Ocean Springs alderman says mayor 'embarrassed the city,' walks out of meeting with two others

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Ocean Springs aldermen John Gill and Chic Cody (standing, at left) listen as Mayor Connie Moran (seated, center) denies an allegation by alderman at-large Bobby Cox that she made "inappropriate" comments and "embarrassed the city" at a building dedication last week. After making his remarks, Cox and aldermen Matt McDonnell and Greg Denyer left the meeting, leaving the board without a quorum (majority), effectively ending the meeting.

(Warren Kulo/The Mississippi Press)

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Ocean Springs alderman at-large Bobby Cox took Mayor Connie Moran to task Tuesday night, saying she "embarrassed yourself and the city" for calling the recently dedicated Ryan Center a "piece of s---," and then walked out of the meeting along with two other aldermen as Moran began to deny the allegation.

The Ryan Center is a new recreation facility created from the old National Guard armory on Pine Drive. A dedication was held last Monday night to open the building and honor its namesakes -- brothers Glenn and the late Walter Ryan. It was during that ceremony Moran made her comments, according to Cox, who spearheaded the two-year project.

Cox said Moran first made critical comments about the project as Cox was being interviewed that night by WLOX, saying she attempted to "interrupt" by saying "We could have had a $3 million gym, but settled for this because of the aldermen."

Moran's reference was to a $3.4 FEMA grant available to the city three years ago which would have resulted in a gymnasium/storm shelter on the grounds of Gay Lemon Park. Aldermen, however, voted the project down, citing a city budget deficit, the $35,000 needed in additional matching funds, the $48,000 estimate to outfit the structure as a basketball gym, plus maintenance and operational costs.

"I would have let that go," Cox said of Moran's initial remark, "until I heard you went around and said this to many others during the dedication. Then I received a text the next day which prompted me to address this tonight."

Cox then read the exchange of texts. He did not identify the person with whom he exchanged the texts, but The Mississippi Press has learned the person was a member of the U.S. Navy Seabees stationed in Gulfport, who donated much of the labor on the Ryan Center project.

The exchange, as Cox read it Tuesday night:

Seabee: "That mayor is something else. What was her deal last night? Pretty rude comments when I met her."

Cox: "What did the mayor say to you? She was rude to me also."

Seabee: "This is what she said: 'Nice to meet you. We could have had a $3 million gym, but we're stuck with this piece of s---. Oh well.' I told her this building had character, and she walked away."

Cox then offered an apology to all the volunteers and the Ryan family on behalf of the board of aldermen for the mayor's "inappropriate comments during this dedication."

"You lack of respect shown during this event is just another example as to why you are not the leader the people of this city think you are," Cox said to Moran. "You embarrassed yourself and this city, again."

Cox then said he was leaving rather than stay to hear any of Moran's "excuses." He was joined by aldermen Matt McDonnell and Greg Denyer. With alderman Jerry Dalgo absent, it left the board without the necessary four members for a quorum (majority), thus bringing the meeting to an end -- although they had already completed all business listed on the agenda.

Moran simply addressed the accusation over her comments by saying "That's not what I said" before launching into a lengthy explanation of the FEMA grant and the "state of the art" gym which would have resulted.

"If we had all worked as hard to get the basketball goals and bleachers for (that) facility as we have for the armory -- which isn't even a regulation-sized gym."

"We threw that away. But I'm pleased with the armory work and I never said what was quoted. However, I am sure had we worked together as a team we'd have a new state of the art facility, not just a practice facility."

Moran also responded to Cox's assertion over her lack of leadership.

"If you want to talk about leadership, why would we spend all of this time and effort, but give away $3.5 million in FEMA grant money? We're never going to see that kind of money for a state of the art recreation facility."

It was at that point, alderman Mike Impey and others pointed out the meeting had already ended for a lack of a quorum.

Alderman John Gill, however, took exception to Moran's characterization of the board's unwillingness to pursue the FEMA grant, noting the $35,000 in matching funds wasn't the crucial issue, but maintenance and operational costs were.

"We'd have had to raise taxes," Gill said.

Moran said Gill's statement was "false information."

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