City Council to meet Tuesday, discuss updates to lynching resolution

Published 12:00 am Sunday, August 19, 2018

By Liz Moomey
liz.moomey@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council will meet Tuesday to consider two resolutions about the 1906 lynchings in Salisbury.

The council also will discuss a grant for Fire Station 6 and a Department of Justice grant for the Salisbury Police Department.

The resolution of reconciliation, introduced by Mayor Al Heggins at the council’s Aug. 7 meeting, will be reviewed with revisions made by the mayor and recommendations of Professor Claude Clegg of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of “Troubled Ground.”

Other council members have drafted a resolution to be discussed Tuesday. Other resolutions may be added at the meeting.

Mayor Pro Tem David Post wants the council to consider proposed changes to the agenda rules. At the last meeting, Post questioned Heggins about rearranging the order of the agenda to move up consideration of the lynching resolution to allow for public comment.

Post and council members Brian Miller and Karen Alexander voiced concerns that Heggins had added the resolution to the agenda the previous Friday without the knowledge of all council members.

The draft agenda rule states: “For a regular meeting, a request by a member of City Council to have an item of business placed on the draft agenda must have the agreement of at least one other council member and be received by the city manager at least five days before the date of the meeting.”

A proposed rule on the adoption of the agenda states: “As its first order of business at each meeting, the council shall review the draft agenda, make whatever revisions it deems appropriate, including the order in which agenda items will be heard and considered, and adopt a formal agenda for the meeting by majority vote of members present.”

A proposed rule on agenda items from members of the public states: “If a member of the public wishes to request that the council include an item on its regular meeting agenda, he or she must submit the request to the city manager by the deadline of specified 13(a)(c) whereupon the city manager shall notify all members of council of any such request. Any such request shall be placed on the agenda if at least two council members indicate their support to the city manager.”

The council also will consider adopting a resolution approving the financing bids for Fire Station 6 and hear a report about a SAFER grant for the station.

The City Council will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday at 217 S. Main St.