Those of you not reading Nunn’s comments are missing out. When the man speaks of the opposition organizing, he is talking about a model that has proven results.
Back in 2015 with the Singing River pension meltdown dominating the news there was also state and county elections. I was invited by the SRHS retirees group along with other select members of the media to a meeting that organized the opposition in the 2015 Jackson County election, both to observe and as a member of the media who was seen as sympathetic to their cause (which we were). Out of that meeting came a strategy for targeting certain incumbent supervisors for defeat as well as supporting other candidates that promised to help advance the retirees cause.
At the time of that meeting I already had this post conceptualized. Without going into details we let the retirees know we had some material coming that would be explosive, it would be up to them to make sure word got out when the time came. I would invite you good folks from the Bay to read the comments to the post I linked because Nunn is talking about Citizen activism like this:
What a day it has been.This campaigning against something or someone is hard work but fun. I feel comfortable tonight sending this message to the McKay dirt pit headquarters in Ocean Springs Vancleave is lost and this Mongrel is headed south down 57 come daylight. As I said earlier I left out this morning with 1000 custom made flyers and you know I do not have one single flyer left. I left some at the Chevron first, then went across the street to the other convenience store and then on to Freds, Burnham Drugs, Greers and all other places of business. In Greers I even strolled thru with a buggy and personal gave a flier to everyone in the store for over an hour. I did not find anybody all day that would admit to supporting McKay. I did encounter one person who was thinking about McKay but was not sure. I resolved that for him or he may have agreed with me to get me to shut up. Tomorrow I am going to get my sign polished up early and start out at the Vancleave Community Center then I going down to the St. Martin Community Center and I might make it all the way down to Fountainbleau Community Center.
The rest is history folks. Slabbed got more credit than we deserved from the political folks out of both Jackson and Jackson County but the power of civic activism coupled with a media willing to lend publicity is a tough combination to beat when it all comes together just right.
There were certainly competing financial interests in the retiree group yet they put those differences aside for a greater good. The same holds true in the Bay, the question is can a unified opposition to the Mayor be stitched together in less than two weeks?
In the recent political forum sponsored by the Alliance for Good Government, one of the candidates blurted out that it was the City Council causing all the bad press because they were trying to block the administration at every turn. But lets look at what the Council has done which is their jobs. They questioned the administration’s handling of city funds. Imagine if you will if they had not exposed the DOJ funds being co-mingled in the general funds, or set up the debt service fee on the water bill to cover the Hancock Bank bond note, or questioned illegal Fire Department raises, which Les had to repay out of his own pocket, or question the dismal audits year after year, imagine what the city would look like today.
Look what has transpired in the Police Department, the Chief shot himself because Les did not do his job. Les allowed the Chief’s wife to remain on the payroll after she left the employment of the City. Why? If he didn’t know he should have known after all he is the CEO of the city. Again this has never been about the City council its about the Mayor.
Lets look at the Building Department. The City had a top notch building official Ron Jones who now works for the City of Diamondhead. Why was he run off. What about Josh Hayes. He was an up and coming official who educated himself and now works for the City of Diamondhead. Why were these building officials driven off from the city. Now we are approving trailers on pylons. Our beach front building were built with foundation permits only. I pray that the balconies don’t fail for the lack of proper supports on one of the establishments. Speaking of the building officials two were arrested one for breaking and entering a business, the other for DUI case still pending. Why are they even on staff who knows, well we really know. No integrity what so ever. This has nothing to do with the Council. Just bad management controlled by the Mayor.
Can I go on? Oh yes, I could mention that the mileage was raised over 5 mills, the water and sewer fees increased 2 times over the last 4 years, more properties have been developed in Bay St. Louis than ever before. Yet, there is never a balanced budget. With all the houses recently built, you would think the tax collections would be pouring in. But we can build street lights that we cannot maintain or keep lighted. Driven down 603 lately? But we need a community Pool, more dog parks and bike paths for what? When is the last time the trash piles have been picked up?
I said this earlier we can’t know where we are going until we know where we have been, the next four years will be like the last eight only worse if les get’s a favorable city council. He will take that as a mandate to move forward like never before.
