Winona mayor, alderwoman, park official speak on arrest
WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) – When the Mayor of Winona, Aaron Dees, was asked what led to the arrest of a city official at a board meeting, he said this has been ongoing.
“I think it’s been building for quite a while with false accusations,” said Dees.
According to the mayor, tensions have been brewing for almost two years and finally boiled over during Tuesday’s meeting.
“When you’re asked to calm down, bring it back in, let’s all get on the same subject, and that doesn’t happen, and then you call again, and it still doesn’t happen, then the only option I have left is to say I’m asking you to leave the board meeting. Ms. Clark did not want to leave the board meeting. It progressed from there to where she actually had to be made to leave the board meeting,” said Dees.
City Park and Recreations Director and State Director for Grand Slam Sports Tournaments, Mike Narmour, said that the ongoing drama pushed his business out of Winona.
“Who wants to put themselves in that situation? Because she was more or less trying to…she mentioned something about a five-finger discount, people taking money from the gate. Me and my staff let them know that we won’t be doing any more events here until the foreseeable future because we don’t feel comfortable being accused of stuff we’ve been accused of,” said Narmour.
Alderwoman Sylvia Clark said that it is her right as an elected city official to speak what she believes is true, without fear of being silenced.
“It’s been so many people of my color who have been told we could not speak, told we could not vote, told we could not do anything. He was not gonna tell me that I couldn’t speak, and he allowing all those other people to speak. Cause like I said I am a city official and I love doing my job,” said Clark.
Clark didn’t accuse anyone by name but she did mention a key detail that Narmour said revealed the identity of the accused.
“She didn’t ever name any names directly but she did mention a Fanny pack, which the only employee that works out there is Annie Mae Whitehead, who wears a Fanny pack out there while she’s collecting gate money. She might as well named her name by saying that,” said Narmour.
The mayor said his phones have been ringing nonstop, calling for Clark’s resignation.
“I just got off the phone, right here, right here, with another one and this is probably the 18th one today calling for a resignation… Technically, speaking you can not unseat an elected official,” said Dees.
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