Want to bring up new business to the Bay St Louis Council and not be on the meeting agenda? No problemo you just do it and the doormats on the City Council invariably seem to go along. This is how you end up with an audit presentation happening at a Council workshop when an “audit update” morphs into a full blown audit presentation. It is slated to happen again tonight with the Mayor telling WLOX he’ll be bringing his pick to be chief of police to the City Council. Funny thing is that item of business is not listed on the agenda emailed out by City Council Clerk Tilley.
The first round of public comments are limited to agenda items only and since a new Police Chief is not on the agenda the Council will not hear from the public before they rubber stamp the Mayor’s choice. Worse though is the City Council spent around $10,000 on a performance audit which included the Office of the State Auditor telling the Council they should not take action on any item not on their agenda, noting the Council in the past frequently engaged in this highly questionable practice.
Mayor Fillingame had time to get his incomplete Mayor’s report agenda section of the meeting to the Council clerk before it was sent out yesterday afternoon and he evidently had time to tip WLOX he would be appointing a new police chief but evidently could not discharge both tasks simultaneously. It is another example of either ineptitude or the shit house, possibly even both. Either way it is a sad state of affairs at City Hall where simple meeting agendas are misleading by what they omit.
If Council votes on something not published for the public to have the opportunity to see in advance so they can make plans to attend the meeting to at least hear the discussion or even comment at Public Forum, shame on them.
This is escalating from no regard for the public they represent and who compensate them, to contempt for the public.
In fact, their new City Attorney cautioned them not long after he assumed his position at at meeting, that they had acted on an unadvertised item and to refrain from that as it violates the Open Meetings Act.
It will be to their advantage to heed his advice.
The Council rarely follows the agenda & believe you me if I’ve got something to say in Public Forum, I’ll say it; agenda item or not. The City & the Council are so inefficient & unorganized that I don’t think they know what’s going on anymore. Many years ago I took a Dale Carnegie class & something that I always retained was “complete a unit of work” & that’s something this Council doesn’t do. They never finish anything it’s always continued to another meeting, workshop or committee; remember the noise ordinance.
Interesting you mention the noise ordinance. The lease the city signed with the Secretary
Of State also has a statement in it about restricting noise at the Harbor. If you read the lease and the types of businesses the Secretary of State recommended for the surrounding Harbor premises, I don’t the what is happening right now is what he expected.
The Mayor denied having a nomination for the Police Chief to the newspapers. The next day he had one after being busted. His word is about as good as his daughters word. He has even promised him a raise! He did the same thing for the Harbor Master. Let him pay it.
The tax payers are tired of paying for Les’s promises! He is a debacle a day! He may be the worst manager that I have ever witnessed. There is not one dept that doesn’t have issues up to and including missing items and money!
I guess the third time is a charm, as they say. I believe last night was the third time the Mayor told the press he was naming a new Chief.
Council not only turned that down, but also came out of Executive Session and defunded the only administrative position in the Police Dept. Would that be the records Clerk?
So, now Les has no Chief, no
records Clerk? a Ccouncil workshop this coming Mon. to workout the details of an arrangement with the Sheriff’s Dept. and a trip to Jackson tomorrow for what Council President Falgout described as ” a summons from DOJ”
It will be Falgout, Mike Favre, Fillingame, and Trent Favre because Falgout stated they were told to ” bring their attorney!”
I think it’s pretty obvious that Les want Mayley for Chief. If you read the announcement and required qualifications, he all but described Mayley, even down to the rank.
Would be sad to see BSL lose their PD due to piss poor city management. Like Sherrif Adams. Seems to be sincere and honest man, but Diamondhead’s situation isn’t great. It’s the bare minimum.
Afraid that is what will happen if BSL loses their PD. Bare minimum. Coverage that doesn’t take into account the city’s specific needs or an improvement over the existing situation. It is going to cost much more than the initial numbers provided by Sheriff Adams. Special events. Special circumstances. Unexpected overtime. Much less flexibility. Community policing could very well end up like the disastrous countywide 911 call center, which was done in the name of streamlining and saving money.
Since the launch of the countywide emergency call center a decade ago: citizens and first responders have given up effective communication, response time speed and efficiency. The call center isn’t staff isn’t trained well nor are they familiar with all areas of the county. Communication between the call center, the callers and the first responders is severely lacking. If anyone associated says the system is working as intended, they are lying. What started out as well intentioned is now a total inefficient cluster. But made sense at the time the decision was made. Now the citizens are left with a countywide bureaucratic maze of oversight, a culture littered with cronyism and nepotism with zero hope of improvement. Typical Hancock County.
Long gone are the days when the local dispatchers answered and knew your location when given an address and what was needed (police, fire and/or ambulance) through a simple conversation. I’m sure there are some well intentioned folks working at the county wide 911 center and some that may get it. But they seem to be in the overwhelming minority. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen with policing in BSL.
If you want decent employees you have to pay better than a fast food restaurant. The pay scale in the Bay is a joke and the county is worse.
The schools pay relatively better but a state wide salary scale is used to which “local supplements” are added.
20 or so mills property tax to the BSL general fund is a joke too compared to its sister cities. Everyone wants first class services but no one wants to pay for it. Amd in the case of the Bay there is no way anyone in their right minds would give Fillingame more money to squander in any event.
A 911 call center is easily fixed where there is political will to fix it. The new Board of Sups shows promise with the younger, more community minded fresh blood elected last year.
The County needs to find a way to match what BSL is paying for the entirety of the Sheriff’s office and consolidate the various law enforcement agencies including Waveland. Same with the schools and the various fire departments as well. Every area that could be consolidated I’d encourage the elected officials to look at. And if taxes need to go up a bit county wide to insure services are delivered uniformly so be it because the overall tax bill for tbe vast majority of residents would go down overall.
All that said those sucking on the teat will fight it mightily, BWSD is already gearing up to fight Ron Thorpe’s consolidation proposal and I am told Alan Dedeaux at HC Schools is also readying to fight it.
Having lived in some pretty large and populous areas that only had one police jurisdiction, and who did it well, it is a little strange to hear people thinking that an area as small as Hancock County is, size and population wise, would be a disaster under one command.
Kevin Jordan sure is cozy with the Mayor and ex-city attorney. They were seen at a function in Pass Christian recently for the Ex-atty. Since Rafferty is King of Carnival in The Pass this year, I guess the Bay Mayor will be seen a lot in Chipper’s Territory. Isn’t the Pass Lucky to have such a distinguished Guest.. Ha Ha.
I’m not sure how your comment relates to this article, but I will try and put the pieces together.
In the attached agenda Kevin’s zoning request was not recommended by P&Z. Doesn’t look like any special favors were granted there nor did he avoid the process. Seems to be on the up and up. Unlike “friends & family” or “well connected folks” that are able to avoid the headache of following the process and granted the go ahead on projects behind closed doors. Council members included.
Kevin is a successful businessman that has invested heavily in Bay St. Louis/Waveland for years. His investments started long before Les was mayor and Rafferty was the sole city attorney. He used to be on the P&Z board. He would have reason to know many people at City Hall or associated with city business.
Kevin is a frequent flyer in Pass Christian and has plenty of friends there. Not earth shattering news. Has been the situation for a very, very long time. One in particular friend is his attorney, who isn’t Rafferty. Maybe Chipper has his ear and is talking to him about investing in Pass Christian? Something Chipper has been successful in doing. Quite a few new developments under construction, recently finished, or soon to be started by individual investors much like Kevin in PC.
The “Pass” is still a small town, much like BSL used to be. Amazingly, people that know each other, have had business dealings of some sort or personal relationships have a tendency to run into each other at a small town events/parties.
Curious: Is there some sort of a conspiracy happening between these three men that we should know about? Or is this a cautionary tale that we should all avoid holiday parties for fear of being lumped in a group of “unsavory” characters by having congenial conversations while out and about?
He handled his request openly and above Board.