The Jennings City Council heard public feedback on its vote to initiate the impeachment process against Mayor Yolonda Fountain Henderson at City Hall on Saturday, January 16.
Many residents said the estimated cost, $50-100,000, was beyond the city’s ability to pay. Most of the residents who raised the issue of cost also said they supported the mayor and that, as a newly elected mayor, she should be expected to make mistakes without being immediately impeached.
“We voted the mayor in with no cost to us,” Carolyn Harris said. “Now you’re asking us to pay to get her out? We don’t have the money.”
Several residents who regularly attend council meetings said these vocal supporters of the mayor were unfamiliar faces and, because they did not attend council meetings, they did not understand the situation.
“If you’d come to regular council meetings, you’d see what is really going on,” Robert Cotton Sr. said. “We should do the right thing, I don’t care what it costs, if the evidence is there.”
A number of residents who supported the mayor said they did not attend meetings and did not know the allegations being made against her.
When asked to explain their grievances with the mayor, the council said that counsel had advised them not to discuss specific allegations. This left a complete stalemate between the mayor’s supporters and her critics, who appeared equally divided among speakers, though most of those who attended did not speak.
Many of the mayor’s supporters pointed out that she was the city’s first black mayor, which drew applause, though Cotton and several other residents (and council members) critical of her were black.
One white resident who supported the impeachment process said he “hated” the mayor, which drew a gasp of revulsion from the crowd, but many white residents appeared as disgusted and offended at this expression of hatred as black residents did.
The council members and mayor were allowed to speak at the end.
Councilman Rodney Epps did the most to explain what sparked the impeachment process. When newly elected, Henderson filed suit against every council member – including herself, since she served on the council that approved the policies she now sought to overthrow – and every city department head.
The goal of Henderson’s suit was to impose a strong mayoral system in Jennings and empower her to fire and hire her own department heads.
Two department heads have since resigned, claiming the mayor created a hostile work environment, though Epps did not mention that.
Also, no one explained to the public that the mayor awarded a contract to a vendor without council approval and fought to keep him working in city government after the contract was voided by the city counselor.
These matters were discussed in previous council meetings that the mayor’s supporters admitted they did not attend.
An attorney for a resident suggested in a press conference on Friday that the improperly contracted vendor may have had illegal access to employee files, including federally protected medical records. The threat of litigation on these matters explains why the city counselor advised council members not to discuss them at the public meeting.
Epps said the mayor’s actions already had brought law suits against the city – starting with the suits against the city that the mayor filed herself, which were dismissed by a circuit judge – and is convinced that she will cost the city more in legal fees the longer she stays in office.
“It will cost a little up front,” Epps said of the impeachment process, “but if you don’t correct the mess we’re in, it will cost you a lot more in the end.”
In her own defense, the mayor admitted she had made mistakes, without being specific, but said she had not broken any laws. She ended her brief remarks sounding as if she were standing at the altar of a church, rather than the podium at city hall.
“I’ve got God with me,” Henderson said. “I don’t worship man. I worship Jesus Christ.”
The next Jennings City Council meeting is 7 p.m. Monday, January 25 at City Hall, 2120 Hord Ave.
