“I had three phone calls about a town meeting that I was suppose to be at,” Councilman Greg Gossett said at Monday night’s council meeting. “They wanted to know why I wasn’t there.”
Gossett said he knew nothing about the meeting held Sunday afternoon at the Pell City Recreation Center, the former National Guard building, along 19th Street.
Residents attended the meeting searching for answers about why a man was shot and killed in his own home by police last November.
On the evening of Nov. 12, 2009, 41-year-old Barry Bush of Pell City was fatally shot in his home by Pell City police officer Vincent Warrington during the execution of a search warrant.
A St. Clair County Grand Jury cleared Warrington of any criminal act involving the deadly shooting.
Warrington and the city still face a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court by Bush’s family.
Only Mayor Bill Hereford, a former St. Clair County judge, attended the Sunday afternoon meeting with about 50 residents attending.
“I serve every district in this city, not just one district,” Gossett said Monday night. “I should have been contacted about this meeting.”
He said Hereford knew about the meeting and should have informed the council about the meeting.
But Hereford said that was not his responsibility.
“This wasn’t my meeting to invite anyone,” he said.
Hereford said he met with Nicole Gover about one month ago and agreed to have the community meeting.
But Hereford denied telling Gover he would make sure the police chief and council were informed about the meeting.
Hereford said it was Gover’s responsibility to ask the council and police chief to attend the meeting, not his.
“I didn’t see anything to gain by the council being there,” Hereford said at Monday night’s council meeting.
Gossett said he would have attended the meeting, if he had known about it. He was not sure if he would have made any comments, because of pending litigation in the matter.
“I think it was the mayor’s place to inform the council about this meeting,” he said.
Councilman James McGowan said he would have also liked to have known about the meeting, since most of the residents who attended Sunday’s meeting were from his district.
“I would have liked to have been at the meeting,” he said.
Councilman Donnie Guinn said he only found out about the meeting at Monday night’s council meeting.
“I still really don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “Nobody contacted me about a meeting.”
Guinn said if he had known, he probably would not have gone.
“I wouldn’t be able to say anything,” he said. “We can’t comment on litigation.”
Guinn said he knew very little about the November 2009 shooting.
“It would have been very inappropriate for me to make any comments,” he said.
Dot Wood said she was also unaware of the Sunday meeting until Monday night’s council meeting when Gossett started talking about the calls he received.
“I started thinking to myself, ‘What is he talking about?’” Wood said. “ I did not know one thing about it.”
Because of pending litigation, Wood said she would have declined to attend Sunday’s meeting.
“I didn’t have a clue,” Councilman Donnie Todd said of Sunday’s meeting.
Todd said Monday he was out of town Sunday and would not have attended the meeting.
“I was flying,” he said.
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