Cairo council takes stand against mayor with boycott

~ Mayor Paul Farris believes the council wants to thwart professional attitude toward city business.

A deepening schism between Cairo, Ill., Mayor Paul Farris and the city council erupted this week into open political warfare.

While the council and Farris have been fighting since he took office in 2003, council members said they have generally been willing to fulfill their duties -- sometimes, they said, in spite of Farris.

No more. Beginning with Tuesday's regular meeting, four of the six council members announced a boycott of city meetings. They won't return, they said, until "the dictatorship reign of Mayor Paul Farris" is ended by the Illinois attorney general's office or the U.S. Justice Department.

The four refusing to attend meetings include long-time council members Bobby Whitaker, Linda Jackson and Elbert Purchase as well as Sandra Tarver, who was elected to office along with Farris in 2003.

Farris, on the other hand, believes the council wants to thwart efforts to bring a professional attitude to city business. "It is an absolute insult to everyone's intelligence to have these kind of grammar-school tactics."

If nothing breaks the impasse, voters will decide who wins the battle in the April 2007 elections.

The list of grievances begins from the day Farris took office in May 2003 -- he fired every top city administrator that day -- and extend to a recent council meeting where he announced he had hired five assistants for the city animal control officer.

In between, Farris has put city money in new bank accounts, hired a city attorney at six times the previously approved salary and been sued by numerous former employees and other government entities.

"It is a tragic story at a critical time in the history of this small town," said Preston Ewing, former city treasurer and one of the few fired by Farris who has not sued.

Cairo was once a booming river town. But it has fallen on hard times, losing population and jobs. Farris won election in April 2003 by promising change, defeating 12-year incumbent James Wilson.

Since then, council members said, Farris has operated the city without heeding council restrictions or directives. "It has gotten to the point where he will not acknowledge us as elected officials," Whitaker said. "He wants to focus on past administrations, what they did and didn't do. We are not here for that. We are here to take care of business."

At one fall meeting, Whitaker said, Farris talked for more than an hour about the deficiencies of the past administration. When he would not stop, the council walked out, he said.

But for Farris, an airing of past problems is the key to change. "If I want to spend an hour disclosing information, I will," Farris said. "Anything that goes back to records and mathematics and accuracy, they don't want to hear."

The most heated arguments cover issues of control over city money and jobs. Farris believes large amounts of city money were misspent prior to his tenure; the council accuses him of failing to follow legal restrictions on spending city money.

Farris won a major battle for control of city finances in July when a Williamson County judge threw out felony forgery and official misconduct charges. The allegations stemmed from his decision to open new accounts for the city without council approval.

"That told him he was above the law," Whitaker said. "And that is exactly how he has been acting since that day."

The council won't give Farris' choice for city clerk the authority to write city checks. Former clerk Lorrie Hesselrode believes she is still legally able to write city checks because the council hasn't acted.

Hesselrode is suing Farris over the way he fired her. "The man could have had a smooth transition had he chosen to do that. But he treated people terribly, and none of us had ever done anything to him."

Statements Farris makes about past administrations aren't accurate, Hesselrode said. All the bills were paid and there was money in the bank, she said.

Farris is the one who isn't being professional, she said. Some bills are paid without council authorization while some payments authorized by the council are not made, she said.

"And meanwhile, what little we have left in Cairo is going down the drain," she said.

City jobs are important in a town that is one of the poorest in the state. Whitaker said Farris bullies employees, hiring and firing on whims.

That isn't true, Farris said. Every employee is treated fairly, he said.

And the war will continue because Farris won't surrender.

"I can endure," he said. "Maybe they need to resign."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 ext. 126