Marshall County Post

Marshall County Post, Thursday, June 6, 2024— 5A “Dear Ms. Jones, I looked over the No- tice for the City Council position and realized that I may not have followed protocol with provision of a resume.” Perka added education next, including graduat- ing from Groveton High School in Virginia “a year early in 1972” and attend- ing VirginiaWesleyan Col- lege for one year in 1974- 1975. Directly after col- lege, the email has “1994- 1999” and lists Perka as Owner-Operator of South River Cycles in Edgewa- ter, Maryland.” Next is “1999 - 2009” with fi ve companies. All companies are in Maryland and none contain exact dates of em- ployment. They are: Jail Craft, Inc., Corman Con- struction, Walmart Super- center, Altaquip, Inc., and City Group, Inc. The fi nal part of the email says, “2010-2017 Caregiver to Nancy Jo Platzer Cerebral Palsy pa- tient and good friend. I re- tired at Age 62. Thank you for your time and consid- eration.” “Sincerely, David E. Perka.” Five hours and nine minutes later, in- terviews started. The minutes show Bradford made a motion to appoint Perka and Burns second- ed. Roll Call Vote was 3 -1 with Councilmember Vickie Michael as the “No” vote. Meeting adjourned at 6:12 p.m. On May 6, City Council appointed their choice: The person with- out a list of community involvement, any board memberships, a profes- sional resume, or a list of community service. The person who sent a “resume” after the deadline, typed in the body of an email, and fi ve hours before their inter- view with the Mayor, City Manager, and Council- members. The person with no personal references in this city, county, or state; professional references in this city, county, or state; or job history in this city, county, or state. May 14 was City Coun- cil meeting. Perka was sworn in. Robinson spoke dur- ing Citizen Comments: “I’mone of the candidates. Obviously Mr. Perka was chosen and I congratu- late him. But, I’m also here to thank a couple of people. I want to thank Joe Bradford and Tommy Burns. I’m not going to preach, but God’s in con- trol of everything - what goes on and what’s done. God saw I needed time with my grandchildren and my children. They needed someone else on their list to make sure I wasn’t chosen; so, I thank y’all for that. I thank y’all for calling around and get- ting someone else to run against me. When this po- sition comes open again in 2026 - I’m not sure if I’ll be here but if God’s will- ing, I will be - I may decide to run then. The only part about it is, neither one of y’all will get to vote yes or no for me. So, I appreciate what you’ve done. Thank you for this time.” Burns responded im- mediately, “I would like to respond to Mr. Rob- inson’s comment. I did call around to a couple of people but that was be- fore anybody [um] before we received any applica- tions or anything to see if anybody was interested. It was not to run against anybody.” May 23, LaDelle Smith spoke with The Post to advocate for what she be- lieves in – what is right. That is who she is. The Council’s decision not to appoint Robinson sur- prised her. She came for- ward with this informa- tion because she wants the truth to be known. Smith considered be- ing a Councilmember and went back and forth in her head about it. “The more I thought about it, I decided that I didn’t want to get in- volved in politics. I’mnot a politician. I hadn’t thought much more about it ‘til Tommy called. Now, I’ve known him for a while. He was in the same class as my brother,” she said. Smith added, “When Tommy Burns called me and asked me if I would consider running for City Council, I told him, ‘well yeah I’ve considered it but the more I thought about it, the more I don’t want to.’ Now, this is where I myself brought Ronnie’s name up. When he kept going on about it and was saying he thought I’d be a good fi t for it, I told him I appreciated it; but, I told him I was going to call someone to see if he would put his name in the pot for it. I told him I knew some- one who would be a really good representative for Ward 3. And Tommy said, ‘OK that’s great. Who is it?’ and I said Ronald Rob- inson.” Smith continued, “I told him, ‘I’ve actually got a note right in here in front of me to call him [Robinson] to see if he’ll apply’ and Tommy said, ‘Oh, well we’ve already got a letter of application from him.’ So, I told him, ‘well if that’s the case, then you don’t need me because I wouldn’t run against Ron- ald for anything in the world. You’ve got the per- son you need already.’” This statement con- tradicts Burns’ statement about him only “calling…. before we received any ap- plications.” She told Burns, “As far as I’m concerned, Ronald would be the most fair person you could have. He can represent all people, Black and White. That’s the person I would want representing me.” She said Burns told her to “let him know if she changed her mind” and then asked her about Rob- inson leaving the Hous- ing Authority. For seven years, Smith served on Lewisburg Housing Au- thority Board of Directors. Robinson left his position as Executive Director of Lewisburg Housing Au- thority in 2023 after al- most 20 years. “It was a mess the way they treated him when they let him go. There was some things going on behind the scenes that I wasn’t aware of. We were advised not to