Resident makes fuss about Kevlar armor

For the last few weeks, Dallas Parsons has been ready to fight against what he calls wasteful spending in McMinnville city government.

Four weeks ago, Parsons approached the elected officials during their regular Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. On his list of unnecessary items was the Segway purchased by McMinnville Police Department and ‘Mayor Davenport’s Kevlar desk.’

When questioned later about the desk, Mayor Royce Davenport denied having a desk with Kevlar and made his desk available for inspection.

‘I don’t have Kevlar in my desk,’ said Davenport. ‘I don’t know how these rumors get started but they do. If you want to look, come to my office.’

At that session, Parsons also stated he would buy the city a bicycle because it would be cheaper and keep the officers in better condition than a Segway. During the public hearing held on July 24 in regard to the 2007-08 fiscal year budget, Parsons offered the bicycle he purchased as well as this statement regarding the Kevlar:

‘I would really like to know what the cost was for a bullet-proof desk for the mayor,’ said Parsons. ‘I think the mayor is a good man but why he would have to have a bullet-proof desk, I would really like to know.’

According to Davenport, he and an alderman took a look under his desk later that night and found nothing.

‘I’ve heard about my bullet-proof desk before but there isn’t one,’ said Davenport. ‘I’m not sure how that got started so we, I think it was Alderman Rick Barnes, went to take a look. Maybe there was something I didn’t know about. Nothing was there.’

According to a former city employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, four 4×8 sheets of Kevlar were purchased several years ago and installed as a safety precaution. However, that material wasn’t placed in the mayor’s desk.

The purchase isn’t being denied by city officials, only the placement for security reasons.

Anyone interested in when the purchase was made and the cost, will have to submit a written request to the city and pay the cost of any man hours used to locate the information.