STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PHONE & FAX: (228)-868-8428
E-MAIL: mccaleb4thdist@aol.com
WEBSITE: www.mississippiwebsite.com
STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PHONE & FAX: (228)-868-8428
E-MAIL: mccaleb4thdist@aol.com
WEBSITE: www.mississippiwebsite.com
July 30, 2001
By GEOFF PENDER
THE SUN HERALD
Monday, April 30, 2007
Talk
about call the kettle black, these Harrison County Supervisors are
now doing there jobs.
But, why aren't they cleaning up there own act first?
Links
County, Sun Herald drop suits against each other
Harrison County may cut spending
How supervisors spent $1 million in 'discretionary" funds
Auditor to examine supervisors' $1M escrow account
GULFPORT - As Harrison County supervisors last week pondered a $100 million government budget for 2001-2002, searching for fat to trim in hope of providing a tax cut, they forced numerous department heads to justify their spending and staff.
Actually it’s $99 million; the five (5)
supervisors take $1 million for themselves.
Then the Supervisor Larry Benefield will split the
$1 million, using a second set of books, among the five of them.
If the Supervisors are looking for fat, they need
not look any further than themselves.
Homer McKnight, director of the Building and Grounds Department, had the pleasure of being one of the first summoned. McKnight sat nervously in a chair facing the five elected supervisors. He described his department, a microcosm of county government spending that has skyrocketed during casino-driven economic good times of the last decade, despite a county territory that has been shrinking from city annexations.
What is microcosm???
I give up, what is Homer McKnight trying to say?
“What do these five people at the Gulfport Courthouse do at night?” asked Supervisor Connie Rockco.
“They basically empty the trash cans and sweep the floors,” McKnight said. “They're supposed to do more, but they don't. There are forms they're supposed to fill out, but they don't fill them out properly.”
I feel there is a lack of leadership in this case.
If the workers are not performing there jobs as
required, replace them.
The five full-time night cleaners for one courthouse, McKnight said, are paid for eight hours a day, but “there's no reason they shouldn't be out of there in three.” He said all five of them have other, full-time jobs.
Let me get this straight, the taxpayers are pay
for five (5) full-time night cleaners for the courthouse.
All five (5) have full time jobs elsewhere, and
they lack supervision and leadership.
What is wrong with this picture? And why are our
supervisors just now asking questions?
They themselves are in deep do-do, they have spent
the voters and taxpayers money as though it is a never-ending source of income.
McKnight told supervisors that another nine of his employees are stationed at the courthouse during the daytime. In all, Building and Grounds has 24 employees, costing taxpayers $694,000 in salaries and benefits alone, to clean and do light maintenance at eight county buildings. But supervisors and McKnight noted that county inmates do a good bit of the work.
This is getting more interesting by the minute.
The taxpayers spend $694,000 a year for 24
employees, which seem to be doing a half-ass job.
If the 24 employees are replaced with a private
cleaning company, how much of the $694,000 will go back to the supervisors for
them too spend?
“Homer, please tell me why we are doing this?” Supervisor Bobby Eleuterius asked at one point in McKnight's description of his department.
This is a question that should have been asked a
long time prior to this.
Anytime an elected official or state agency spends
one penny of the taxpayer’s dollars illegally, it is these people, which need
to be replaced.
I have requested Governor Ronnie Musgrove to
remove all five of the Harrison County Supervisors but he seems to ignore my
request.
His lack of action could cost him his next bid for
re-election as governor.
Supervisor Larry Benefield answered for McKnight: “In Homer's defense, he tried years ago when he first started to cut back and fix things. He ran into politics, was forced to go back to this way. All of a sudden, his janitors weren't smiling at the right people, weren't saying good morning properly. There should be nothing political about janitorial work.”
Blame it on the politician, that’s a good sign
someone doesn’t know what he or she is doing.
Supervisors ordered McKnight to cut staff, restructure his department. They suggested he cut his night crew, and stagger shifts to cover all the chores.
This is not going to go over well with the
cleaning crews.
“But Slim's been here a long time,” McKnight pleaded. “He lost his retirement with the city (when Gulfport privatized his other full-time job). And if I try to stagger these shifts . . . I have to take into consideration some of these women have families, got kids.”
This is what I call, poormouth, that is when
someone is trying to get pity for there lack of leadership.
McKnight was ordered to restructure anyway, or supervisors said they would consider turning over his department's duties to a private company.
This is a threat by the supervisors, and as we
know, you should never threaten someone.
It is well known that, “We the People,” need
to restructure our Harrison County Supervisors by removing them for office.
McKnight said, “Y'all tell me what you want done, and I'll do it.”
This is known as a, “yes man,” tell me what
too do and I will do it.
It may be time for Homer McKnight to find another
job outside of the taxpayer’s dollars.
The county Building and Grounds Department is not to be confused with the Outside Building and Grounds Department. OB&G was created years ago for the county to handle small electrical, plumbing and painting jobs in-house to save tax dollars.
“To save tax dollars”
I wonder if the tax dollars have been saved?
I have requested Attorney Joe Meadows, the County
Attorney, to provide me with the dollar amount the taxpayers spent on the
lawsuit brought on by the Sun Herald Newspaper.
Attorney Joe Meadows is reluctant to provide me
with this information even though it is public knowledge.
