There are more things happening right now behind the scenes in Bay St Louis than I have time to cover today, all of which have their roots in last Tuesday night’s meeting which I was unable to attend. If the Sun Herald covered it I missed their story but we can always count on the local newspaper of record to cover such vital public events as the Seacoast Echo had a reporter there Tuesday night so first up is the today’s story on last Tuesday’s Bay City Council meeting courtesy of the Seacoast Echo. We’ll circle that story for right now and move on to a couple of coded messages I am receiving from prominent members of the community. Here is the first one:
But the most intriguing one is below the jump.
Finally the rumor mills is saying that Bay St Louis Mayor Les Fillingame has announced a major personnel restructuring at City Hall to better align the current workforce with Hizzoner’s strategic vision for the City. I am working to confirm these personnel moves but this is what I was able to discern from the Restore Bay St Louis Facebook page:
1. Marketing professional and current City Cultural Affairs Officer Paula Fairconnetue to become the new Chief Financial Officer.
2. Current Animal Control Officer to become Director of the Building Department.
3. Current Bay Building Official Charles Oliver to wear two hats as City Cultural Affairs officer and local alcohol licensing officer for the City.
4. Katie Stewart to become Police Chief /DOJ Grant manager.
5. Chief Denardo to become Fire Chief.
6. Fire Chief San Fillippo to become facilities rental coordinator.
Coming up in Part 2. Slabbed will analyze these latest gyrations in detail. Stay tuned.
That is almost believable taking into account of the ineptitude of the administration! Building official can tell everyone the best back road routes to take home after a early day at Les’s house.
That is an impressive group Les has plugging for him now! Wow he knows how to pick em!
LIL Daddy Said out early at 3:00 getting hair done. Did she have paid time away from work. Dont believe so but she did pick up Les’s grand babies on time from school!
RG is really a credible leader! Runs her mouth and proves daily she just likes the press. Les is the most important person she has ever know. Both of em on a Govt Check!
Maybe you all
Should
Mind your buisness . What does it matter if they get a damn haircut. Maybe you should spend more time with your kids and bring them to get a haircut!! Bam!!
Cause you see I’m on losing streak
I can’t get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that’s what I say
The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” Live 1965 (Reelin’ In The Years Archives)
Sun Herald reporter wasn’t there & the Echo reporter was outside the door talking to Al Showers loud enough to irritate those of us sitting by the door, can’t report what you’re not listening to.
Just being a regular citizen in Bay St Louis is kind of like living in the Twilight Zone. I attended last Tuesday’s meeting but left, at 7:35, before the last Public Forum. Up until that point, it was a meeting about a fishing tournament; a Godforsaken missing marina alternate & if he needed to be advised that he was no longer an alternate even though he hadn’t participated in Marina meetings in 2 years, & he vote; a Ward 6 resident brought up the $31o in an odd way so the Mayor requested a switch to the finance report & BAM some woman starts talking; I tap Rafferty with my fan & ask who she is & he says “That’s Sissy the new Clerk”. Well, Sissy Gonzalez is the new Comptroller as she was introduced towards the end of the meeting. The elephant in the room , the $310,000 or the veto was never discussed. Uncomfortable topics were tabled until a recessed meeting Monday Feb 22nd with NO PUBLIC FORUM
Cajuncutie:
“Uncomfortable topics were tabled until a recessed meetingMonday Frbruary 22nd with no public forum”.
Let’s make BSL Great Agin- Done recall da’ band, Lesbo and the Lachy Five , now fo’ playing financial musical chairs agin da’ public trust.
Da’ recall gunna be HUGE ….we’s gunna win BIG …..gunna gets tired of WINNING.
Cajun,
There are many things that get discussed at city meetings that are no care to most but that is how it is done. If you have something you want to air out or question we will be obliged to listen whether we care or not. As far as the vetoes go, the minutes have to be approved before that can happen.
The seacoast echo reporter spends more time smoking and talking than listening. Thus his story is usually lacking and favors what ever Les says the next day.
