Several years ago, the Jackson-Madison County School Board was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Every meeting and work session was a gold mine for local press to grab a comment and splash it on a page or devote an entire segment of talk radio to whatever sensationalized comment was the quote du jour of that given moment. Morris Merriweather was a never ending stream of verbal consciousness – logic and reality be damned. The board found itself at such a place of deterioration that Superintendent Eric Jones walked away.
Fast forward five years and the school board is in much better shape – collectively moving the district in an exceptionally positive direction. But just in case you’re worried that every local government faction is clicking on all cylinders, fear not – the Madison County Commission is here to fulfill your dysfunction quota for the month of January.
What had everyone talking after last week’s County Commission meeting was the exchange between Luther Mercer (D – District 1) and Gary Deaton (R – District 4). In the chaos of the exchange about Sunshine Laws, Mercer – who felt he was being intentionally ignored by Deaton – called Deaton a “racist”. He followed the word racist with another attributive noun that’s difficult to decipher on the video. Either way, once the word “racist” was hurled at the Chairman of the County Commision it gave the news cycle (including this column) ample fodder for the next several days.
The common refrain in the community – even on this station – was that elected officials should have a higher standard for their own behavior; that an elected official shouldn’t be hurling insults in a public meeting. I agree with that sentiment, too. Every citizen of Madison County should agree with that. But I think we’re focusing on the wrong question. The question isn’t whether an elected official should or shouldn’t call the chairman a racist; the question we should be asking is WHY Mr. Mercer called Mr. Deaton a racist.
At the heart of the conflict during the meeting was the question of whether or not there was a violation of the Sunshine Law. Essentially, members of any local governing body cannot decide on public policy by meeting in private or without notifying the public.
Mercer and other Democrats on the County Commission were accusing the Republicans of violating the Sunshine Law because the Republican caucus meets monthly. In those meetings, discussions about policy and issues take place. Those meetings, however, are publicly posted so if anyone in the community wants to attend they can.
While some of the Democratic members of the commission believed the Sunshine Law was on the agenda because the Republicans violated the law, they were surprised to find out that their own party was being accused of violating the law by holding a meeting in September without public notice.
Trey Cleek (former commissioner, loser of last year’s Trustee race, and clearly someone with too much time on his hands) reported the Democratic meeting to the comptroller who then sent a letter to the County Commission therefore setting the stage for the fireworks that ensued last week.
When political parties are woven so deep within local politics, these are the shenanigans that are bound to happen. Ideally, all of our county commissioners would run as Independent candidates and have the citizens of Madison County elect the best candidate to represent their district regardless of that candidate’s political affiliation. I know that’s asking too much, though. We have to play the hand we’re dealt and those hands look drastically different depending on whether you’re a Republican or Democrat on the Commission. The Republicans are throwing down straights and flushes on every hand while the Democrats don’t even have an ace.
This all brings us back to the topic of power structures and why Commissioner Mercer’s comment to Chairman Deaton is worth addressing at a deeper level than whether he should’ve said it or not.
There seems to be a badge of honor given to white people who say they don’t see race or say that they’re “colorblind”. They don’t consciously believe that race plays a role in their lives. The reality, however, is that race touches EVERYTHING even if people say it doesn’t. As a white person, if I were to hypothetically say “I don’t see color” or “We all bleed red” it would be another aspect of the privilege that’s afforded to people like me – to white people in America. We can say that because the power structures throughout history have benefited us. On the other hand, those same power structures have oppressed people like Commissioner Mercer. They oppressed them for a long, long time – for centuries and centuries. When Mr. Mercer hurled the word “racist” at the Chairman of a commission whose dominating party (Republican) is vastly white and essentially controls the entire decision making process for the commission, I can’t help but wonder if the power structure hit a little too close to home for him. Everything may not be directly about the color of a person’s skin, but we’re still trying to move out of the shadow of a history that savagely tyrannized people of color in our country. Those dynamics and repercussions don’t course correct in a decade or even a century.
When power is consolidated the way it is on our local commission, distrust will fester. The Madison County Republican Party has done a fabulous job of organizing their party and putting people in place to win elections. I tip my hat to them. But when one party is that powerful and sits on the most powerful governing body in the city or county, it’s important to keep eyes on them and hold them accountable.
The Republican caucus of the Madison County Commission normally meets the Tuesday before each County Commission meeting. These meetings are open to the public, and it’s where a lot of decisions and policies are discussed before they are voted on at the meeting two days later. These meetings normally take place at Town and Country Realtors at 5:00 PM. Citizens invested in Madison County should attend these. I plan to start attending myself. If the Democratic party decides to meet regularly, I’ll attend those, too. The fact is, however, that most County Commissions don’t have caucuses at all, so it makes me wonder why it’s so important for the Republican commissioners to have one here. A Janet Jackson song comes to mind.
At the end of the day, every citizen that pays taxes in Madison County simply wants the best decisions to be made for themselves and their families. They don’t care about political affiliation or who is on what committee as long as everyone in the community feels like they’re represented. I’m not sure that’s the case right now,
In a perfect world, Mr. Mercer wouldn’t have called Mr. Deaton a racist. In a perfect world, he wouldn’t have a reason to.
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