Todd Paris, Salisbury Attorney and Candidate for Salisbury City Council
♦ An interesting phenomena has occurred at the last two City Council meetings. Citizen Carolyn Logan was called out of order and prevented from speaking twice about the money Mayor Karen Alexander earned off the design and construction administration of the Fibrant building (Customer Service Building).
As soon as Carolyn Logan brought up that Alexander received over $470,000 in checks from the city two meetings ago, Councilman Brian Miller and Mayor Pro Tem Maggie Blackwell called her out of order. Mayor Karen Alexander explained Carolyn was out of order because Carolyn was lying. Oh?
At this week’s meeting as Carolyn Logan was getting ready to bring up that she was not lying about the Mayor receiving over $470,000 in checks from the city, she was again called out of order, shushed, and threatened to be removed by the police.
The problem is Carolyn Logan wasn’t lying. Copies of the checks paid to Alexander totaling $470,426.69 can be seen by clicking here:
https://app.box.com/s/jp3klqaximsd02jzl8ptlczystw5kl7z
This is the worse abuse of power. An elected board claiming a citizen is lying when she is not and preventing her from defending her statements as true.
It also makes me wonder why Karen, Maggie, and Brian would take such an obvious public risk on video to stop discussion of these documented checks. There has to be a back story.
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Carolyn Logan, M.S. and Public Commentator
♦ What follows are the comments prepared by Carolyn Logan for August 15, 2017, shared with her permission. Mayor Karen Alexander ordered Ms. Logan to be escorted out of the City Council Meeting when she stated that the Council violated her 1st Amendment rights during the last meeting (Video of Tuesday’s event can be seen here):
“It’s totally disappointing to know the council that governs this city not only makes the truth out to be a lie but also breaks state laws concerning public commentary. Last council meeting I was once again the victim of having my Constitutional rights violated. Brian Miller whom has no authority whatsoever to call anyone out of line, made that mistake two weeks ago. The statement that Brian made, “It should have been done long time ago” most definitely has merit. A long time ago citizens should have been made aware that Brian was the Chairman on the Empire Hotel Committee and had access to a bad Phase One Environmental report and asbestos report before DSI purchased the building. What should have been done long time is for the council to be transparent and learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, and even though the truth hurts, brush it off and accept it.
After listening to some remarks during City Council breaks when mikes were not cut off, (thanks to the RFP) I heard some remarks I would like to address. Both remarks were from David Post.
“They thought it was entertaining.” And “Maggie, thanks. We had a good laugh out there.” There is absolutely nothing comical about what is going on in this city. There is nothing to laugh about when people are killing each other, an innocent child’s murder has not been solved, and people can’t work at convenience stores without the threat of being killed for some money. What is entertaining about that? I caution David Post not to be one way when speaking with me and someone totally different when speaking with council members. Two faces doesn’t look good on anyone. Don’t be a person that straddles the fence. Stand for what you know is right and don’t be a person to go along in order to get along.
I have come to council meeting numerous of times and have been disrespected and have been called out of line when I was not out of line. I have been told I was breaking a rule which was not actually a rule. But what got to me two weeks ago was the Mayor blatantly calling me a lie. I have caught the Mayor plenty of times making untrue statements and I told her before council that she was not an honest person. I never called her a lie. Now that I have been called a lie, I want to ask the Mayor to take a polygraph. Let the citizens know who is being honest. A polygraph will determine whether the liar is the one who makes public comments or the one sitting in the Mayors seat. Of course the wannabe sidekick will say it’s not necessary but don’t the citizens deserve to know? Transparency, right?
I want the council to please explain to the citizens how I was out of line for revealing something that is a matter of public record. The evidence I presented at the last council meeting before I was so rudely interrupted was based on facts supplied by the City of Salisbury on a FOIA request. I told the truth and council went berserk in effort to quiet me and keep the citizens in the dark. Brian interrupted and called me out of line. Maggie looked like a deer in headlights as she grabbed the gavel and the Mayor, the center of it all gaveled me and called me a lie all because she doesn’t want the citizens to know she billed the city $190,000.00 over the budget and has profited from Fibrant probably more than anyone. And it’s not that I dislike the Mayor. I dislike that she is not honest. I dislike that she is comfortable in covering things up. I dislike that she portrays herself to be a person whom she is not. I dislike that she put a city in an uproar and portrayed one demographic of people as rowdy and unstable and had an entire city on high alert wasting tax payers’ money with planes and extra patrol. I dislike the fact that she felt comfortable enough to refer to the African America people as “you people” yet joins hands at the MLK celebrations singing “We shall overcome.” Nah! I don’t dislike the Mayor. I dislike what she stands for and she stands for a lot that is wrong with this city.
There is an issue with the heroin and the opiate addicts. I’m not getting into the difference of the heroin/opiate addicts as compared to the crack addicts because everybody already knows. Numerous of people overdosing in the city. Some deaths have occurred. Some of the overdoses have been witnessed by kids. A man and woman overdosed on Main Street with a five year old in the car not knowing what to do. Can you imagine if that child had darted across the center of Main Street to get some help? But we handle it differently don’t we? We revive these overdosed addicts and send them on their way like all is good when all is not good and until we stop denying it, stop trying to cover it up and own it for what it is, there will always be an issue.
We have all of this going on in Salisbury. There has been no decrease in crime; yet we are complacent to go pray around the wrong tree. I am curious as to what any of the tree praying folk have done to help with race relations. The last thing I want to do is alarm citizens, but the crime here is so rampant that citizens should take precautions and be aware of their surroundings. I challenge Chief Stokes to tell me all crime is reported because I know for a fact it is not. The citizens deserve to know.”
Carolyn Logan:
