Those of you on the other side of the news business would be shocked to understand how much major news is brought to light by pure happenstance or in the words of Jill Abramson:
I admit that I am hopelessly hooked on the printed newspaper. I love turning the pages and the serendipity of stumbling across a piece of irresistible information or a photograph that I wasn’t necessarily intending to read.
And sometimes the stars align just right to help create some of that sweet serendipity.
Whatever the case, when I look back over the last 9 years plus doing Slabbed, some of our biggest topics came to us exactly that way. Now the Hancock County Solid Waste Authority, a governmental entity unique in Mississippi local governance, has presented itself for us. Last week Slabbed wrote about how the Les Fillingame Administration manipulated elections horse trading City jobs in exchange for a candidate leaving the Ward 6 Council race. The virulent reaction it caused among what I would term the supporting cast to the larger story was an important clue that a sore spot had been hit. What we quickly found out was the time documentation submitted by the contracted Solid Waste Enforcement Officer Tommy Kidd has been a continuing source of controversy within the Solid Waste Authority for the past 18 months. Far from being some sort of ghoul that rises from the dead every election cycle to serve as click bait as was suggested this is a prime example of a story that has been under reported.
Every instinct tells me the Hancock Solid Waste Authority is fertile ground for examination, especially after last night’s Solid Waste Authority Board meeting. Tomorrow we examine the reactions to Slabbed’s initial post, give some additional details that I purposely omitted from the first post, post Mr. Tommy’s contract for everyone to see and plus make a connection to an old story Slabbed covered several years ago.
Tease.
Guilty as charged.
Is the chicken in the pot?
So glad to hear you are posting Kidd’s long over due contract.
This will give the members of the Solid Waste Authority an opportunity to read and make copies for themselves of a document they obligated us to, and which, after reading it myself, in my opinion Mr. Kidd has violated regarding the language concerning his assigned responsibilities for which he can legally submit a monthly invoice.
Perhaps if the commissioners had read it, they would have taken the appropriate action last night and terminated his contract.
I can’t wait to see this beauty. How many violations do you think he has committed as per his contract. If they don’t fire him now, shame on them. Maybe we should the drain the Swamp in the WWA. Can the public attend their board meetings?
Can Tommy Kidd be fired again from another department in the Hancock County. I hope they learned their lesson after this time.
Fdlow your nose and instincts Doug…you are doing fine
Pay attention to how many end up on Trash Doctors payroll.
It’s being said that Les has leaked that his back up plan is to be hired by them! I believe it.
The medical waste group should show Joey who to pay off. It was approved quick and easy. No court battles.
Yep! It was what supervisor David Yarborough said. I don’t know David personally. But, I can say he really has the constituents best interest not only in what he says but also in what he does. He routinely fixes road signs, clears basic drainage issues etc. at great savings to the tax payer. He is not letting problems accumulate to give a fat contract to a friend or supporter!
Mr. Boudin has provided a service to 2 counties for years. He can create competition and the supervisors didn’t think competition was a factor while knowingly letting the waste site charge Hancock County Residents $2 a yard more than they are giving to out of state customers. Instead of representing the tax payers interest they have used personal friends, recreational interest, and other contacts that benefit them to make a decision. We voted 2 yrs or so ago, we may have got just what we asked for????
Who voted against him? I thought it was a landfill. My wife was a flager for him when it was accepting all kinds of trash after Katrina.
The 3 stooges, Adams, LaFontaine & Ladner, lead by Attorney Yarborough to protect private interest!
I’ve heard the same about one of them. Sometimes elected officials forget where they came from and the family that supported them.