Public good or private gain? 

STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PH0NE & FAX: (228)-8688428
E-MAIL: info@mississippiwebsite.com
WEB SITE: www.mississippiwebsite.com

IN DEPTH: THE TARA HILLS PROJECT  

By GEOFF PENDER and PATRICK PETERSON
THE SUN HERALD

Send suggestions, question or comments to cherylh@ethics.state.ms.us
 

Wednesday, August 01, 2001

Harrison County workers and tax money improved drainage in a subdivision being developed by Harrison County Supervisor Larry Benefield, records show, while the work itself violated federal wetlands laws and deviated from the county's standard procedures.

"Harrison County Supervisor Larry Benefield says he had nothing to do with county work in and around Tara Hills, a subdivision he developed in Orange Grove."

"Work itself violated federal wetlands laws and deviated from the county's standard procedures."

"Benefield says the work didn't improve his neighborhood's drainage, but documents and interviews indicate otherwise."

Let me make one thing clear, if you are an elected official in the state of Mississippi, you are above the law. It has been proven time and time again that if you are a taxpayer and voter in the state of Mississippi elected officials and state agencies, can and will spend your tax dollars as they see fit.

The county dug out a creek in 1995 and in 1998 installed large rocks called riprap along the banks to prevent erosion, benefitting Benefield's subdivision, Tara Hills. Benefield has since developed the Orange Grove subdivision. He signed a contract for a company to sell 80 lots in Tara Hills and pay him a total of $1.1 million. Benefield said recently that the company has sold 68 lots.

Since the county dug out a creek, and Supervisor Benefield developed the subdivision, he should pay for the cost of the riprap.

It's not that he can't afford it, and let's face it; it's the honest thing to do.

MONEY, POWER & PERKS + FRAUD, WASTE & ABUSE = CORRUPTION

Why do you think people running for elected office pay so much money to get elected?

Being an elected official or working for a state agency is big business, the days of being honest and serving the people is in the past.

The county usually secures permission or buys land from landowners before working on their property. But the county destroyed private property along Flat Branch creek south of Benefield's neighborhood without permission and reimbursed owners after the fact.

Did I mention that if you are an elected official that you are above the law's in Mississippi?

Nobody from the county who was interviewed, including road manager Terry Broadus, says they can remember exactly who ordered the work. They say they are sure it was not Benefield.

I wonder if the road manager would say the same thing if he was on the witness stand and under oath to tell the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I believe elected officials and state agency employees are the same as attorneys. Where else can you go to school for six year just to be taught how to lie in court.

But a couple who lost land along the creek say they were told to talk to Benefield when they called to find out why the county was on their property.

Why would these people lose land? Is it against the law to take something that is not yours? When I was growing up I was told that is stealing and you can go to jail for stealing.

Unless you are and elected official, it that case you are above the law.

County records show that contractors addressed their bids for the riprap work to Benefield.

Then he knows exactly how much money he owes the county for the purchase of the riprap.

This is a no-brainer 

"I can understand that people might say, 'This just doesn't look right,'" Benefield said in a recent interview. "But there's nothing there worth risking my reputation for."

Any person/elected official that believes what he is telling the public, and he believes the public believes what he is saying, has a very large problem.

The State Auditor's Office in 1999 investigated the county's drainage work in and around Tara Hills.

Phil Bryant has the distinct honor of serving as Mississippi’s State Auditor. He was first appointed to this position in November of 1996, to serve the unexpired term of his predecessor.
 

"It was determined that Mr. Benefield was in compliance with state law and was treated no differently than other developers in the area," said Pete Smith, spokesman for the auditor's office. Smith would not comment further on the investigation.

It seems too me that the State Auditors Office, Phil Bryant, and Mr. Benefield may be working against the Mississippi voters and taxpayers.

I would request the taxpayers of Mississippi email Pete K. Smith and request a copy of the records of the investigation.

Use the, "Public Records Act of 1983"

But records and interviews over the past several months indicate that Benefield's subdivision did receive some special treatment from the county.

What records and interviews has shown special treatment from the county?

'Talk to Larry Benefield'

Right!! Like he will tell you the truth.

Benefield said the county did the drainage work to help protect a county bridge on Duckworth Road and to prevent flooding south of the road. Tara Hills, he said, had no flooding problems.

This may be true, and then again it may not be.

But an after-the-fact U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit issued to the county says the creek project improved drainage north of Duckworth Road. At the time, Benefield's subdivision was the only development in that vicinity.

Contact Us!

http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Mailinfo/mailinfo.htm
                               click here

Perhaps I spoke too soon, it seems.

