POLICE CHIEF STEPS IN AT SC COUNCIL MEETING

SCOTT CITY -- A man upset with two Scott City Council members was escorted from the meeting by the chief of police Monday night.

Orley Jackson was led out of the meeting by Scott City Police Chief Danny Clubb after Jackson heatedly accused council members J.T. Gulley and Marsha Zimmerman of doing a background search on him. Scott City Mayor Jerry Cummins repeatedly told Jackson to end his discussion and sit down but Jackson refused.

Cummins ordered Clubb to remove Jackson, who said he would not leave unless he was arrested. With the situation coming to a head, Cummins out of his seat and coming around the council table, Clubb told Jackson he was under arrest for disturbing the peace at a public meeting. Jackson allowed himself to be led out of the room.

Gulley and Zimmerman both said after the meeting that they had looked into a one-acre parcel of land just outside the Scott City limit that Jackson was requesting a water hookup for. Zimmerman said she had called the county recorder's office about the date Jackson had purchased the land. She said she wanted to look at the minutes of the city meetings to confirm an agreement Jackson claimed to have with the city regarding water hookup.

Both council members said they discovered Jackson did not own the land, a claim Jackson refutes. The Jacksons say the land is in their child's name.

Betty Jackson, Orley's wife, later said he was taken into the police department and released. She said she thought city meetings were open forums where the public was allowed to speak.

In other council business:

-- Council members approved a 5 cent tax increase for the 1996-97 budget year to be used toward reducing the city's debt.

The tax rate of $1.52 per $100 of assessed property value was approved without opposition at either the council meeting or the public hearing.

-- The council agreed to pay Donna Lutz of the Country Club subdivision, $1,817.52 for damages she received from a sewer backup into her home. Lutz initially filed a claim for payment in March but it was denied by the city's insurance company, which claimed the city was not at fault.

A recent survey of the sewer system determined that 238 feet of the city's main sewer line servicing that area was half the diameter it should be.

Council member Norman Brant said Lutz's claim was filed around the same time as one the city had already paid to a homeowner with a similar case.

The measure was approved with only Gulley voting against. He said he felt approving this bill would encourage more claims against the city.

"We're opening ourselves up for a whole lot of bills," he said. "If we pay one we've got to pay them all."