The Mississippi State Auditor’s office is conducting an investigation in Vaiden on the previous board and mayor, Mayor Stella Washington-Bell told those in attendance at Vaiden’s monthly board meeting Tuesday night.
She said there’s not much she can say on the matter except that the town’s administration is cooperating with the investigation.
“Our people see these men carrying out boxes, big men – well, little man because he wasn’t very big – coming in here with guns and badges,” she said. “They know that something is going on and we want to be transparent.”
The details surrounding the investigation or what prompted the State Auditor’s office to investigate Vaiden have not yet been disclosed.
Logan Reeves with the State Auditor’s office says they are not allowed to confirm nor deny if the office is conducting an investigation. He did say that investigations result from tips and not directly from audit findings.
He said those tips are then taken to an attorney to authenticate if there is something to move forward on or if this is just someone wanting to seek revenge because they do not like a person. He said the attorney determines if there is enough evidence to proceed forward.
Reeves said once evidence is established, a case agent is assigned. He said investigations can take a matter of weeks or a few years, there’s no way to determine how long it will take.
VBC’s Usage of the Gymnasium
Kimberly Smith, co-leader of Vaiden Baptist Church’s youth ministry, said they learned in the paper that board members were not aware that the church was using the gymnasium on Wednesday nights. She said they didn’t want it to seem like Vaiden Baptist did anything out of order.
Smith said former mayor Mel Hawthorne knew they were using the gym because they’d asked permission. She said from her knowledge, the board was made aware because it was around the same time as the Vaiden Heritage Festival, which was held in the spring of 2021 because it was postponed.
“It may have been an FYI, but it was not something that was voted upon by the board,” Alderwoman Lesia Hemphill said. “And by your letter, you said “our” so it doesn’t seem like it something that’s open to the public. How do I know that I can come?”
“You can. We wouldn’t be God’s people if we didn’t,” Smith said. “We open it up to everyone. We’ve had children in the neighborhood who have come and joined us. We have a devotion, we feed them and we have some organized activity. Of course we wouldn’t want them playing basketball around us while we’re having this but there’s always some sort of organized event.”
Smith also said that if any of the board members wanted to worship with Vaiden Baptist, they were more than welcomed to come.
Washington-Bell said that she told Smith and Vaiden Baptist’s pastor when she spoke with them that the board decided to raise the rent and to charge them a non-profit fee.
At their December meeting, the board decided to raise the rent of the Vaiden Gym from $300 to $350 to cover the cost of fogging the gym after an event. The board also decided to charge Vaiden Baptist half of that cost at $175 a week.
“Oh, so that was the decision of the board?” Smith asked.
“Yes,” Washington-Bell said.
Daycare Donation
Kids R Us IV Director Patricia Ghoston presented the Vaiden Board of Aldermen with a cash donation of $500, but not before explaining a slight ongoing tiff between some members of the board and the daycare.
During the November meeting, Washington-Bell informed the board of an executive decision she made because of parents leaving the daycare, located on Highway 51 just down from the post office. She said parents were either pulling into Highway 51 or they were electing to turn around at a neighboring home by the daycare – and neither was safe.
So, she made the decision to send a worker to place a temporary fix for the daycare as a public safety issue.
Ghoston thanked the board for their quick action but said she didn’t know it would cause so much “commotion” for the driveway to be fixed.
“You think I want a parent to lose a child? I’ve lost a child and I don’t want a parent to feel the way that I feel,” Alderwoman Lesia Hemphill said. “But, there are rules and regulations that we have to follow and we cannot go onto private property.”
Washington-Bell said the town didn’t misuse funds to do the work, she said the dirt was from leftover work from another project, unrelated to the town and the agency dumped the “dirt used from the highway” onto a pile at the gym.
“We only used that,” she said. “And the rotor, we are renting it for our highway. And he didn’t do it on company time. He did it after hours.”
After consulting with their attorney, the board approved to accept the cash donation of $500.
“Maybe that money can be used to rent the rotor again,” Ghoston said.