The Harbor Commissioner was a guy that could not get one council vote to serve. Les then planted him as an alternate to keep tabs on meetings. when a commissioner quit due to the administration inappropriately taking funds from the harbor they reduced the amount of commissioners. This still left him out. Now he is in because of a lack of interest of the commissioners because Les continuously bypassed their duties and responsibilities because he couldn’t guarantee what he wanted recommended to the council. (The exact reason you have commissions and boards to keep politics out of it) So he paid The City Attorney to run all harbor decisions to keep it private and privileged. Let’s don’t discount that the Attorney even over saw his own events and was paid to do so by the full faith and credit of the BSL Tax Payer!
And so here we are with investigations occurring! Go figure?
Just a reminder to everyone of the continuation of the recessed meeting of last Tuesday is tomorrow evening, Monday, February 22, at 5:30 pm.
Some items of greatest importance on the Agenda are;
1. The contract for the City Attorney
2. The ratification of Paula Fairconnetue as City Clerk.
This is of utmost importance because, while Paula is a fine person with an unblemished reputation in the community and as a long time city employee, at the same time she does not possess the financial background for this position.
The city is in crisis financially at this time, and in my opinion and that of many others, is in dire need of a Certified Public Accountant to manage the city’s books.
It is mind boggling that the Council will not simply inform the Mayor not to nominate anyone to them that does not hold a CPA license. It is further mind boggling that the Mayor refuses to advertise for and seek an individual with these credentials.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow night. It will be very telling as to how serious the Council is regarding the legal and appropriate operation of the city’s finances with regard to ratifying this nomination of the Mayor.
The ratification of a replacement on the School Board to replace Clevand Williams, who resigned last week with two years left on his five year term of office. The Agenda states that the replacement is for Maurice Singleton, but that is incorrect unless he has informed the Mayor of his desire to resign as well. The Alliance was in attendance at the School Board meeting last week and the Board announced their contacting the city for a replacement for Trustee Williams, not Singleton.
The approval of engaging an accounting firm to quote the Mayor at last week’s meeting, ” to assist him in getting the books ready for this year’s audit.” So the books have yet to be closed out on last year’s fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30 of 2015!!
To simply hire a CPA would be the easiest, safest, and most cost effective for the taxpayers.
After all, the taxpayers have paid $55,000 to the last private auditing firm, $10,000 to the DOJ firm, $8,750 to the State Auditor’s Office for the Performer Audit that is being conducted now, and $5,000 a month to the new firm they hired in Oct. to replace Wright, Ward, Hatten, & Guel. and now the Mayor wants to hire another firm to “get the books ready?”
An important issue with regard to the Mayor’s request for yet another firm to help with the city’s books is the fact that this was not in the budget adopted last Sept. 30.
Perhaps the first order of business is to entertain a motion to amend the budget and discuss whether this expenditure is worthy of an amendment.
Council, just hire a CPA to be on staff and get this over with.
Nothing is listed on the Agenda about the Mayor vetoing the Council’s actions to revoke his bond and that of the two former Clerks, David Kolf and Catherine Smith in order to repay the DOJ account with $300,010.44 from the Reserve Fund.
Please grab a neighbor and attend this meeting. A lot is at stake.
And as I said, Lana, how nifty to hold this meeting with no Public Forum
It does seem unfair except that it is a continuation of a recessed meeting where two Public Forums were held as is the usual format in their meetings.
We in the Alliance are grateful for the second Public Forum at the end of the meeting for the public to have an opportunity to address items that came up during the meeting after public forum.
I feel Council President Boudin will at least clarify questions anyone may have tomorrow night. We’ll see.
Just attend, please!
I agree with you Lana, Paula is a fine person, but for City Clerk? No way. We definitely need someone with accounting experience.
But then, Paula has been part of the system and Les figures he can trust her with “cooking the books”. Just feel sorry for Paula, he is putting her in a serious position. Does this new position come with a Raise for Paula?? maybe that is why she is taking it. Do we really need to replace her current position? Wonder who he has in mind for that?? Everything should be left as is and a new Clerk hired with accounting experience. What is wrong with this Council?? I am definitely beginning they are definitely part of the problem also. If they don’t do the responsible vote tonight on City attorney, then they all need to go..
