A decision on a citizen ethics complaint against Waycross City Commissioner Katrena Felder will be revealed Friday, December 13 after another postponement for lack of a quorum for the Waycross Ethics Board.
The most recent continuation resulted from board member Martin Gray res igning his seat during the panel’s meeting Friday morning, December 6 in City Hall. Gray exited during the call for discussion following a motion for prosecution of Felder in city court for the violation.
The complaint of citizen Clayton Nelson alleges Felder misused her city issued credit card and also attended a partisan event while on a city business trip.
Gray’s heated departure began a series of events over the next 30 minutes that saw:
• Gray handed acting City Attorney Huey Spearman an ethics complaint against the city for oversight of its credit card process;
• a recess in the proceeding for Spearman to contact Mayor Michael-Angelo James to appoint an alternate to replace Gray;
• the meeting reconvened to learn Tim Peacock, who was present at the meeting, had been selected by Mayor James as the alternate for Gray’s seat;
• Peacock asked for additional time to get up to speed with other board members in the form of an executive session to be held at another time;
• Board Chair Shawn Taylor adjourned the meeting to reconvene at 5 p.m., Friday. City Code stipulates a quorum for an ethics board is five members, rather than a simple majority (at least three) of the board’s membership.
The board’s first attempt at making its decision public on December 2 also was postponed for lack of a quorum when member Felecia Brown wasn’t present for the roll call. Alternate Dr. Earl Martin was subsequently appointed by Mayor James to replace Brown after it was determined her absence was a longterm issue.
Friday’s hearing did reveal the board viewed an ethics violation had occurred. That vote was 5-0 on the motion by member Lorene Regulus and second from Albert Bussey.
Felder
That brought the proceeding to the penalty phase, which could have been any of six items according to the City Charter, Spearman said. They are:
• no admonishment, no action;
• public reprimand;
• formal reprimand;
• public censure;
• recommendation for termination, resignation or recall;
• recommendation of prosecution in city court.
After Taylor read the possible outcomes, she called for any motions.
Dr. Martin moved for a public reprimand, but there was no second. Bussey then recommended prosecution to which Regulus quickly seconded.
Taylor’s call for discussion on the motion followed leading to the chaos.
Gray rose from his seat saying he came into the process viewing it as “something that would benefit the citizens of this city.”
However, he said he’d had “huge red flags” with the process and all of his concerns went unheeded. Gray said he had filed multiple perjury complaints from the process which went unheard.
Talking while approaching Spearman, Gray said he was “pulling (himself) from the board completely and filing an official ethics complaint against the city for no oversight for any of its credit card process.”
He then handed Spearman some papers and turned to leave.
Spearman responded by saying, “Mr. Gray, you realize if you leave this board will not have a quorum?”
“Pull in an alternate,” Gray said as he headed toward the door.
Astonished along with the nearly two dozen gathered for the meeting, Spearman suggested a recess in order to contact Mayor James, which led to Peacock’s appointment and the subsequent continuation.
Before adjourning, Taylor offered an apology to the gathering.
“I deeply apologize for any inconvenience this has caused,” she said. “I hope you all come back to our meeting next Friday.”
