Cairo mayor seeks ouster of council

~ In response, the leader of the boycotting council members repeated his call for Paul Farris to resign.

CAIRO, Ill. -- The deadlock gripping city government continued Thursday when only one of six council members attended a special meeting called by Mayor Paul Farris.

When the meeting dissolved, unable to conduct business for lack of attendance, Farris announced a petition drive to ask a federal judge to declare that boycotting council members have abandoned their posts.

The boycott leader, councilman Bobby Whitaker, responded by repeating the call for Farris to resign.

"It is not going to happen," Farris said. "I took an oath of office seriously, and I am going to serve the public."

Farris also sent Whitaker a letter demanding that he relinquish a city-owned gun assigned to Whitaker as part of his oversight duties for the Cairo Police Department. Whitaker refused to turn over the weapon when the letter was hand-delivered by police chief John Bosecker.

The city gun held by Whitaker must be turned over today, Farris said in his letter to the councilman. In the letter, Farris said Whitaker carries the gun concealed and does not have firearms training certification. Any injury resulting from use of the gun, he said, could result in the city being held liable.

The mayor is wrong, Whitaker said. He has the necessary training and the certificate to prove it.

"I am more qualified than the people he has on the streets right now," Whitaker said of the city's current police force.

The latest crisis in Cairo began when councilmembers Whitaker, Linda Jackson, Elbert Purchase and Sandra Tarver announced Dec. 27 that they would not attend any regular city council meetings until Farris quit. The meeting Thursday was a special meeting called to approve a grant to repair sewers on George and 14th streets.

The deadline for approving the grant is today. The dissident council members called their own meeting for today, with the grant and other items -- including a restriction on the mayor's power to initiate lawsuits -- on the agenda.

The only council member to attend Thursday's meeting was Carolyn Ponting, who said the rift between Farris and the council was upsetting and unwelcome.

"I don't know what to do anymore," Ponting said. "Most of you are my lifelong friends. God help us all."

The meeting today will be an illegal meeting, Farris said, because it includes issues that should wait for the next regular meeting on Tuesday.

The issues included on today's agenda are all legitimate and the meeting will be a legal meeting, Whitaker said. Council members need to take care of important issues and must use special meetings because Farris won't allow them to place anything on agendas when he controls them, Whitaker said.

"The mayor is trying to cloud it all up and avoid the issue at hand," Whitaker said. "We need to audit the minutes, audit the books and see how much money is being illegally spent."

The core of the council members' complaint against Farris accuses him of ignoring council directives, hiring employees and giving raises without consent and diverting city funds from approved bank accounts.

"He wants to treat people as a tool to be used," Whitaker said. "If we cannot carry out our job, we cannot do any good for the community."

Farris contends the council oversteps its authority, ignores poor money management under past administrations and has fought him since he became mayor in 2003 as he sought to control city spending.

The petition circulating against the council members asks Farris to issue an administrative order withholding pay and benefits for the council members who decline to attend meetings. The petition also calls on Farris to seek a judicial determination that the council seats have been abandoned.

Petition circulators include Suzy Holland, a lifelong friend of Farris' wife. The power struggle is politically corrosive, Holland said, with "everybody playing games."

When the petition is presented, Farris said he will seek a federal court order declaring the seats vacant.

The city government structure in Cairo was established by a civil rights consent agreement in 1980. That document, however, does not cover housekeeping matters, former city treasurer Preston Ewing said. Ewing helped draft the agreement, which was designed to overcome white domination of city government.

"All the federal courts did was redesign the form of government," Ewing said. "They don't have continuing jurisdiction."

State law anticipates that council members will abandon seats by providing methods to fill them. But the law is silent on what constitutes abandonment, said Larry Frang, assistant director of the Illinois Municipal League.

The issue of abandonment in Cairo would likely be determined by state courts, he said. Short of using the courts, there is no method under state law for removing a mayor or council members. Council members don't have the power to impeach Farris, and residents don't have the power to initiate a recall petition, Frang said.

Cairo is one of the poorest towns in Illinois. A long economic decline has left it with about 20 percent of its peak population, and 33 percent of the 3,600 remaining residents live below the poverty line.

Only 21 percent of the city's $2.6 million budget for the current year comes from local taxes.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126