Silex Board of Alderman Ignore Attorney, Rename City Hall

SILEX – Even though their city attorney told them they shouldn’t or couldn’t do it, the Silex Board of Aldermen approved not just one, but two motions that essentially renamed the city hall building.

At its January 13 meeting, the board of aldermen voted to replace the David Rice Municipal Building sign with a Silex City Hall Sign.

The building had been named after Rice in 2016 after he died in a car accident. Rice was the town’s mayor at the time of his death when he was killed while serving in his official capacity.

The sign remained on the exterior of the building until the city hall was remodeled with new vinyl siding. Consequently, the previous sign was never reinstalled and according to Mayor Lynn Luckett, needed replacing.

Rice’s son, David Rice Jr., currently sits on the board of alderman and made an impassioned plea to keep his father’s name on the building. He also made a motion to purchase a new sign for it, but the motion failed due to the lack of a second.

Luckett said there have been a lot of people who have contributed to the city and that one person shouldn’t be singled out.

“You don’t do it in memoriam for one and not do it in memoriam for everybody,” she said. “Yes, Maureen Humphrey spent many years in office. Many years in office and did a lot of stuff in the city.”

After Rice’s motion died due to a lack of a second, a subsequent motion was made and approved to place the name Silex City Hall on the building’s exterior.

Another motion was then made to rename the city park to Silex Memorial Park and name a stage to be built there after Rice.

Ironically, early in the meeting David Rice Jr., questioned why a discussion on the city hall sign wasn’t included on the agenda.

Luckett explained it never was going to be and Rice pushed for it to be added before the agenda was approved.

However, city attorney Lee Elliott said adding the item to the agenda would violate state law.

“The Sunshine Law doesn’t allow you to change the agenda unless it’s changed and posted prior to the meeting,” he said at the beginning of the meeting. “Otherwise, we could stick stuff on the agenda at the last minute and not give the public the right to know that that’s going to be discussed. There should not be a motion for change of the agenda at all … it’s not permitted under the Sunshine Law.”