Last night, there was another board meeting of the Mayor and Alderpersons. Later in the post, you will understand the title chosen for this post. Before getting into today's blog I would like to take the opportunity to say that Merlene Wall and Melissa Nightengale are doing an excellent job despite the insurmountable obstacles they face day to day. I don't ever recall a deputy clerk attending the board meetings but Melissa is present at every meeting and the citizens of Lumberton should appreciate the additional set of eyes and ears. I must admit, I was feeling some type of way because neither of the new clerks was originally from Lumberton, but after watching the appointment of key department heads in Hattiesburg and 90% of those appointed were not from Hattiesburg, I see that cities are looking outside the scope of their city limits for employees. Also, with the great mess left from the last clerk, I can understand why the board would not want to hire another clerk from Lumberton.
Now, let's get into the recap of the meeting. First on the agenda was Mr. Quincy Mukoro of McNeil-Rhoads. I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying because, probably unlike many of our elected officials, I was Googling him. Mr. Mukoro has a very interesting MySpace page. I guess it's good to know that he has not updated his social media accounts. According to Google, he is the Vice President of Business Development for McNeil-Rhoads. He was on the agenda to discuss the process of RFQ (Request for Qualification) Program and to see how he can assist the City of Lumberton in that process. Next, Gary Hickman addressed the board for over 30 minutes about the FAA 2013 closeout and the progress of the FAA 2014 grants. I think I am beginning to have a problem with Mr. Hickman. He seemingly can find hundreds of thousands of dollars for airport improvement grants but cannot or will not find any grants to help with the purchase of police cars, garbage trucks, etc.
There was an order to allow the city clerk to post an ad in the Hattiesburg American and Lamar Times for requests for proposal from qualified municipal depositories for all bank accounts for the City of Lumberton. There was an order to discuss Danny Davis, Public Works Director, request to purchase a Bad Boy 60" CZT Commercial Lawnmower at the cost of $5,549.00. The motion failed and the board will revisit the request once they are given a report on the availability of funds. The board approved the sign for the New Family Dollar Store. There is no time frame for the start of construction on the new facility. There was an order to discuss the water, sewer and garbage collection fees for the Twice Ice business that's located on 772 E. Main (in front of Ramey's). The board decided the company will pay water and a garbage fee. The question still remains, when did this business present their plans to the City of Lumberton and how was in put in place before any of these matters were discussed. This is another tactic of the Lumberton Board; they allow people to set up their business and then try to make the adjustments afterwards. It seems that the only person that was aware of the establishment of the new business was the building inspector, Johnny Buckley and at the last juncture, he decided to ask the board if he could give Mississippi Power the go ahead to connect power to the building.
The next agenda item was to vote and discuss payment to MEMA in the amount of $11,373.67 for monies that could not be accounted for the for the PRVO Building roof project after Hurricane Katrina to close out the PW3489 as required by MEMA. After a thorough investigation, the City of Lumberton has no record of where the $11,373.67 was spent. There are no invoices, receipts or minutes detailing the distribution of this money. So, the City of Lumberton has to pay this money back to MEMA or risk getting disqualified for any future grants. Sadly, the City of Lumberton is still dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Stephanie, Tropical Storm Gibson, Tropical Depression Crider, The Johnson Twister and of course the Rebecca Halestorm. For some reason, no one wants to pursue any legal actions regarding the continuation of missing funds. No one seems to want to be accountable to the citizens of Lumberton. We deserve answers. Is this money missing due to embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, accounting errors or just because someone simply wasn't doing the job they were bonded to do? We don't know and no one is looking to give us any answers to those questions.
The board is reviewing steps to address the Health Violations that were issued against the City of Lumberton, the Gold Coast Skydivers and the Canopy Cafe located at the Lumberton Airport. The details of the health violation were not given, but it's related to sewage and the cafe. I guess if the skydive is not dangerous enough, you can always take your chances on placing a food order at the cafe. The board is moving ahead with advertising for proposals for garbage collection. After the measure was approved, Mayor Winston said that the president of WastePro asked him to send him a copy of the contracts and proposals submitted. He also was asked not to approve any of the proposals before allowing WastePro to review them first. Hopefully, WastePro is not one of the vendors submitting a proposal or this would seem a bit unfair. Before the end of the meeting, I asked Merlene if she could check on the disappearance of the City of Lumberton garbage can that was located on the corner of Myrick and North 10th Street.
After the meeting was adjourned, there was an alderperson that was discussing something and I heard the too familiar phrase, "We only need three votes." That, my friends, is the problem in Lumberton. They are not concerned with the overall picture. It's all about getting three votes to get my measure passed. Three votes. What a way to run a city. So, we're not a government of the people, we're a government of factions. The reason Lumberton is in the state that it's in is because of three votes. Raise the water rates to cover all this missing money. We only need three votes. Get rid to the chief and other good police officers. We only need three votes. See the library for four quarters. We only need three votes. Amend the budget to cover more missing funds. We only need three votes. Keep in mind, getting "your" way may take three votes but in the end, everyone has to pay for your three votes. Elections have consequences.
Last night, there was another board meeting of the Mayor and Alderpersons. Later in the post, you will understand the title chosen for this post. Before getting into today's blog I would like to take the opportunity to say that Merlene Wall and Melissa Nightengale are doing an excellent job despite the insurmountable obstacles they face day to day. I don't ever recall a deputy clerk attending the board meetings but Melissa is present at every meeting and the citizens of Lumberton should appreciate the additional set of eyes and ears. I must admit, I was feeling some type of way because neither of the new clerks was originally from Lumberton, but after watching the appointment of key department heads in Hattiesburg and 90% of those appointed were not from Hattiesburg, I see that cities are looking outside the scope of their city limits for employees. Also, with the great mess left from the last clerk, I can understand why the board would not want to hire another clerk from Lumberton.