talk to him at the time. It ate at me be- cause I’ve known him for a long time and at one point I just went and talked to him. I knew I could get in trouble for doing it but I did it. I just directly asked him a few questions. Now, I didn’t like some of the answers but I knew things weren’t adding up before that” said Smith. Things made sense after their conversation and Smith resigned at the very next board meeting. From 1979-1986, Smith taught Special Edu- cation inMarshall County. She also taught it inMaury County from ‘86 until she retired in ‘09. She was recognized as TEA Distin- guished Classroom Teach- er of the Year for Marshall County, the State of Ten- nessee, and for Maury County (three times). She is a very active member of the Marshall County Retired Teachers’ Asso- ciation. Her fi rst year and a half of teaching was in the original Jones School building when it was one classroom made up with children of all ages with all levels of both physical and mental impairments. Bradford responded to Robinson at the end of May 14 meeting: “I didn’t know the man’s phone number until it came in on the letter of interest. I nev- er called him about this position. I’ve known Mr. Perka for several years. In the course of being around town, with several people I said ‘hey ya know they’re advertising for Ward 3 right now if you live over around in there.’ If he ran with that, he ran with that. But I don’t knowMr. Rob- inson. I don’t have any- thing against him. Same as Mr. Mayberry, that was not anything intended to be against anyone. So, I didn’t appreciate that comment. I think it put a taint on Mr. Perka. I also feel like the thinly veiled attack makes me more con fi dent that we made the right choice.” Perka spoke after him. “[Robinson] has been a very compassionate and kind person to me and to my former girlfriend, Nancy Platzer, bless her heart. He gave us a place to live. I have nothing but respect for the man; and I wish him well in his campaign in 2026 if that’s what he would like to do. I hope to consider him a friend, because he always has been. Thank you.” Most information for this article is public record and is available to the pub- lic. 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Devin is an Administrative Assistant at the Mar- shall County Sheriff’s Office. –Photo by Patty Blackburn 5/12/2024-5/18/2024 Bradley A & Dana L Perry- man to Jacob Isom & Heather Argue, Forrest Trace S/D, Dist 1, $415,000; Joe & Cheri Rowland toKaley Swayze, AustinSwayze, Khristian Schlemmer, Horton Cove S/D, $58,000; Moorehead Family Trust to Caroline Shelby Lewis, TRACT, ¾ Acres, High- way 99, $345,000; J & J homes LLC/Jonathan Gilbert to Christa & Christopher House, Moore- head Survey, 5.10 Acres, Dist 2, $515,000; Linden C Cash to Lyndia Lee & Marcus Scott James, John D Miller S/D, Dist 2, $499,900; Kenneth D Parton Estate to Rod Parton & Greg Parton, Simmons Ridge Road, 12.71 Acres & 27 Acres, Dist 4, $0; King Ayers & Jonah Hendricks Atty in Fact to Samantha K & Rex Tyler Pres- ton, Perryman Investments Sur- vey, 5.12 Acres, $354,900; D R Horton Inc to Katy Adair Cross, Kings Landing S/D, Lot 46, $234,990; James Lewis Dixon Jr, Onedia PDixon, James Lewis Dixon, Onedia Patricia Dixon to Rae Ann Carlucci, River Forest S/D, $383,000; James C & Jo- sephine W Anderson to Josh V and Wendy D Tkac Family Trust, TRACT, $0; Kimberly Dawn & Michael E Turner to Jordan W & Rachel G Turner, Adkins Acres Survey, 1.53 Acres, Dist 8, $185,000; D R Horton Inc to Jennifer Renee Starkey, Kings Landing S/D, Lot 65, $248,010; Joshua Doggett to Aaron Nun- ley/Ellington Inc, Thick Road, .5 Acres, $40,000; Mc Neese Properties LLC to Ronnie D Wright, Ewing Street, Dist 3, $100,000; Margrett L Aymett to Dara Sanders &Deep- ak Krasner, Forest Hills Addition S/D, Dist 3, $290,000; Patricia L & William T Pitt Jr to Karen & Bradley Barksdale, John Al- len Road, 5.02 Acres, Dist 6, $300,000; Ashley & Roger D Sanders Jr to William H Coble Jr, Simmons Ridge Road, 9.99 Acres, Dist 4, $115,000; Sue Newsom & Dennis Newsom Atty in Fact to James & Lindsay D Sartain, Brown Shop Road, 8.11 Acres, $450,000; Gregory & Tara ColleenWhaley to James & Diane Kendrick, Eagleville Pike, 7.70 Acres, $310,000; Halie D & Kevin C Cox to Thomas Tu- lipano, Winns Crossing S/D, $345,000. Council Continued from Page 1 7UHH 7ULPPLQJ 5HPRYDO PROFESSIONAL FREE ESTIMATES 7UHH 5HPRYDO 7UHH 7ULPPLQJ 6WXPS *ULQGLQJ /LFHQVH LQVXUHG A-1 931-359-3113 931- 993-9959 &RPPHUFLDO 5HVLGHQWLDO 6LWH 3UHS 8WLOLW\ ,QVWLOODWLRQ (URVLRQ &RQWURO 'HPROLWLRQ $QG 0RUH CHARLES HOLLINGSWORTH Plumbing & Electrical Service Water Lines • Drain Lines Leaky Faucets • Water Heaters • Toilets • Plumbing & Electrical Repairs & Fixture Upgrades Heating & Cooling Repair & Installation FREE ESTIMATES 931-675-4978 30+Years • Experience Reasonable Prices 410 Franklin Ave. • Lewisburg Tenn.37091 WRIGHT FARM Topsoil Screened/Unscreened Delivery Wayne Wright agcwright@bellsouth.net 1698 McBride Road Lewisburg, TN 37091 931-580-5900 Marshall County Imagination Library First Commerce Bank supports the community’s youngest readers with a donation to the Marshall County Imagination Library. Executive vice-presi- dent David Delk presents a check to Ginger Hardi- son, a member of the MCIL board. 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