Aldermen replace 3 CMU commissioners
CANTON — Aldermen voted in a special meeting Wednesday morning to override Mayor William Truly's veto and will move ahead with the removal of three Canton Municipal Utilities commissioners.
The 5-0 vote came just one day after the three now-recalled CMU commissioners voted to fire both CMU General Manager Stephen Thompson and Eric Gilkey, who also represents Ward 6 on the Board of Alderman.
The latest CMU controversy began last week when the CMU board voted 3-2 to hire Richard Jackson, a first cousin of the board's Vice Chairman Isiac Jackson as its new Chief Financial Officer at an annual salary of $100,000.
The Board of Aldermen convened Monday and voted to replace the three CMU Commissioners who voted to approve the hire — L.C. Slaughter, Isiac Jackson and Cleotha Williams. But on Tuesday morning, Canton Mayor William Truly used his executive power to veto that motion.
Later that afternoon, the board reconvened and voted again to remove the three commissioners. Truly vetoed that motion as well, and the CMU board promptly fired Gilkey, who had voted in favor of removing them, and Thompson.
Truly was absent from Wednesday morning's meeting, as was Ward 1 Alderman Rodriquez Brown. In their absence, the board nominated Ward 7 Alderman Lafayette Wales to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. The vote to override Truly's veto was unanimous among the other five aldermen in attendance.
"I think it's positive to see that we were all kind of on the same page on this," Ward 3 Alderman Les Penn said. "You don't see that very often. I think what made us so determined was the firing of Stephen (Thompson) and Eric (Gilkey)."
Reached by phone Wednesday, Gilkey declined to comment on the situation. He has worked as the Vice President of Administration and Safety at CMU for the past two years. Attempts to reach Thompson, a former Marine who has headed CMU since 2017, were unsuccessful.
The motion that was passed Wednesday overriding Truly's veto also named replacements for the three outgoing members of the CMU board.
The three new members are Glen Cotton, Jo Lynn Michael and Kanoy Brown. Brown's term is set to run until June 30, 2023, with Michael's term expiring on June 30, 2022 and Cotton serving until Williams' term was set to end on June 30, 2020.
Following Wednesday's vote Truly responded to an inquiry for comment from the Journal by saying he was currently formulating a response he planned to issue later in the day. That statement was not available as of press time.