Now, let's get into the recap of the meeting. First on the agenda was Mr. Quincy Mukoro of McNeil-Rhoads. I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying because, probably unlike many of our elected officials, I was Googling him. Mr. Mukoro has a very interesting MySpace page. I guess it's good to know that he has not updated his social media accounts. According to Google, he is the Vice President of Business Development for McNeil-Rhoads. He was on the agenda to discuss the process of RFQ (Request for Qualification) Program and to see how he can assist the City of Lumberton in that process. Next, Gary Hickman addressed the board for over 30 minutes about the FAA 2013 closeout and the progress of the FAA 2014 grants. I think I am beginning to have a problem with Mr. Hickman. He seemingly can find hundreds of thousands of dollars for airport improvement grants but cannot or will not find any grants to help with the purchase of police cars, garbage trucks, etc.
There was an order to allow the city clerk to post an ad in the Hattiesburg American and Lamar Times for requests for proposal from qualified municipal depositories for all bank accounts for the City of Lumberton. There was an order to discuss Danny Davis, Public Works Director, request to purchase a Bad Boy 60" CZT Commercial Lawnmower at the cost of $5,549.00. The motion failed and the board will revisit the request once they are given a report on the availability of funds. The board approved the sign for the New Family Dollar Store. There is no time frame for the start of construction on the new facility. There was an order to discuss the water, sewer and garbage collection fees for the Twice Ice business that's located on 772 E. Main (in front of Ramey's). The board decided the company will pay water and a garbage fee. The question still remains, when did this business present their plans to the City of Lumberton and how was in put in place before any of these matters were discussed. This is another tactic of the Lumberton Board; they allow people to set up their business and then try to make the adjustments afterwards. It seems that the only person that was aware of the establishment of the new business was the building inspector, Johnny Buckley and at the last juncture, he decided to ask the board if he could give Mississippi Power the go ahead to connect power to the building.
The next agenda item was to vote and discuss payment to MEMA in the amount of $11,373.67 for monies that could not be accounted for the for the PRVO Building roof project after Hurricane Katrina to close out the PW3489 as required by MEMA. After a thorough investigation, the City of Lumberton has no record of where the $11,373.67 was spent. There are no invoices, receipts or minutes detailing the distribution of this money. So, the City of Lumberton has to pay this money back to MEMA or risk getting disqualified for any future grants. Sadly, the City of Lumberton is still dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Stephanie, Tropical Storm Gibson, Tropical Depression Crider, The Johnson Twister and of course the Rebecca Halestorm. For some reason, no one wants to pursue any legal actions regarding the continuation of missing funds. No one seems to want to be accountable to the citizens of Lumberton. We deserve answers. Is this money missing due to embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, accounting errors or just because someone simply wasn't doing the job they were bonded to do? We don't know and no one is looking to give us any answers to those questions.
The board is reviewing steps to address the Health Violations that were issued against the City of Lumberton, the Gold Coast Skydivers and the Canopy Cafe located at the Lumberton Airport. The details of the health violation were not given, but it's related to sewage and the cafe. I guess if the skydive is not dangerous enough, you can always take your chances on placing a food order at the cafe. The board is moving ahead with advertising for proposals for garbage collection. After the measure was approved, Mayor Winston said that the president of WastePro asked him to send him a copy of the contracts and proposals submitted. He also was asked not to approve any of the proposals before allowing WastePro to review them first. Hopefully, WastePro is not one of the vendors submitting a proposal or this would seem a bit unfair. Before the end of the meeting, I asked Merlene if she could check on the disappearance of the City of Lumberton garbage can that was located on the corner of Myrick and North 10th Street.
After the meeting was adjourned, there was an alderperson that was discussing something and I heard the too familiar phrase, "We only need three votes." That, my friends, is the problem in Lumberton. They are not concerned with the overall picture. It's all about getting three votes to get my measure passed. Three votes. What a way to run a city. So, we're not a government of the people, we're a government of factions. The reason Lumberton is in the state that it's in is because of three votes. Raise the water rates to cover all this missing money. We only need three votes. Get rid to the chief and other good police officers. We only need three votes. See the library for four quarters. We only need three votes. Amend the budget to cover more missing funds. We only need three votes. Keep in mind, getting "your" way may take three votes but in the end, everyone has to pay for your three votes. Elections have consequences.
Once again you have not gotten your facts right. FEMA money from Hurricane Katrina was handled by JoAnn Ladner, city clerk at that time. Also neither of the aldermen mentioned were on the board then. Stephanie has never handled any FEMA money. She was on FMLA when FEMA money from Hurricane Isaac came in.
ReplyDeleteThat may very well be true regarding FEMA funds from Hurricane Issac. The money they were speaking about at this meeting was MEMA money from Hurricane Katrina. Would you like to give a statement regarding that missing money since you wanted to comment on money that wasn't mentioned?
DeleteI think you need to read my post again. I stated that FEMA money from Hurricane Katrina was handled by JoAnn Ladner, who was city clerk at that time. If invoices are missing, it falls back on her.
ReplyDeleteYou are the one that needs to read the post again. You keep referring to FEMA funds and they may have been handled by JoAnn. That's probably the reason those funds are accounted for. Thank you for making that point. However, the missing funds were from MEMA ( Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) not FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).
DeleteIt does not matter if it was FEMA or MEMA, if it was from Hurricane Katrina, JoAnn Ladner handled the money, NOT Stephanie. By the way, I do know the difference between the two.
ReplyDeleteIt does not matter if it was FEMA or MEMA, if it was from Hurricane Katrina, JoAnn Ladner handled the disbursement and invoices, not Stephanie! I do know the difference between FEMA and MEMA.
ReplyDelete