Alderman Gregory Robertson wants to share a few clarifications surrounding resolutions on behalf of the city council.
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved for resolutions to come through the city clerk’s office during its Monday meeting.
Mayor Diane Delaware and Alderman Dr. Jack Varner were the only board members who voted in opposition.
But Robertson wanted to clarify that the recent motion does not restrict Delaware from issuing her own resolutions.
“This doesn’t keep the mayor from making any resolutions she wants to from her office,” Robertson told The Herald on Wednesday. “But anything that comes on behalf of the entire board, we want it to come from the city clerk’s office.”
The motion was brought to the table after Robertson said resolutions were given in memory of Yazooans without the signatures of the board.
Resolutions were prepared after the deaths of Coach Andrew Gates and poet Herman Bennett.
The Yazoo Herald incorrectly stated that the board’s signatures were included in those resolutions.
But Robertson said those resolutions only contained Delaware’s signature and not those of the remaining board members.
After hearing of former alderman Clifton Jones’ death, Robertson did not want the same mistake to happen again.
“I then asked during the open meeting at the beginning of January that a resolution be sent to Clifton Jones’ family on behalf of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen,” Robertson said. “As part of record, I asked for it to be done...to make certain that the Board of Mayor and Aldermen be included in the resolution.”
Robertson said he even asked the mayor’s administrative assistant to see the final draft of the resolution in preparation of Jones’ funeral services.
“That didn’t happen,” he said.
Robertson said the resolution in Jones’ memory, once again, did not include the board’s signatures.
Earlier this week, Delaware admitted that she “made a mistake.”
“The resolution only had the signatures of the mayor and the deputy city clerk,” Robertson said. “That is why I wanted to see that anything on behalf of the board comes from the city clerk’s office.”
Robertson said he simply wants to keep the mistake from happening again.
