The Greenwood City Council met in regular session on Monday, July 10. All members of the council were present, including Daniel McDaniel, Rod Powell, Roger Rainwater, Tim Terry, A.C. Brown, and Ralph Meeker. Also present, Mayor Doug Kinslow, City Clerk/Treasurer Sharla Derry, and City Attorney Travis Plummer.
After the approval of the June meeting minutes, the council moved on to other items on the agenda, including the citizen forum.
At that time, City Clerk/Treasurer Sharla Derry addressed the council, seeking their consideration to remove the current signage at the Cuthbert Bridge on Greenwood’s City Lake and replace it “to reflect the full elected body of the city of Greenwood.”
Derry stated that McDaniel proceeded with the sign that excluded her, even though he was asked not to install it until it was corrected.
“The plaque purchased was with city funds and should not display only the select ones that were chosen by Mr. McDaniel…attempts were made by myself and by the mayor to correct it…Mr. McDaniel resorted to name calling such as childish, manipulative and self-centered…I have faithfully been employed here for 25 years. I do not understand why I am being treated this way. I find it appalling, extremely disrespectful, and an insult to my position. I am a part of this body…it (the plaque) is incomplete and should be corrected.”
Derry acknowledged that the mayor had offered to purchase a second plaque to be installed on the opposite side of the bridge to include her, but that it “doesn’t get there for me.”
“Mr. McDaniel’s actions to me during this process are unacceptable…it is my hope that this body, will do what is right.”
Councilman McDaniel then offered a response to Derry’s comments.
“As you all know this was a very long process…the plaque thing, I thought, would be the most simple pieces of the whole half-million-dollar bridge. It turned out to be very complicated…very expensive, $5,000 for the two plaques. My original intent was to have one plaque, a simple thing on a stand…but the printing company says you can’t put all of that on one plaque…But, yes, I sent it to Casey (Craig – Parks Director) and had him proof it. I wanted everybody’s name on it. Travis Plummer (City Attorney) is an elected official, Tom Marsh (Finance Director) spent a lot of time and effort on this, I thought Tom Marsh’s name should be on it. If it’s about elected officials, Mike Hamby and Lance Terry were here all of last year, so there’s a lot of people that did things and I wanted their name to be on there (the plaque). It was not about Sharla, I never picked Sharla out of the crowd to keep out…The printers said ‘you can’t do that, you’re going to have to make two plaques.’ They (the printers) sent it back and said here’s what will fit, one is smaller than the other, and so I just said, this (the plaque) is about this project, so I am going to record people who were apart of the project and try to get them all on there, but there’s some I can’t get on there. So, I never singled Sharla out. I never intended to single anybody out. Yes, Sharla called the printing company and asked them to put her name on the plaque and the printing company called me and told me…I told Sharla I thought she was being childish to go behind my back and call the printing company. I still think that, but I don’t care. I told the mayor, I did what I did, I did the best I could, I wasn’t trying to offend anybody about anything, it was a big project. It was about the Cuthbert family and this was all a black cloud over it, over one individual…If you guys want to go redo the plaque, I told the mayor, I’ve done my part, I am turning it over to the parks department and the city. If you want to replace the plaque that is fine with me. I have no problem with whose name you want to put on it…”
Following McDaniel’s response, other members of the council were provided an opportunity to ask questions or make comments. However, there were none. Mayor Kinslow offered the following statement on the matter:
“…To reiterate, I have suggested that we purchase another plaque and place it, Daniel knows this, Sharla knows this, I’ve talked to Tom about it, my suggestion is…I think it is fitting that we purchase another plaque with all the elected officials on it, including Mr. Travis. That’s my consensus.”
Derry followed up with exhibits to the council from Tom Cuthbert from years past when she first ran for office, offering his support and referring to her as the “jewel of Greenwood.”
No official action was taken by the council but did reach a consensus to allow the mayor to get a price for purchasing another plaque.
The Cuthbert Bridge project was a project of passion by Tom Cuthbert (son of Dr. Thomas and Ernestine Cuthbert) and Daniel McDaniel, who volunteered countless hours spearheading the project in a span over a year and a half.
-View the complete council meeting-
