Charges rebuked by councilman, official records
Rodney Patterson and Tamberlyn Tanner used times set aside for comments at the December 10 McCaysville Council meeting to lash out at Mayor Thomas Seabolt.
Seabolt was elected to his third term as mayor when he defeated Patterson by an almost two-to-one margin in the city’s November election.
Tanner sought a seat on the city council in the same election, but received the lowest number of votes among eight candidates. She most recently served as president of the Copper Basin Business Association, which she announced in the meeting had been dissolved.
Patterson, serving at his last regular meeting, used the time for his council member report to levy his accusations. He said he needed to clear his conscience of some things that had been on his mind.
He first said the mayor had turned in $2,055 in gas receipts to be reimbursed by the city, and broke down how many miles that would represent.
Councilman Richard Wagner spoke up and said he himself turned in an expense report for reimbursements, and that the charter allowed reimbursements for city business.
“I don’t think it’s being abused,” Wagner said of the reimbursements.
Patterson said no city employees were licensed to drive the city’s dump truck and pull the trailer and equipment. He said employees were driving a vehicle requiring a CDL (commercial drivers license) without a license to drive. Patterson said he had raised this concern before, but no one did anything.
Wednesday, the day after the meeting, Police Chief Michael Earley said he had confirmed one water plant employee did, in fact, have a CDL and another had the necessary license to drive the truck, but not pull the trailer.
Patterson expressed anger over the fact $11,500 had been spent to cut trees leading to the water plant without an estimate of the cost presented to the council.
A review of city council minutes showed Patterson had made the motion to cut the trees.
Patterson also complained that when the restrooms at the city park were renovated, the number of toilets in the men’s restroom was reduced from six to four, five toilets and one urinal to three toilets and one urinal. He also said the bathrooms were not heated and could not be used in the winter although more money was approved to do the work than was spent. He also said he had to make sure work was done correctly during the project.
“I’ve done my duty here. I appreciate everybody’s support,” Patterson concluded.
Tanner spoke during the public comments session, after announcing the business association had taken a vote to dissolve.
She asked Earley if he was sworn to protect the public, to which he replied he was. She then asked how he could do that and take care of all the other duties the mayor assigned. She asked if he received a pay raise for his other duties. Earley did not respond to Tanner.
Tanner then accused the mayor of not doing his job by having Earley find out information the mayor should be collecting and then report the information to Seabolt.
Seabolt spoke up in disagreement with Tanner’s charges, countering that he was doing his job.