, Jones started her temper tantrum by accusing Cross of being too vague in his talking points which just happened to be on the council agenda. Jones told Cross, “I don’t know what talking points is. You need to name specifically what your want to talk about. I don’t know what you want to talk about.”

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

But, Jones blurted out, “Every meeting you do that,” and Cross responded by saying, “I don’t do that every meeting. You’re lying…”

Clearly irate, Jones banged her gavel on the table and said she was moving on with Cross responding by saying, “Go on then.”

Jones clearly not satisfied with the situation, called upon the two sheriff’s deputies that were assigned to the meeting by Sheriff Mike Allen to remove Councilman Cross for being disruptive and for him calling her a liar. Trying to convince deputies she was right in her actions, Jones told deputies that she has had trouble out of Cross every time. Cross said he was an elected official and wasn’t leaving the meeting while City Attorney Davis Loftin told Jones she didn’t have the authority to kick Cross out of the meeting.

Cross even received the support of Deputy Nagy who told Jones he was not being disorderly and hasn’t broken any law. Cross then asked Jones to continue with the meeting but Jones wouldn’t leave the issue alone. She directed her remarks to the audience by asking anyone if they wanted to call her a liar and then accused Cross of being disruptive.

Clearly having enough of such antics, Cross eventually walked out of the meeting at which time Jones accused the deputies of not doing their job.

Clearly having enough of all this, Deputy Nagy told Jones that she was the person stoking the fire by not moving on and says she was the one who is emotional.

Upon hearing about the latest shenanigans even Sheriff Allen said, from what he knew of the situation based on the deputies body camera and recording, Cross wasn’t disorderly and that Jones staged the whole incident on purpose.

Sheriff Allen said, “I honestly think she (Jones) had an agenda and tried to entice Cross into getting disorderly. Unfortunately, Sheriff Allen has had to assign deputies to the Earle council meetings several times simply to keep the peace.

Allen said Cross always calls and requests the presence of deputies saying he is afraid that Jones’ police officers will do only what she tells them to do.

We all know Jones has been the focal point of criticism, community jokes and public embarrassment ever since becoming mayor of this county’s rural incorporated town, and as a result is now facing a November recall election. If Earle voters do decide they have had enough of this bad situation Jones will no longer be mayor, which based on what has occurred, may be in the best interest of all concerned.