Alderman speak out on cutting Mayor Howard’s salary

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI)- City leaders in Aberdeen are still at odds over its decision to cut the mayors salary for a second time.

On Tuesday, the board of aldermen unanimously voted to cut mayor Maurice Howard’s salary by $10,000, bringing it down to just over $19,000.

City leaders say the decision was made because Howard has been lacking in his job performance.

Ward 2 Alderman Doug Stone says mayor Howard doesn’t make himself accessible to the public and is hardly ever in his office.

Stone says aside from the meetings, so far this month, Howard has only been at city hall for a total of 16 minutes.

Along with a pay cut, the board also voted for the mayor to return his city issued vehicle and gas card.

Stone says he hopes this serves as a wake up call for the Mayor.

“We are not about bashing the mayor, we want him to come and represent the people and do the job that he was elected to do. Being stewards of the taxpayers money we feel like we have the responsibility that you have someone absolutely does not perform their job, we don’t see how we can pay them,” said Ward 2 Alderman Doug Stone.

Ward 3 Alderman, David Ewing says the board shouldn’t be doing the mayors job.

“For me, I am steel and I know that Alderman Stone is still open on to the mayor because we meet everybody. Right now we need everybody on deck. There is no use of alderman doing with the mayor should do,” said Ewing.

WCBI caught up with mayor Howard to get his thoughts on this entire situation.

The mayor says there’s no requirement saying he has to perform his mayoral duties from his office at city hall.

According to Howard, he’s not bothered by the pay cut and it won’t stop him from continuing to move Aberdeen in the right direction.

However, he’s does say the board is making it hard for him to do his job because they’ve stripped him from everything and other alderman are trying to handle day to day operations instead of him.