Rogers gets no support
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, May 8, 2012
After weeks of discussion about mileage and expense reimbursement, Opp city councilman and mayoral candidate Jimmy Rogers made a motion that would require the council and mayor to report expense statements monthly, but it died for lack of a second.
“Anything over $1,000 would have to be brought up for approval at the next council meeting,” Rogers said.
Rogers’ counterparts didn’t agree with him on the issue, and no one moved to second the motion.
“None of us have that kind of expenses,” councilman Mickey Crew said.
Councilman Oren Stewart agreed.
“I, personally, don’t see the need for it,” he said.
“We’ll it’s just a pet peeve of mine,” Rogers said.
Rogers first brought the issue up a council meeting in early April, claiming Opp Mayor H.D. Edgar recently had been paid $7,000 in expenses.
City Clerk Connie Smith said the mayor had not been paid for his mileage in a long time.
According to city hall financial records, the last check cut for mileage to Edgar was on July 15, 2010, for $7,145.50, which was for mileage in the 18 months from Jan. 2, 2009, to June 10, 2010.
At the time, Rogers said his concern was that the city not cut such a large check.
“I don’t get paid because there are a lot of months the city can’t afford to pay me,” Edgar said.
Edgar, Rogers and John Bartholomew have all announced they are running for mayor in Opp’s Aug. 28 municipal election.