Parma Mayor, Tyrus Byrd. 4/20/2015
Parma, Missouri is going through some changes ever since they elected a black female mayor for the first time in their town’s history. On Tuesday, April 14, 2015, Tyrus Byrd was officially sworn in as mayor. She had beat incumbent Randall Ramsey who had served as mayor of Parma for 37 years under 2 terms. Ever since she has been sworn in, there has been some serious backlash to what seemed to be something that the community made a choice in doing. Five of the six of the town’s police officers, the city attorney, the city clerk, and the waste water treatment plant supervisor have all resigned from their positions in protest of an African American Female Mayor. Apparently most of these individuals that have resigned had submitted letters saying that they had some “safety concerns” however the mayor has no idea what they are.
Some residents appear unconcerned that they now only have one full time police officer left to protect their town,
(Source: Allison Twaits/KFVS)
“I think it was pretty dirty the way they all quit without giving her a chance,” resident Martha Miller said. “But I don’t think they hurt the town by quitting, because who needs six police for 740 people?” (Raw Story)
Parma apparently doesn’t have that many issues in town and they don’t think there is a need for that many officers. That doesn’t mean that Mayor Tyrus Byrd isn’t trying to figure out what happened and what needs to be done to fix the problem. Computers were cleared so apparently the resignation letters are missing and the town is confused as in why there were six cops on patrol when they hadn’t had any police officers patrolling their town and they had been dealing with some recent break-ins.
Fortunately for Parma, there is no shortage of help from outside their community. People are reaching out to assist and support them in the time of need. Even residents are saying they needed somebody young and energetic to help the town change and that’s why the new mayor was elected. As the former city clerk (years ago) Tyrus Byrd isn’t going into her job completely at loss of what to do to fix problems but she will take all the help she can get.
