‘Personal vendetta’ or real beef? South MS councilman questions colleague’s right to serve

Gulfport Councilman R.Lee Flowers wanted the City Council to consider booting a colleague from office, but he couldn’t muster the votes.

Flowers maintained in a meeting Tuesday that Councilman Myles Sharp might have vacated his office by moving from Ward 5, where he was elected. Flowers wanted the council to hold a hearing, and determine whether Sharp had indeed vacated his office and should be replaced.

Councilmen Richard Kosloski and Ron Roland supported his motion for a hearing, but council members Rusty Walker, Ella Holmes-Hines and Truck Casey rejected the idea. Sharp couldn’t vote. The motion died because of the tie.

Gulfport council debates hearing

Sharp came armed to the meeting with documents and an experienced municipal attorney, Malcolm Jones of Pass Christian.

Jones said that Sharp maintains a condominium in Ward 5, while Sharp said his wife and her father bought a house in another ward. The Sharps had applied for homestead exemption on the new house, but Sharp said they have canceled it. The couple did sell their house in Ward 5.

Homestead exemption is a property tax break granted only for primary residences. Because there’s no proof that Sharp’s primary residence is outside his ward, the council saw no reason for a hearing. A couple of members also pointed out that any one of them could be accused of living elsewhere and put through a hearing.

Sharp said he had to absorb the expense of two attorneys and also spend a good bit of his time tracking down records to prove his case. Flowers had originally asked that a hearing be held today, but learned he needed to go through a more formal process to schedule one.

“We got here because there was a simple question of residence,” said Flowers, who added that residents brought the matter to his attention. “This is just simple truth and the integrity of this body.”

Both Sharp and Councilman Truck Casey chalked up the controversy to friction between Flowers and Sharp. Casey said it’s gone on too long.

“This is getting to be a soap opera,” Casey said. “This body shouldn’t be having personal vendettas against each other. I hate to be here all night talking about something like this when it shouldn’t be necessary.”