Les has never taken responsibility for anything, never asked for help from the Council, or really tried to work with them. The problem is with the Mayor and always has been. The Current council adverted a similar fate experienced in Waveland a few years ago. So Doug’s question is can we unify in the next two weeks? I ask the question, have you had enough? Nobody can sit this out, we have to get out and vote on May 16th.
A unified opposition can be accomplished in about 15 minutes with a few phone calls/meetings between Farve, Harding and Ramsey.
The cold, hard fact is that Harding has only a very slim chance of winning in the general against Fillingame (and virtually none against Farve), even if he had support from a fair number of anti-Fillingame Dems who actually vote in the general. However, Fillingame can be beaten in the runoff fairly easily _IF_ the various currently disparate oppositions work together.
Look at Ward 4, where the incumbent Compretta is not running again:
In 2017, there were about 450 total votes in the primary, with the winning Dem getting about 170 and even the losing Dem got significantly more votes (about 160) than both GOP candidates combined (about 120 total).
In 2013, Compretta (Dem, unopposed in the primary and general) got 475 in the primary, yet only 400 in the general, but Fillingame got about 290 versus Weems 240 in primary and in the general, Fillingame got about 300 and Harding got about 140.
Now look the overall general in 2013:
Harding lost to Fillingame about 1500-700. *** And take note – in 2013, Fillingame beat his primary challenger Weems roughly 1450 to 1000, so basically, his primary numbers mirrored his general numbers, but overall, about 300 less folks voted in the general. *** Possibly of note is that Farve got about 1050 votes to win the general Councilperson at Large election in 2013 and got about the same in the primary BUT NOTE *** his 2 Dem primary opponents split the remaining 1250 and his 3 general challengers also split about 1250. ***
Now, in 2017, Fillingame basically split the Dem vote with Farve in the primary roughly 1050-1050, with Ramsey’s 160 being the “spoiler” for both. As to the runoff, if just a couple of hundred Harding/GOP supporters would put community over party in the runoff, Fillingame is almost certainly done. Add in some percentage of Ramsey’s 160 primary voters, and that just helps frost the cake.
Here is what I see as a potential “fly in the ointment:” It seems pretty clear that somewhere around 2500-2800 total voters is the max upper limit of total numbers of Bay St. Louis voters in any particular election (primary, runoff or general), with 2300-2500 being the likely range in the general, but I do not have any specific insight about Fillingame’s theoretical “emergency backup voter base,” if any. Can anyone give any objective, reasonable and supportable idea of how many people Fillingame could mobilize if things looked really bad for him? Basic electoral stats put the number fairly low, but given the small margins, 300-400 votes will decide this thing so any specifics are helpful.
Word!
As many people as the employees at City Hall can bring in when he threatens their jobs….
Fact R Fiction
Blowgez , the mayors assistant,
has a commercial dog training business in a residential area.
You can find him through out the day checking on them while employed by the city.
And now he is begging his friends to have a change in heart for who they are voting for because his job is in jeopardy.
Which job is he talking about?
Fact!
Fact R Fiction
Now daddy’s little girl substitutes teaching at a school.
BUT who also stays on her Facebook Page through out the day, Along with the rest of Lucifer’s disciples.
And they all get paid.
Fact!
Back when I worked that was known as time clock fraud.
Check the audits & see who adjusts their time sheets.
Fact R Fiction
Watch during absentee voting. They are always calling friends in on city time to come vote. I have seen this 4 years ago & again this year.
Fact!
So why do we need them?
All teachers are on Facebook during the day. This was a policy that Casey wanted. Talk about having kids in his best interest..,more like his teacher friends.
The law of averages won’t even support your claim that ALL of the teachers are on facebook during the day.
That is an insult and slap in the face to our teachers who work very hard and deal with untold amounts of challenges throughout the day.
So, you are obviously a Les supporter who is bad mouthing the faculty in our local school district. This election is stooping to levels I have never seen.
You may not like Mike and his son, but to berate our hard working teachers, that is the worst.
And you can do this under a screen name. What a courageous lot you are.
With friends like you and Les, our educators don’t need enemies.
Not questioning their dedication and hard work, only stating that they are on Facebook. There you go distorting facts again.
