Over the past months, a conflict has been brewing in the town of Morven. According to some town council members, there is a lack of communication between Mayor Carolyn Solomon, members of the town council and the community itself. The brewing tension came to a head during last week's regular monthly town council meeting when, after a closed session, a Morven citizen (and former town council member) was asked to leave the meeting by the mayor, and escorted out by police.

After a discussion during the regular session of the meeting about possibly discontinuing the town's annual October Fest, the council went into closed session. During the closed session, Morven Police Chief Alex Campbell said, while he and other citizens were standing outside, waiting for the meeting to be reopened to the public, some town council members came out, saying they were going to resign "because she [the mayor] won't listen to them." Campbell said he and others were able to get the council members back in to the meeting, and the discussion continued.

After the meeting was reopened to the public, Mayor Solomon said "there was a disturbance."

"One of the citizens was being disruptive and refused to leave Town Hall," she said. "It was after hours and it was very late."

When asked how the citizen was causing a disturbance, Mayor Solomon said that "she was verbally abusive to me as the mayor."

Chief Campbell said that he and Sgt. Rick Little were called in to remove the citizen from the meeting. "She told us to put her into handcuffs and arrest her," Campbell said, adding that both the mayor and the citizen were arguing.

He decided not to arrest the citizen. "We got her out of the room," Campbell said. "In the meantime, while we had this lady by the arms, the mayor called communications and said she was being threatened and she was scared."

Campbell added that there had been no physical altercation, which was confirmed by Mayor Pro Tem Susan Woodburn.

"The police didn't physically touch her," Woodburn said of the citizen in question. "She walked out on her own. My feeling is, everyone has freedom of speech and she was saying what she wanted to say. She just wanted to finish saying what she had to say then she walked out."

The mayor said that in her mind, the situation has been resolved and she is satisfied with the job that Campbell and Little did. "We want to treat everyone with respect," she said. "We want to maintain a positive image for everyone involved."

However, Woodburn said she isn't so sure the situation really is resolved. "The council and mayor are not together as one," she said. "The council makes the decisions and the mayor carries out those decisions, ideally. But there has been conflict. Citizens want to express their thoughts and concerns and they don't always feel free to do so."

In fact, former Morven mayor, Theodore Carr, wrote a letter to the editor (see page 4A), in which he claims he was "cut off" by Mayor Solomon at the council's June 23 meeting, and told to "shut up and sit down."

"I try to express to the mayor on occasion when she cuts people off that they have a right to say what they want to say and I want to hear what they have to say," Woodburn said. "We cannot deny people the right to speak."

Both Woodburn and another council member who did not wish to be identified said that the problems between the mayor and the council also stem from personnel issues, as well as the debate over the town paying for October Fest.

"It has not been smooth sailing since I came into office," Woodburn said. "But we are dealing with the situation now, and trying to be proactive, trying to help move Morven forward."

"I think the council wants to help Morven turn around and move forward," she added, "and I think the mayor wants to help Morven turn around and move forward also. The problem is working as a team and doing things the correct way. We need to find a way to navigate through this and do it in the right way."