The five members of the Minden City Council and Minden Mayor Terry Gardner held a workshop on Wednesday to discuss matters that they would be addressing in the City Council meeting taking place on Monday, August 5.
One of the first topics discussed was that of the potential police department hiring of Reece Tewell. A written request from Minden Police Chief Steve Cropper, said “Tewell has no law enforcement background, but does have Fire and Rescue Experience. Reese Tewell appears to have a very level head and good common sense. With training and some experience, I feel Reece Tewell will be an asset to the City of Minden and the Police Department.”
The Police Department is also looking to promote three of its current officers to the rank of Lieutenant, those being Sergeants Joel Kendrick, Kenneth James, and Christopher McClaran. They all have passed the Fire and Police Civil Service Board, Police Lieutenant examination test and due to this, Cropper is recommending their promotion.
Later, Gardner brought the Council’s attention to a new social media policy for city employees. “This is the social media policy that Charles (Minnifield) crafted, that’s going into the employee manual and that every employee will have to sign for,” said Gardner. After taking a few minutes to read over it, Councilmen Terika Williams and Herbert Taylor voiced their concerns. “You can post what you want on social media during your time, but it’s different when you have a policy and you say you can’t use it during your work hours, but, this is kind of a fine line,” said Walker. Contributing to the discussion, Taylor said, “Actually there are policemen all across the country getting fired for social media posts, but some of the stuff on here. I mean social media while on the clock is different, but that’s freedom of speech. The Council decided to take this matter off of the agenda for the time being and mentioned looking into the matter further.
Later during the meeting, the Council discussed two appointments to the Minden Housing Authority Board. Those would be that of Tateshia Tellis replacing Latasha Dent and Pamela Penton replacing Dr. Gary Daniel.
There was also a brief mention of adopting Ordinance No. 1104. According to the wording of the motion, the ordinance will “Levy Taxes of 5.63 Mills as General Alimony Tax on all Taxable Property located in the City of Minden, Louisiana for the year 2019. The Taxable Properties designated as a part of the Minden Downtown Development District will be assessed with an additional 2.04 Mills, making a total of 7.67 Mills on those properties located in said district.”
The Council is also looking to get an appraisal of Griffith Stadium in a step forward in their plans to sell the stadium to the Webster Parish School Board. The money from the sale of the stadium is planned to be used to update some recreations facilities. “With the money that we get from it, what I would like to do, with y’all’s permission, is put it towards Ewell Park Recreation and the exterior and the roof of the Boys and Girls Club building.”
This meeting is a workshop with the purpose of familiarizing the Council with the issues that they will be making decisions about during the next City Council Meeting taking place Monday, August 5th at 5 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Minden Civic Center and is open to the public.