Landowners south of Tara Hills say they had no flooding problems before the county dug out the creek. But several longtime residents and landowners said part of Benefield's Tara Hills land was swampy before the county commenced its unannounced drainage work.

http://www.hampton-homes.com/mississippi/index.html
                                click here

Who are you going to believe, long time landowner and residents, or Benefield?

My money is on the landowners and residents!

Landowners said that when they called to ask the county why its workers were digging on their land, they were first told the county wasn't doing the work. Later, property owners said, they were told by the county, "You'll have to talk to Larry Benefield about that work."

What is the word I am trying to think of, you know, when someone is on your property without permission. What is that word, OH - "TRESPASSING" that's the word. 

County records show quotes from contractors bidding on the riprap installation were addressed to "Larry Benefield, Lyman Work Center." Benefield voted along with the rest of the Board of Supervisors to accept a contractor's low quote of $7,100 to install $12,000 worth of riprap the county bought for Tara Hills. The quote was included in a long list of things the county was buying that month, and Benefield said he didn't notice the riprap paperwork.

Let's see, $7,100.00 Plus + $12,000.00 = $19,100.00, this is how much Benefield owes the county for his development of Tara Hill Subdivision.

http://www.hampton-homes.com/mississippi/index.html
                                click here

And he owes the landowners an apology for giving them the political run-around.  

Benefield said the riprap was installed in his neighborhood only after he turned the street and bridge he built over to the county, so the county was then responsible for drainage.

It sound like good timing too me. But is does not sound honest.

Few small county drainage projects get riprap, because the material is expensive and hard to install, said Broadus, the county road manager. Officials, including Benefield, could name only one other drainage ditch inside a subdivision that the county has protected with riprap, and it received only about half as much of the material as Tara Hills. Usually, the county only uses riprap around major thoroughfares, not in subdivisions.

Well, that settles that. 

And so much for Supervisor Larry Benefield's honesty - can you believe this man is running for mayor.

 Benefield joins race for mayor
 Click here

The riprap job in Benefield's neighborhood looks different than others that county leaders cited as comparable. The rock-lined banks of the creek in Tara Hills are even and manicured, and stretch far beyond the bridge Benefield built. In other areas, riprap appears to have been dumped only around bridge pilings.

It looks like Benefield was more worried about the looks than how much money he screwed from the taxpayers of Harrison County.

"That's probably just the difference between county workers doing it and a private contractor," Broadus said. "Some of those other ones, we probably did ourselves. (In Tara Hills) we hired a contractor to do it. ... The smaller ones, we probably do on our own. But we don't do the ones with the large tonnage."

So, now the taxpayers not only paid $19,100.00 for the contractor and riprap, they also paid for the contractor.

I wonder how much the contractor cost the taxpayers - Remember, he kept getting re-elected which caused not only taxpayers from his district to pay for his subdivision. But he caused taxpayers from the entire district to pay.

Landowners south of Tara Hills, where the county dug out the creek, got no riprap. Erosion continues to eat away their creek banks.

E-mail me about your problems and I will place them in my web site.

info@mississippiwebsite.com
              click here

Broadus said the county "probably should have, and still might" put in riprap south of Duckworth Road.

I would say this is a good idea, because when Benefield pays the $19,100.00 and the cost of the private contractor. There will be money for riprap to be placed south of Duckworth Road.

Working with, without permission

Is this a guess?

The county can go into natural drainage ways, such as Flat Branch, and work without permission, provided it doesn't destroy private property or protected wetlands in the process.

Makes sense too me, except Flat Branch is not Tara Hills, Benefield's subdivision.

But Harrison County and other governments usually get "temporary easements" before they traverse private property. For about a decade, Broadus said, the county has had a written release form for landowners to sign to allow county workers onto their land.

Have I mentioned that if you are an elected official you are above the law in Mississippi? If you do not believe me ask Supervisor Benefield.

But don't expect an honest answer remember he is a politician. 

"It's just a good policy," Broadus said.

I am sure Broadus is right on this matter, but why didn't Benefield acquire the temporary easement? 

Broadus said he knows of no other instance when the county has destroyed private property, then reimbursed people after the fact. Usually, the county buys the property first.

I bet the Harrison County taxpayers paid for destroying private property after the fact. 

Records show that getting easements was standard procedure on a much larger drainage project the county had going at the same time in Orange Grove.

But this drainage job was for Tara Hills Subdivision, which was being developed by Supervisor Larry Benefield for $1.1 million.

