Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

In 2006 Mayor Leslie C. Thompson was elected as the Town of Jonesboro' first African American mayor since the Town's inception in 1901, defeating incumbent Mayor Donald Essirmier and Mike Holder a local businessman. Thompson then ran for and won a second term in 2010, defeating Freddie Brown. Mayor Thompson is currently serving a third term having defeated incumbent Mayor James E. Bradford in 2018.

Mayor Leslie C. Thompson was charged, tried, and convicted on three counts of malfeasance in office in 2013. Two of the charges were overturned by the Supreme Court of Louisiana and the third and weakest of all of the charges was left to the option of the local district attorney to try again or not. He (the DA) opted to try the Mayor on the one count and the trial was held in Natchitoches Parish on February 18, 2010. The change of venue to Natchitoches Parish was due to the belief that neither Mayor Thompson nor the State of Louisiana would receive a fair trial in Jackson Parish because of the notoriety of such a high profile case. The trial in Natchitoches LA ended in a mistrial.

Mayor Thompson is now serving a third term as Mayor of the Town of Jonesboro following an administration that was riddled with issues of inaccurate water billing or in some cases no billing, and having been cited for over twenty audit findings by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. The inability to address water problem issues continued to be a major concern which the previous administration was unable to solve. It is a problem that exists even to this day due to many years of neglect and poor planning on behalf of town leadership long before Mayor Thompson ever became mayor. While the previous administration was responsible for drilling a new well on the south side of town, to date (some three years later) the water well remains capped, fenced and nonfunctional.

Shortly after Mayor Thompson was first elected as Mayor of the Town of Jonesboro, he was faced with a recall petition led by a group of white citizens who were angry about Mayor Thompson's victory. The leaders of the movement to recall the mayor operated out of the Ivan Smith Furniture Store in Jonesboro. They became obsessed with getting him out of office and would do it by any means necessary. I was told that when the owner of Ivan Smith discovered that the petition was being handled through the store, he immediately fired the store manager, noting that Ivan Smith Furniture Company does not get involved in local politics, that their focus is furniture for all. Adding to Mayor Thompson's woes was the fact that the white brain trust at Jonesboro' City Hall deserted him and was unwilling to work under the influence and direction of African American leadership. Chaos continued to surface as Mayor Thompson encountered opposition from council members who challenged his every movement and decision, even down to something as basic as why he chose to purchase a black official vehicle as opposed to purchasing the traditional white vehicle as previous Mayors had done.

Perhaps the most poignant observation occurred during Mayor Thompson's first year in office when the Town of Jonesboro received an unqualified audit opinion performed by an independent auditor. The very next year the Town of Jonesboro received a disclaimer and hordes of auditors swarmed town hall bombarding the Mayor's office with one request after another asking for documentation dating back many years. No such problem had existed before Mayor Thompson' arrival, nevertheless suddenly and suspiciously questions and issues began to surface about town expenses, concerns about where the mayor's vehicle was seen over the weekend, nonpayment of vendors and missing invoices, issues concerning the Mayor's hiring practices, problems with bursting water pipes all over the town, opposition to adjusting the mayor's salary to make it competitive with other mayors salaries in the area, discovery of town employees maintaining a white cemetery across town, power plays by Chief of Police and the Fire Chief (the Fire Chief also doubled as a police officer), issues of a lawsuit being filed by defeated former Mayor Donald Essmeier, along with citizens Dalton Cruse and James Smith against Mayor Thompson for alleged money mismanagement, blatant and erroneous claims that the Town was insolvent, and the list goes on and on. The next three years of Mayor Thompson's term, were a journey from hell. The white brain trust walked off the job, as Mayor Thompson became embattled with local law enforcement and the judicial system, systems which had never accepted Mayor Thompson's victory as Mayor. Not once, but twice, he defeated three white candidates. These victories came with a high cost and ultimately led to distraught and the inability to effectively function as Mayor under such stressful situations and racially motivated circumstances.

With four unfavorable audits attributed to Mayor Thompson's administration, he struggled to manage a Town with dwindling resources and rising demands and to fix problems that had been in existence for many, many years. He struggled with internal issues of betrayal and attempts to sabotage the administration. Deliberate barriers were placed in Mayor Thompson's path. Actions of the Legislative Auditor were unrelenting and downright vicious. A fiscal administrator by the name of Bill Ryder was appointed to oversee the town business at a beefy salary of approximately $20,000.00 per month, or approximately $5,000 per week, and many citizens of the town were irate and furious at this exorbitant amount of money being paid to Ryder. What made this outrageous payment to Ryder even more offensive to citizens is the fact that the Town Council and local citizens were declaring that the Town was broke. The council had fought any consideration and refused to consider an increase in the salary of the mayor from $35,000 per year to $60,000 per year. Ryder's tenure was short lived as he left after about three or four months later alleging that the Thompson administration was uncooperative in not providing him with requested information. (continued next week)