By Scott Jenkins

Salisbury Post

EAST SPENCER — At its first meeting since the November elections, the new Board of Alderman raised some old issues.

Several members took offense to the town paying former board member Dr. Ronald Hash's church $300 a month to use a room for an after-school program.

Hash resigned last year as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors who said he took money from a company doing business with the town and didn't report it as income. Hash maintains his innocence.

He was briefly appointed to the town's planning board after stepping down as an alderman, but resigned that post also, saying he didn't want to cause any more "negative conflicts" in the town.

On Monday, Carlton Ellis, who was appointed to serve out Hash's term on the Board of Alderman and won election to keep the seat in November, brought up the town's arrangement with Love Christian Center, Hash's church.

"You're not supposed to have no dealings with these people," Ellis told Town Administrator Richard Hunter.

Jefferies argued the town is dealing with the church, not Hash, and town attorney Vernon Russell pointed out that the plea agreement requiring Hash to leave elected office could not prevent the town from dealing with him or the church. Still, some board members appeared to believe they had agreed to do just that.

And while Hunter noted that the board agreed to rent space from Hash's church for the after-school program after determining that renovating town-owned space would cost too much, Alderwoman Phronice Johnson said the decision "was a rush job" and the board really had no choice.

"We did not have a say-so as a board," Johnson said. "We're still dealing with Bishop Hash. We're paying him $300 for a room when we have said we're not going to have any more dealings with Bishop Hash."

Meanwhile, Johnson and others said Hash has not begun paying the town restitution as ordered in his plea agreement.

Hunter said the town could look at other potential sites for the after-school program.

"If it is the board's desire to relocate, we will do so gladly," he said.

Earlier in the meeting, District Court Judge Marshall Bickett swore in Jefferies for a fourth term and aldermen John Noble for a sixth term, Ellis and Theodore Gladden, a newcomer to the board.

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com.