Last night’s Bay St Louis City Council meeting was a spectacle folks so it is only right we kick start coverage with a reader request:
So let’s begin with a slightly misleading headline:
Auditor: Bay St. Louis’ funding reserves dwindling ~ Justin Mitchell and Jennifer Lenain
The slightly misleading part is the use of “Dwindling” which implies the City actually has a reserve at all when the fact of the matter is the reserve has been gone for well over a year with accompanying deficit, fueled by out of control spending, parked on a loan with The First that the City made without any statutory authority. But it is worse than all that because Mayor Fillingame, who has steadfastly denied the City had any financial problems to begin with, remains in deep denial:
Mayor Les Fillingame said he doesn’t think Guel’s findings are troubling.
Methinks Hizzoner is spending too much time playing on the Restore Bay St Louis Facebook page over by the Lemonade Spring. Meantime, in a matter of days an audit report complete with a Going Concern Qualified Opinion that is replete with major Internal Control and Legal Compliance findings will be released. Hizzoner meantime, is wanting to spend almost $200,000 the City does not have for a match on a reputed grant to fund another capital project. The disconnect from reality is frankly disturbing.
Around 11:00PM, the meeting recessed until July 21, 2014 on which date the audit firm will assist the City Council with the process of developing a responsible municipal budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Stay tuned.
Perfect, Doug. Wish we could get Billy Joel to perform at the Harbor Fest, or would this song be more appropriate for the meeting with the Auditors on July 21?
We all knew it was coming apart in March of 2013 when they stopped paying the Solid Waste and Hancock County Utility Authority.
Jeff Harding brought it up at the Political Forum at the Community Center during the campaign. Les calls him a liar, and the room broke into thunderous applause from all those unnecessary employees he mounted up over his 1st four years.
Then the Allilance for Good Government in Hancock County obtained the delinquent utility list from the city, and the first layer of the onion came off with the help of Slabbed News Media doing an ongoing analysis of the utility department.
By that time the new Councilmen Favre and Falgout had their feet wet and started digging into other issues, and the onion took another layer cut.
It has unraveled since then to an illegal line of credit, mounting bills, and now a Going Concern Report imminent from their auditing firm. Diligence pays off, especially in government.
To her credit (and she’s pretty weak most of the time) Council President Wendy McDonald had the Auditor give his report last night to a packed house. Three months ago they would have designed the agenda so that most of the citizens would have left and then heard the auditor. Maybe she is maturing.
There is no sign at all that Falgout and Favre are going to lighten up on the Mayor and city clerk, and in fact, may get tougher. That is good.
Councilman Reed also made a good point last night when he revealed a study he had conducted himself on other cities in the state with comparable populations to the Bay who are collecting far more sales tax than we do. He stated, “What is wrong with this supposed “coolest city in the nation?” It was good the Chamber Board was there to hear that since they are always ready to take a bow for being the economic engine and the reason for any success any business has. So much for that.
A new restaurant at the foot of the ramp at the Harbor ( pending the approval of the Secretary of State) must surely be rattling the cage of the Murphy family who have been pushed aside by the city and state for a long time and are now in litigation over their property.
Add to the Murphy suit the newest invitation to court by the family of Federal Judge Walter Gex.
It may be hot in the Bay, but it’s never boring.
Stay tuned for July 21.
Well, we finally dragged WLOX into the discussion on the dismal financial affairs in Bay St. Louis. They send Al Showers over. Wonder if that was at the request of Hizzooner, who I understand has approached every media outlet with a plea to be “nice” to HIS city in reporting this!
But, the so-called interview with Showers was obviously “cashin in” time for the Mayor for those free utilities Al’s been getting off the city. Last time I checked his balance was $500.00. That’s a lot of water for one person in a household.
They did interview a few people coming out of Froogle’s yesterday. Some of them thought the Mayor had explalined things very well. Have they ever been to a meeting? One said she didn’t thingk a $9 increase was so bad. What she doesn’t know is it is really an $18 increase since the first $9 she sent in for her garbage pick up never reached the Solid Waste Authority, and now she has to pay The First Bank for the money the Mayor borrowed to pay her bill she thought she paid. Are you confused enough?
And by the way, when is any of that Council going to ask the Mayor and City Clerk to address the Elephant in the room? What in the hell did you do with that $258,000 that belonged to Solid Waste?
With a wee bit of luck I may have something on Les and his media lap dog later today. If Al were honest in his journalism, he’d disclose at the end of every piece he does that he is a creditor of the City of Bay St Louis.
He serves as proof the City’s internal controls over collections in the Water and Sewer Fund are deficient.
He is a creditor? Net out the claims and hadanuff reports he has an outstanding balance for service…
So there must be at least one other other offsetting transaction other than the outstanding balance being discussed/ interesting.
My bad. Debtor not creditor.