City council brawl breaks out in Alabama town “Photo”

A brawl broke out at an Alabama city council meeting after the mayor punched a city council member in the face and several others joined in.

The Monday night meeting became heated when the city finances were being discussed centering around the lack of audits and the handling of millions of dollars worth of public money.

Mayor Charles Shaw and councilman Tony Goss began to argue over whether Shaw had tried to fire the city’s finance director, Sandra Machen, as she was, Goss claimed, “on to something he [Shaw] doesn’t want her on to.”

The room was full of people for the meeting and several of those in the crowd rushed to separate the two men. Bob Howard, the president of the city council for Alexander City, says there were reports that the mayor punched Goss, but he did not see it. The Alex City Outlook took this photo of the incident.

Howard feels the fight was “uncalled for” and “unprofessional.”

“We need to be working together in a positive energy rather than bringing attention to ourselves in this way,” he added. “We have some important issues we need to be concentrated on. We need to get these audits completed. We don’t know where we are financially. We have to get back to the important things and the business of running the city. Drama and distractions and personal agendas need to stop.”

In 2015, some some questionable pay raises and promotions for city employees were rejected by the council. The city looked over $111,000 in pay increases for at least two dozen employees. Officials said some of the pay hikes were not problematic, but there are others that were not reviewed and approved by the city council.

City officials combed over paperwork for the various departments, examining the budget and salaries and the reason for different promotions and raises and examined how it all lined up with the budget.Council members have said that there were no misappropriation of funds and that “nothing malicious” was done. They believe it boiled down to inconsistencies and irregularities in procedures.

Alexander City police officials say there were no arrests after Monday night’s incident, but reports were filed by both parties.

Agencies/Canadajournal