It was really great to see Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod during her first session. Not since Councilwoman Deborah Scott have we seen a council member who actually seemed to be paying attention and attempting to do the job of governing. She pretty much called out the mayor for trying to slide in all of the department appointments.
She very rightly identified one appointment that should not have been made. Leaders in our government should only be of the highest ethical standards and Lurone Jennings has demonstrated he is not.
I thought how awesome we finally have at least one member on the council who will exercise some basic common sense and that is also smart enough to see the manipulation of the mayor.
She called them out on increasing a $150,000 security contract to over $500,000. The mayor's staff was squirming trying to explain why they needed to do that with no new bidding and it really smelled when it became clear they wanted all this extra money for only two months. A real council member. One really doing their job of watching over what the mayor is doing.
But, my hopes faded. In the end, during her first council meeting, she succumbed to peer pressure and voted for everything the mayor put in front of the council. It was clear her judgment was that the security contract should be bid with very clear specifications of what was to be provided. It was clear her judgment was that the youth of our city needed a better role model leading an important department. Not to mention she is aware of how poor a job Jennings has done with the youth centers in our city.
Sad. Let the peer pressure continue for a few more weeks and Coonrod will not even bother to ask the tough questions anymore. Sad.
Jenny Moore