The Money Pit

Why did certain employees get raises, while others are still making minimum wage? The City of Lumberton is coming to the end of another fiscal year, and will have to return to the drawing board to determine what cuts need to be made. But instead of waiting to see how the city looks financially, the board of aldermen decided to give Susan Guidry and the public works department works a end of the fiscal year bonus. There was no mention of any raise for the police department, the re-reinstatement of Mayor Holder's salary, money for the LVDF or for police clerk, Sharese Pearson. A few months ago, the board terminated Betty Speights due to budget constraints, but they've found enough money to hire another clerk and give her a raise. They refused to pay Melissa Pack more than minimum wage and that resulted in the City of Lumberton losing a good court clerk, but now they've seemingly pulled some additional funding out of the air to hire more public works employees and give out bonuses. According to paperwork prepared by the city clerk, the City of Lumberton has saved $75,101.68 since the termination/resignation of several employees. It was noted that the cost of the raises (bonus)and new hires will cost the city $6,540.96. But again, we have random spending and hiring practices. Just last month they hired Micheal Holder and Perry McLemore at minimum wage for the grass cutting crew, but this month they hired Albert Georgia to bush hog at a pay rate of $8.50. They're basically doing the same jobs, but at different rates of pay. For the record, public works employees in Hattiesburg start at $8.00/hr.
In addition to that, I don't think the citizens realize that Danny Davis is still being paid $500.00/month because he's the only one certified to complete the paper work for the water report and they're not looking to bring in anyone else that's either certified or has the ability to become certified. As of June 7, 2011, the General Fund for the City of Lumberton is $295,443.42, WSOM has $110,598.21, and Solid Waste has $82,194.80. There was a time when the City of Lumberton could borrow monies from the WSOM account, but I don't think that's even possible at this point. If you want to compare apple to apples, Sumrall's General Fund is $687,325.41 with over $450,000 in reserve. The City of Lumberton is not working towards building up their reserves because they are still spending recklessly. Why would a city spend over $600 for non-mandatory training? Why would a city continue to spend $40,000/year to keep GAP insurance coverage; especially when it's not benefiting the employees or the city? Regardless of the budget, the City of Lumberton is still obligated to make a $15,658.71 loan payment from the WSOM account and this does not take into account the other salaries and expenses that are coming from that account. If you're going to hand out bonuses, wait until you complete a new budget and make sure that it's across the board. There's a lot of things going wrong in the city and it seems that they are not willing to rein in their spending; especially those recommendations coming from the clerk. I don't know what they're planning to do, but they need to realize that 2013 will be here before they know it and they are required by law to have a reserve of 25%. I'm not an accountant, but it's just not adding up.