VIDALIA — The Vidalia Board of Aldermen’s Tuesday night meeting ended on a note of implied but not discussed malfeasance by a city employee.

After the rest of business had been conducted, Alderman Ricky Knapp made a motion to add to the agenda an executive session “for investigative purposes about alleged misconduct” by a city employee.

Alderman Jon Betts seconded the motion and voted for it along with Knapp, but Aldermen Tron McCoy, Mo Saunders and Vernon Stevens voted against adding the item to the agenda.

When the move to add the item to the agenda failed, McCoy made a motion to end the meeting, which passed.

City officials declined to discuss the matter, which Mayor Hyram Copeland characterized as “a personnel matter.”

Knapp and Betts both said they could not discuss the matter.

“That is why I wanted an executive session,” Knapp said. “I am sure it will come out soon enough.”

The vote not to add executive session to the agenda came after a meeting dominated by discussion of election matters.

The election came up after Stevens asked candidates running for election to “self comply” with the city’s sign ordinance restricting sign placement on public property, which the aldermen agreed last month to not enforce as long as signs did not block visibility along the roadways.

“It has gotten to be signs on every corner of every block of town,” Stevens said. “I have gone and taken down every sign of mine that is not in someone’s yard. There are 190 signs on Carter Street and 160 on Concordia Avenue.”

“The ordinance was put there to keep the town from looking bad with signs.”

Betts said the ordinance allows for placement on public property as long as candidates obtain the city’s permission, which several have.

McCoy said the board had given its permission, but asked candidates to consider Stevens’ request.

“Y’all have got some good looking, high dollar signs,” he said. “Do what you need to do. Everybody is grown, so make some grown-up decisions.”

Saunders said she had never seen so many signs in 19 years in office, and Copeland said he was tired of the signs himself, but that was sometimes the nature of politics.

“We keep a very clean town, and we want to keep it that way,” he said. “Has it gotten out of hand? I think everybody wants to put one wherever they can.”

Later, Saunders addressed those present, saying she wished all the candidates luck but that lately she feels, “there is a lot of animosity in our little town, and it is not actually the people running.”

Saunders said she has been “shamed and criticized” since she was disqualified from running again on a technicality — the courts found she filed a false report when qualifying because she said she checked a box saying she did not have any outstanding fines when she did.

Saunders said she felt compelled to address another rumor, that she lives in Natchez.

“I do not live in Natchez, not since 1972,” she said.

Addressing the candidates in the audience, she said, “I think there will always be a group that tries to tear this town down, and 90 percent of them are from Natchez.

“The new ones that get elected will find out that no matter how hard you work, that group will tear you down.”

Saunders said those who want to damage the community will “tell you what you should believe in,” and she hopes whoever wins “continues to have Vidalia in their best interest.”

“I’ve been praying about this little town,” she said.

In other news:

-The board approved a new occupational and sign license for Gold Bowl, a Chinese restaurant.

-The board accepted bids for the lease of a new garbage truck.

The apparent low bidder was Scott Tractor, with a low bid of $3,309 a month for 24 months.

Copeland said the city leases the vehicles because it saves money in the long run since their expected life is only approximately four years.

The board took the bids under advisement.