Rough start to new term for Lowndes County Supervisors

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – There was no honeymoon period for the newly sworn-in Lowndes County Board of Supervisors.

The second item on the board’s agenda caused a heated discussion and led to one Supervisor walking out.

The issue was choosing a Board President for the new term. The board’s longest serving member, District Five’s Leroy Brooks, nominated the second most senior member, Jeff Smith from District Four for the post.

That motion died on a 3 to 2 vote, with new members, District One’s Matt Furnari and District Three’s Andy Williamson, voting with District One’s Trip Hairston.

Smith, in turn, nominated Brooks. That move died on the same 3 to 2 vote.

Furnari nominated Hairston, who served as Board President for the last 3 years of the previous term.

When the matter was open for discussion, Brooks expressed his displeasure at how he believed the new members and Hairston had gone about the process.

Brooks said Hairston had come to him and told him that the new members wanted to keep him, Hairston, as board president, essentially saying that the move was predetermined.

There was also some back and forth between Brooks and Furnari.

When the dust settled, Hairston was named president on a 3 to 2 vote, and Brooks excused himself from the rest of the meeting.

Hairston said that it’s part of the give and take of politics.

“There were 3 of us among the table who did not want to make a change with the Board President. We voted to do so, and that’s the way it goes, and I find it somewhat disheartening that people would think that decision was made on race, and it wasn’t.”… ” When you’re an elected official, you win some; you lose some; you compromise, and you try to work together with the people you work with for the good of the district you serve, and for the good of the county.”

District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith was voted in as Board Vice President..