UPDATED @ 1:39 PM Town Of Gordon Is A Ship With No Guidance Yet

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
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Date: Nov 16 2020 10:43 AM

UPDATED @ 1:39 PM   

The article below is not one of accusations on the Town Clerk or any employee of the Town of Gordon.

The article below is written concerning the elected officials before and after the municipal election. The employees of the Town of Gordon, What do they do and who do they listen to?

Since the original article the court records were updated after 1:00 PM the return of service on the Writ of Mandamus has been entered.

There has to be an "official" meeting of the Town Council of Gordon before the election is certified. That means the elected officials have to have an "official" meeting. The election official, Ms. Mock,  can not certify the election until an "official" meeting of the elected officials.

GORDON:   10:21 AM     On November 10, 2020 Gordon Council Member Priscilla Wilson filed a Writ of Mandamus.

The Writ of Mandamus was to compel Lorie Mock, Elections Manager for the Town of Gordon, to file with Houston County Probate Court the elections returns canvassed on September 1, 2020.

Alabama Law requires a governing body to certify the election returns 7 days from the election at 12 noon. Wilson's court filings have included minutes she took on September 1, 2020. Wilson is a Council Member and not the person responsible for the minutes of a meeting. Wilson contends she always keeps her own set of minutes from every meeting.

As of this morning the court records are not reflecting the court documents served on Mock. No updates in the court on line records since the initial filing on November 10, 2020.

The newly elected Gordon Mayor and Council Members were to take the reigns of Gordon on November 1. The outgoing Gordon Mayor filed court actions in September challenging the election. As of this date all court filings filed by out going Mayor Shana Ray have been dismissed by the court.

To date, who is in charge of Gordon? That issue is still hanging in the wind. The new Mayor and Council have not been officially seated and the out going Mayor, according to what is said, did not win re-election.

That causes a lot more issues. Who is in charge? Who has the authority to sign checks? Who is in charge of personnel? The sewer rates were increased because money for the sewer payments was missing and no one can find the money. Are the sewer payments being made? If so, who is authorized to sign the checks?

The court system, who is in charge? Officials are to be re-appointed every four years so who is the Town Clerk? Is the police chief the police chief still? Is the Gordon City Attorney still the City Attorney? Is the Gordon Municipal Judge still the Municipal Judge? 

Who hires the attorney for Ms. Mock as the Elections Manager to represent her in the court filing? 

If there was an official meeting on September 1, 2020 as Ms. Wilson states, why are "official" minutes not recorded by the Town Clerk as required rather than Council Member taking the minutes.

The only issue decided is in a September 21, 2020 writing filed with the court. The writing was a response to Out Going Gordon Mayor Shana Ray election challenge. The response by Lorie Mock stated that Mock was the elections manager. Other than that, the Town of Gordon, as a ship is a float with no direction.

Mandamus (/?mæn?de?m?s/; lit. ''we command'') is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court^[1] to any government, subordinate court, corporation, or public authority, to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from doing), and which is in the nature of public duty, and in certain cases one of a statutory duty. It cannot be issued to compel an authority to do something against statutory provision. For example, it cannot be used to force a lower court to reject or authorize applications that have been made, but if the court refuses to rule one way or the other then a mandamus can be used to order the court to rule on the applications.

Mandamus may be a command to do an administrative action or not to take a particular action, and it is supplemented by legal rights. In the American legal system it must be a judicially enforceable and legally protected right before one suffering a grievance can ask for a mandamus. A person can be said to be aggrieved only when they are denied a legal right by someone who has a legal duty to do something and abstains from doing it.

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