I went to the Courthouse and tried to find this
information but there booking keeping is all but impossible to find information
about anything.
But as supervisors studied the $459,000 OB&G annual budget, they noted that the department has grown into “a construction company,” with 11 workers, including four electricians, two plumbers and even a painter-supervisor.
It sounds too me like all of our supervisors are
democrats, how they love to spend the taxpayers money.
I am sure it has taken several years for the
OB&G to become a, “construction company.”
Which tells me our supervisors, now and in the
past, wanted a construction company, but now, do to there own problems, are
questioning why they have a construction company.
“Are we unionized or something?” Benefield asked. “Why do we have a paint supervisor? Doesn't he just paint?”
The bigger question is, why is Larry Benefield
even asking this question?
It is obvious he already knows the answer.
Despite OB&G's growth and expertise, the department still calls on private contractors or inmates to do many jobs.
And our supervisors act like they know nothing of
this practice.
The inmates need to stay at the jail and let the
one being paid by the taxpayers do the jobs they were hired too do.
Benefield noted, “A lot of departments won't even call them to do work. They put a ceiling in at a voting precinct, and it caved in while people were voting. The other day someone called them and they didn't show up because they said Civil Defense told them it was going to rain.”
Lack of leadership and supervision, if it wasn’t
for politics these workers would be looking for another job.
But instead all that is done is complaining about how sorry these workers are.
LINKS
DON'T VOTE FOR SUPERVISOR LARRY BENEFIELD FOR MAYOR
So the county budget hearings continued every day last week. Supervisors noted that numerous departments appear to be well run, some even understaffed.
I hate it when they do not name the departments
they are talking about.
I would like too know which department our
supervisors are talking about.
“David, you would have saved us $50,000 this year if it weren't for our insurance costs going up on your employees,” Supervisor Marlin Ladner told Tax Collector David LaRosa, one of the few department heads who didn't ask for a large budget increase.
So if you reduce the number of employees, which
aren’t doing there jobs, the cost of insurance goes down.
It sound simple enough too me, but then again this
must be a political decision.
This means there must be a (study done) before a
decision can be made.
But many departments are overstaffed and, perhaps, unneeded. Since cities have annexed much of the county's territory in recent years, the county is probably duplicating city services.
Now wouldn’t that be terrible, and our
supervisors are just now questioning the possibility of duplication city
services.
It seems like our supervisors are attempting to do
there job, but it is too late for that.
“We're approaching the point of double taxation,” said Benefield. “Cities promise to provide these services when they take these areas over.”
He is right about that, but it will be years
before our cites will provide the service they promise.
I know, I live in Long Beach and was annexed in
1980 and I am still waiting for proper water and sewer to be installed.
I have emailed and requested to be included in the
new water and sewer lines for hookup but the Mayor keeps ignoring me.
Benefield said the county is probably duplicating some of its own services. He is proposing that the five “county barns” or road work centers (one for each supervisor's district), be consolidated.
This will go over like a lead balloon.
Know one wants to give up there little power
structure.
I have requested that the Mississippi Gulf Coast
become a metropolitan area.
This would mean all of the cities and county
agencies would become one, and that my friends will save the taxpayers a lot of
money.
In some recent years, county revenue growth topping 5 percent a year has absorbed any government largesse. But county leaders are concerned about the present economic downturn. Revenue growth is projected at 3 percent for the coming year and some fear it could be lower. Extravagant government spending could prove disastrous.
The word (Largesse) means: kindness, generosity,
charity, money, gifts, assist, and bigheartedness
But we the taxpayers will never know what the
supervisors are doing or if they will tell the truth when they say something.
Remember, there wasn’t a second set of book
until someone came fourth and proved there was.
Besides, supervisors have come under fire this year for what many people believe is frivolous spending, and taxpayers have complained about a countywide reappraisal that doubled or tripled many tax bills.
REMEMBER: MONEY, POWER, & PERKS + FRAUD,
WASTE, & ABUSE = CORRUPTION
Anytime an elected official or state agency spends
one penny of taxpayer’s money illegally he or she should be replaced.
Governor, do your job and remove these five (5)
supervisors.
Supervisors last week ordered a countywide hiring freeze, and plan to find a consultant to help cut and restructure the government work force.
What did I tell you, the supervisors will be
hiring a consultant, and how much of the taxpayers money will be spent on this
consultant?
Supervisors Benefield and Rockco want the county to turn some government operations over to private companies, as Gulfport, Biloxi and other Coast cities have done. But other supervisors either doubt this would provide taxpayers with savings, or want to give county managers a chance to restructure first.
This is just a ploy to get your mind off of them
(supervisors).
I doubt if you will hear much about this in the
coming months.
And you can be assured it will not happen.
“The bottom line is, we need to change things,
from this board on down,” said Supervisor Marlin Ladner, after the board's
inquisition of Building and Grounds' McKnight. “Somehow, we haven't had the
gumption or the political will to change things . . . Private companies are
hiring people that are probably not anymore capable than Homer. But the private
guy is going to go out there and do it efficiently.”
I say we replace all of the supervisors with a
City Manager that will save the taxpayers at least $1 million plus a year.
Geoff Pender can be reached at 896-2329 or at
glpender@sunherald.com
STEVEN A. McCALEB
COMMANTARY
MY OPINION