As I read the latest round of Mayoral Vetoes of City Council actions and minutes, Mayor Fillingame stated reasons for the veto caused me to do a double take and say to myself “Couldn’t this have been handled with a phone call?”. Of note is the City Council’s action directing the Mayor to open a bank account for the City owned community center was vetoed as ambiguous, my guess being that Hizzoner was the only person in the room that didn’t understand the Council directive.
The reason the council took this action is that there appears to be shortages of recognized revenues related to the rental of the facility to the public, a task handled by Hizzoner’s daughter, who makes way more annually than most of the Bay Fire Department employees that so courageously lay down their lives for public safety many times each year. Beyond under recognition of revenue, allegation have been made that cash deposits were paid and not refunded. The lack of internal controls in this area has been well documented in bad audit report after bad audit report.
These vetoes represent what the special interest group Les Lovers United terms “working together”, where the Mayor makes all the decisions and the City Council acts the part of rubber stamp, even for the bad decisions that skirt the limits of the law. In any event click below to obtain the full three page pdf of Hizzoner’s latest vetoes and decide for yourself: Continue reading ““If they would only work with me….”: A Bay St Louis Financial Disaster Update”