Williamson, Rawlins state cases at city hall

She then gave Rawlins, “the opportunity to avoid the additional stress and embarrassment of this hearing and allow him to do the honorable thing and withdraw from the election at this time.”
Rawlins did not say anything and Eastman Superintendent of Elections Bea Edge instructed Williamson to continue.
She then said that Rawlins was not qualified to run for the office due to nonpayment of his water bill, nonpayment of his occupational taxes, nonpayment of insurance premium, delinquent county taxes and violating his oath of office.
She then gave examples of Rawlins allegedly not paying his city utilities anywhere from six months to a year and a half at a time. She stated that, to start off, Rawlins paid three occupational taxes for three businesses. Then he only paid two the next year and only one the year after and in subsequent years, except in one year where she could not find where he paid any occupational tax.
She went on to state that Rawlins had violated numerous local and state ordinances due to his failure to pay the monies he owed.
She stated that Rawlins owed the city $6,111.00 for an insurance premium.
She asked that Rawlins be disqualified from running for office because he continues to hold public money and moved that the city begin an investigation and press charges against David Rawlins for violation of his oath of office and begin an ethics enquiry.
Rawlins then spoke and said, “Marlas can make way more money writing fairy tales than she can running a florist and such.”
He spoke about the water bill and said that he had always paid the bill, most of the time by using his city check that he received of $1,500.00 twice a year in June and December. He also stated that the city has always owed him more money than he has ever owed them in water bills. He said that the cycle that she (Williamson) is talking about is June and December.
As far as the insurance, he said that the city had always paid his health insurance and the insurance she was referring to was that of Willie Belle (Rawlins’ wife) for family coverage, and that if Williamson would look back, it had always been paid in June and December when he got his city check.
Rawlins said that he did owe the city some money for the insurance for the past year, but blamed his not paying it on the bad economic times.
He went on to say that he had never violated his oath of office and never would do so.
As far as the three businesses, Rawlins said that he had always paid the occupational taxes. He then stated that, although he did not know the year when James Wright was city manager, Wright told him to put it (the three businesses) under Rawlins Family and run it all under one business because they were never open at the same time, so that is what he did.
He stated, “Marlas’ fairy tales, that’s all they are, your fairy tales”.
Rawlins said that even if all the accusations were true, it still would not disqualify him from qualifying for office.
Now, it is up to Bea Edge to make a decision as to whether Rawlins is qualified to run or not. When asked when a decision would be made, Edge said it would be between three and 10 days, and probably more like 10.