Hamlet council officially approves police review board, clashes over procedure

HAMLET — The Hamlet City Council on Tuesday officially approved the formation of the Hamlet Police Department’s Citizen Review Board, which held its first official meeting earlier this month.

The council confirmed Joseph Ingram Sr., Tony Clewis, and Lois Jones to sit on the review board, each of whom were put forward by Police Chief Tommy McMasters. Councilwoman Abbie Covington was present as a board member at the first meeting of the review board but said she took her name out of the running to be officially confirmed because she did not want there to be a question about her being on both city council and the review board.

In her capacity as a council member, Covington would have had oversight over her own actions on the review board. Covington was approached by McMasters to be on the review board early on in the planning stages, and months before she was appointed to the city council following the resignation of Terry Moore in February. The review board’s first meeting was delayed until this month due to COVID-19 restrictions instituted in March.

After Councilman Eddie Martin made a motion to approve the review board, the fact that the review board had met before being officially approved became a point of contention for the council. Councilman Oscar Sellers, who later said he didn’t see a need for the review board in the first place — and that he had spoke with residents who felt the same way — asked City Attorney T.C. Morphis about the legality of the board, and whether McMasters had the authority to form it and hold a meeting without it being first approved by the council.

Morphis said that, as he understood it, the board is “purely advisory” and can’t change standard operating procedure or perform a personnel review function. For the board to have these powers, it would require legislation to be passed by the council, according to Morphis.

“Council can establish a review or advisory committee over anything it thinks is appropriate,” Morphis said, but Sellers pinpointed his statement that “council” had this power, not the chief of police. Morphis said that Councilman Eddie Martin’s motion to approve it was the first step to establishing the board.

Holding a copy of the Daily Journal’s June 10 issue which included a story on the first meeting, Sellers said that it had already been established.

“We’re rectifying that now,” said Mayor Bill Bayless.

“How are you rectifying it?” Sellers asked.

“We’re officially appointing this board,” said the mayor.

“But is the board a legal board?” Sellers pressed again.

“It will be when we appoint it,” Bayless said, with his frustration growing.

Bayless then asked what Sellers would have the council do about the board having held a meeting without first seeking council approval, and Sellers said they should “abolish it and start anew.” Morphis interjected to defend McMasters’ actions.

”I think its fair to say that sometimes things get done with the correct intentions but not the correct process,” Morphis said. “From my perspective, as I understand it, there was never any attempt to do anything illegally. Council is — admittedly after the fact, there has been a meeting — trying to correct that.”

Interim City Manager Bill Zell clarified Wednesday that the legal framework of the review board is simply “that the council approved it.”

“I believe this board will allow Chief McMasters a two-way street for information gathering,” Zell said in an email. “He can bring ideas to them to get their buy in or not and they will bring him information about the various happenings in their neighborhoods.

“There are no specific City ordinances that relate to this board,” Zell continued.

The council approved the formation of the review board with Sellers as the lone “no” vote. In an interview after the meeting, Sellers suggested that the review board was redundant when the city already has a city council.

“We have a city hall, we have a council, we have a city manager and a mayor, we’ve got a podium — people can come in and complain,” Sellers said. “I think somewhere with a million people it might be OK, but for Hamlet I don’t see a need for it.”

McMasters said he established the review board to be a “liaison” between HPD and the public. The board members he put forward are people he considers to be “well-known and respected” in Hamlet.

All members submitted to background checks before being appointed. Members are expected to engage in community outreach, convey concerns from the Hamlet community, recommend improvements to HPD, and maintain confidentiality of sensitive topics discussed in meetings.

“I’ve been basing my platform on transparency with the citizens,” McMasters told the Daily Journal last week when asked why he put the board together. “I want to make sure that people know who our Citizen Review Board is. Some people will speak to regular citizens about things that they’ll never bring to me. It gives them another connection to (the police department).”

McMasters said after the first meeting that there are no definitive rules about what he must bring before the board, but that he will seek the board’s recommendations on any action or issue that is “out of the norm.” These things include uses of department funds, questionable employment applications, and discipline of officers.

Mayor Pro Tem Jesse McQueen commended McMasters for his “forethought” in creating the review board.

“I want to look you dead in the eyes and tell you thank you for your leadership and your vision to create this board to enable the City of Hamlet’s police department to be one step further in their process of community relations and community policing,” McQueen said. “That is an exceptional thing that you’ve done, I really appreciate it, the citizens will appreciate once they see what the functions are and it’s not out of the normal — from someone who studies these type things, I’m very familiar with what they do — and these review boards can have be a calming effect and influence over the city whenever the point in time is that they are needed.”

New city manager’s contract approved

The City Council also approved the contract for Hamlet’s new city manager, Matthew Christian, who was previously the city manager of Mt. Gilead. Christian has signed a four-year contract with Hamlet for a $80,000 salary. He was slated to take over the role from interim City Manager Bill Zell on July 6, but will start July 7 now due to a new day off for city employees. McQueen suggested that the council give city staff an extra day off for the July 4 weekend to boost morale after the extensive cuts caused by the county’s decision to change to an ad valorem sales tax distribution method in April.

McQueen commended Zell on the work that he did in his brief tenure in the role, which included him overseeing these budget cuts and making sure that the John Coltrane mural wasn’t one of them. The council applauded Zell’s service to the city.