Published: March 28, 2009 11:04 pm      

The winds of change for the city of Meridian

 

First, let me congratulate Mayor John Robert Smith on his (16) year tenure as Mayor of this great city.  We appreciate your contributions and may God Bless You in your future endeavors. 

  Now that the winds of change in leadership has begun to kick up this spring; it is imperative we prepare ourselves for the ragweed and pollen which will dress-up as potential leaders, which could eventually make us sick.

The jocking has clearly begun, and it appears the old guard (good old boys) associated with the previous Administration has, or will be camouflaged as supporters of Mayoral candidates for change, all the while trying to keep certain systems in place. This time the people won’t be deceived; the issues of this city must and will be clearly discussed. 

The candidates who have spoken in public, primarily has spoken of issues relating to the interest of those who economically has a vested interest in seeing certain city projects continued. Primarily for people in the Northern part of the city or residence in the county!

The candidate who will seek this office will not be able to talk about how dirty our streets are, or how unsafe inner-city communities are. We are all aware of those speeches. What about current city issues such as leadership to break the good-ole boys grip off our education system? That is first and foremost, or the Attorneys who has controlled certain facets of our education, and city government without anyone ever challenging or changing the monopoly certain law-firms in this city has established. 

Mayor Smith’s appointees on the Meridian Public School District School Board should go ahead and resign. By the way, did you know Mayor Smith has allowed George Meyers (term expired February 2008) and Fred Wile (term expired February 2009) to remain on the board, and has not seek interest from either the council or the city residents on replacing them. No in-put or information is deceptive by nature! 

We all know the ($19.5 million dollars) was divided up into CONTRACTS for brick and mortar serving the need for a new building; but what about the ongoing situation facing our children in education. I said it then and I will say it now, “You never build a house from the top down,” neither do you build an education system from the top down! 

What about the economic conditions the majority of city residences face? (Average family income for city residences is less than $17,000 per/year)  What can a tax break do to help them? What about health care or social conditions, like drugs, teenage pregnancy, gang affiliations etc? What about real good paying jobs EMBDC was suppose to be after? 

What about the continuous cycle of residence that was suppose to use public housing as a stop over, for future home ownership? Other than the recent annexation; when was the last time the City of Meridian built a sub-division for potential home-owners?

What about working with neighborhood churches providing assistance and resources to take-back their neighborhoods? All city issues which this time around will be discussed!

  These are just some of the issues, we the citizens of the City of Meridian want to be hearing from potential Mayoral Candidates!

 

Respectively,

Rev. Randle L. Jennings