The money they have spent on auditors in the last year is right now at $93,000.
They could have hired a CPA and had things on the road to recovery by now.
A CPA would not tolerate the commingling and miss spending and ignoring state laws and legal agreements with banks because he or she would have a license to lose.
If the Council hires Paula tonight for this crucial position at this crucial time and approves a team if “financial experts” as Les described them, then we’ll
Know they don’t care. We see how each one voted.
Why promote Paul to Zciyu Clerk if you have to hire a team if ” experts” to do what a City Clerk does?
This is insanity?
We’ll be watching tonight and commenting tomorrow for sure.
There is no limit to what deceptive measures are what harm he puts people in. He is about as bad as it gets. No fiscal responsibility. No conscience. No sense of right or wrong. Make it up as you go and defer to the next meeting. I am really just lost for words on his behavior and the ability to continue on his destructive path.
Holy Rampant Running Rumors, Batman;
This video explains Lesbo’s newest rumors —– how many residents knew the Mayor of Mayberry is a Goatherder!
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+video+of+mayberry's+mayor&view=detail&mid=017EA61231485ADB32CF017EA61231485ADB32CF&FORM=VIRE7
Goatherder no, Opportunist yes.
Paula is a fine Christian person who has served the city for many years. But a city clerk she is not.
Also, the taxpayers should realize that the Echo reporter who mostly talks and smokes and favors the mayor has a wife who is employed by Les. Connect the dots. That’s how things work in Mayberry.
By trying to nominate a person without any background in finance the Mayor is really saying he could find no one with the core competencies that was willing to work for him. If Mrs. Fairconnetue were qualified for the position there would be no need to hire a CPA firm to close the books on 2014-2015. She isn’t qualified so the solution is to spend even more money on a CPA firm. Hizzoner had a second chance when Clerk Clark was hired and he burned through that opportunity quickly when Mr. Clark voted with his feet and went back to his old job. Short of the cover up of the accumulated deficit coming to an end, I personally can’t see anyone that is both competent and possessive of some common sense carrying the Mayor’s water, which has not worked out so well for Mr. Clark’s two predecessors.
Having been to several meetings I do not blame the Echo beat reporters for the terrible reporting, rather my opinion is 100% of that blame goes to Publisher Randy Ponder, who I’ve personally never seen at a Bay City Council meeting. Turds like the one the Echo laid down last Saturday that consisted of personal attacks on the local Alliance for Good Government was in no way the brainchild of Stacey Cato in my opinion because she was writing the story she was told to write. He should’ve had the cojones to put his name on it.
Tell it like it is! All truths!
The mayor is trying to pit a political argument into a professional problem. Paula will have many friends for and against her but it is not about her, like the mayor is going to try to sell. It is about the financial balance of the City. I wish she were qualified. She is one of the easiest people to work with and deserves all she can get. Putting her in that job will not do her or the City any good.
Let us all not forget that when Clark voted with feet, the Council voted with their voices and told the Mayor to advertise for a City Clerk.
Maybe the Council should handle this the way they handled their Deputy Clerk’s resignation in Nov.
They advertised in the paper for the position, and when she wanted to come back, they told her she had to apply like everyone else who had responded to the ad.
They should make the Mayor run the ad as he was directed and anyone who is interested can apply including Paula.
Doug,
I think at this point it would be fair to drop the word “rumor” from the title of this post.
After what we all heard at last night’s Bay St. Louis city Council meeting, it is no longer rumors.
The taxpayers are now having to engage the services of an outside accounting firm to close out the books of the last fiscal year.
The audit will be at least 6 months late it looks like.
Insurance is a huge debacle, bills almost a year old in the docket. Total chaos. Total!!
Sad.
The Mayor was told months ago to advertise for a City Clerk and completely and deliberately ignored the Council.
As usual, John Q. Public is having to bail him out agsin. This is getting old to say the very least.