Broadus said county workers made a simple mistake when they destroyed wetlands and private property without easements near Tara Hills. He and other county road and engineering officials are unsure who actually ordered county workers to clean out 2,200 feet of creek below Benefield's subdivision. But they all said they agreed it needed to be done, mainly to protect the bridge on Duckworth Road.

I have the feeling that Larry Benefield knew exactly what he was doing.

It's who he is that has allows him to get away with this.

Anyone else would be paying a fine for destroying wetlands.

And they're all certain Benefield didn't ask for the work.

And all of them want to keep their jobs.

"Larry did not come directly to me and say to do this," said Robert Saucier, assistant road manager for the Lyman Work Center in Benefield's district.

Then who did order the work to be done, I am sure the road manager remembers who that would be.

"I mean, after we did the bridge (on Duckworth), anybody could see the creek needed cleaning out."

So, the road manager took it upon himself to destroy wetlands.

But Sandra Cuevas, a former secretary at the county's Lyman Work Center in Benefield's district, said she once overheard Benefield talking with a county equipment operator at the center. The operator, she said, had been working in the Tara Hills area, and came into the office in a panic because, Cuevas said, "men in suits from the corps had shut him down."

It smells like corruption is working at Tara Hills, and who owns Tara Hills, none other than County Board Supervisor, Larry Benefield.

"Larry told him, 'don’t worry about it. I'll handle the Corps of Engineers.'"

That means the Larry Benefield has the Corps of Engineers in his pocket.

'Clean bill of health'

Of course

Benefield said he doesn't remember the conversation Cuevas described. But he said he did hire the county equipment operator to work for him at Tara Hills. Benefield said the man was working there only on his off time and that he, not the county, paid the equipment operator.

Larry Benefield had selective hearing, that's where he hears only what he wants to hear.

Has anyone requested to see his books in order to see the payroll checks he wrote to the operator?

Benefield said construction has begun on the last few lots he has sold in Tara Hills. Homes in the neighborhood start at about $120,000.

At $120,000 a pop, Larry Benefield must be rolling in dough.

And being the President of the Board of Supervisors, he has all the resource's needed to get Tara Hill's completed at a very low cost.

Benefield said he believes questions about the Tara Hills drainage are politically motivated and are surfacing now because he is running for mayor of Gulfport.

Of course Benefield would say his problem is politically motivated; but I doubt if he believes it is.

"Everything you're asking me about, the state auditor already looked into, and so did the Attorney General's Office," Benefield said. "They gave me a clean bill of health."

Now here is where politics enters into the picture.

Why would the Attorney General, Mike Moore have anything too do with Tara Hills in the first place?

But questions about the work surfaced months ago, long before Benefield made his mayor's race official, because of the county's tax reappraisal.

I am glad Benefield ran for Mayor, and I am happy he lost the Mayor's race.

Now, if I could only get the Governor, Ronnie Musgrove too do his job and remove all five of the supervisors.

And replace them with people not politician’s, which want to work for the people.

At a public hearing, a couple said they believed the county was charging too much for taxes on their land because it had been bisected by the creek work.

I would have to know who appraised the land and set the tax base.

The work south of Benefield's subdivision was done around the same time the county and city of Gulfport spent about $8 million on a drainage project that channelized Flat Branch from O'Neal Road to Interstate 10. That project eliminated flooding danger for dozens of homes and businesses in Orange Grove and allowed for construction of Crossroads Shopping Center.

It sound to good to be true, and you know what they say about that.

The county hired an engineer to design the larger improvements. But the engineer didn't include in his design any of the work farther north, near Benefield's subdivision, although the county used some of the same money it borrowed for the larger Flat Branch project to do the Tara Hills work.

You see, it who you are that determines how corrupt you are and what you can get away with.

It seems supervisor Larry Benefield is pretty slick at getting free work done, and let the taxpayers foot the bill.

Benefield received much of the credit for the city and county getting the large Flat Branch project completed. Benefield said that when he first ran for supervisor, improving drainage was one of his key platforms.

And since he was building Tara Hills at the same time it was just natural to have the work done father north.

But Benefield said he knew nothing about the work near his subdivision.

If you believe that, I will sale you so good swamp land.

"I'm not involved in the day-to-day operations," he said.

By saying this he covers his be-hind, and that's what makes him a politician, but not a good politician. 

"There had to be some process as to why that was decided. Did Larry Benefield do it? No. ... Did it benefit my project? No."

I am confused, did he, of didn't he? That is the question.

Geoff Pender can be reached at 896-2329 or at glpender@sunherald.com. Patrick Peterson can be reached at 896-2343 or at pfpeterson@sunherald.com.

STEVEN A. McCALEB
COMMENTARY
MY OPINION