Wow,
Your post was very insulting and you know it. I doubt you would say it if you had to identify yourself. Hiding behind a screen name, and saying I distort things. You distort your identity. How’s that for distortion.
Not worth commenting on your posts anymore. Cowardly.
I must have hit a nerve.. cowardly? So am I the only one posting anonymously? I think not!
Wow,
You are the only one on here posting anonymously attacking school teachers. Speaks volumes about you.
Maybe you need to read my comment again. I was not attacking teachers. The policy allows them to be on their phones. I question the policy, not the teachers. Once again you have distorted facts. You are quite something and I have enjoyed the entertainment. Have a great weekend!
Wow,
I’ll save the trouble of having to scroll back to your original statement.
Here is what you said:
“All teachers are on Facebook during the day. This is a policy that Casey wanted. Talk about having kids in his best interest….,More like his teacher friends.”
Yes you are degrading teachers here in our school district. You criticize Casey Favre, accuse him of not having the kids in his best interest, and accuse the teachers of not having them in their best interest either because some are his friends.
This has been a rough week for teachers all over the state with state testing going on. They don’t deserve this kind of remark from someone who won’t even identify themselves, but doesn’t mind identifying another person in their statement.
You owe them all an apology.
Disagree.. there is a policy for allowing them to be on their phones. It’s an accurate statement that did not belittle teachers.No statement was made against their dedication and hard work. Not one statement!! You read into the comment what you wanted to read into it. I’m signing off to enjoy my weekend and for your sake you might want to do the same. I imagine your blood pressure must get pretty high when you are posting on this blog.
Wow I’d like to say thank you for commenting here. Provided commenters do not troll other commenters we prefer hosting a wide variety of viewpoints because its better that way.
That said Slabbed New Media is registered with both the US Copyright Office and the Library of Congress and we have an ISSN number to show for it. I won’t bore you with the details but Slabbed is a bit more than a simple blog. The technical term is Interactive Service Provider but you can just us Slabbed.
There is an undeniable power in posting with your given name but we take both happily.
Wow, you did associate them with Casey Favre whose interest in the kids you called into question. You said it. Own it. As Doug said, you are safe here.
Ok Nunn. Dear Poolman voters…. PLEASE get out and vote for Mike Farve in the runoff next Tuesday….. if Mike doesn’t win we will be stuck with Les for 4 more years!!!!!! The fact is the only way that I can win is if Les gets arrested on some of the BS he has pulled. Thank You
So the campaign managers from the 3 camps need to get together and come up with a city wide campaign to beat Les.
Mail outs? door to door, car flyers, anything to spread the word on what every one has been saying. Maybe enough people will read them and vote for Mike F.
People are scared of losing their jobs, but maybe Mike needs to reassure some of the staff at City Hall if they are doing their job, they are ok? Of course, how many are really doing their jobs up there?
How many people that read the Echo vote? Have to pick the important areas that the voters are going to read or listen to and target that.
This is not going to be easy, but it can work..
I keep running into people that Question Mike’s platform, other than “I’m not Les”
Trixie wrote: “I keep running into people that Question Mike’s platform, other than ‘I’m not Les'”
THAT better get fixed and fixed fast. As things stand today, Farve has gotten most, if not all, of the support/votes he is going to get simply because he isn’t Fillingame.
http://www.servebsl.com/uploads/1/6/4/4/1644860/mike_favre_mayoral_2017_.pdf
Trixie,
Did you or any of your friends catch the WLOX interview last week of Mike and Les?
It may still be on their website somewhere. Not sure. They both were asked that same question, what is your most important goal? Your platform so to speak for the city of Bay St. Louis.
Les said that his was to have less fussing at the meetings. That will clean a lot of ditches and fill a lot of pot hole, and collect a lot of over due utility bills, court fines, and now delinquent slip rentals in the Harbor!!
Mike state his number one concern and issue is to get all employees in the departments they actually belong and most of all to get the Police Department into a decent building to work from and to replace the 8 officers we are down, and he said that is a lot in such a small force to begin with. The most important service any government can offer its citizens is to keep them safe. At. least Mike knows where to begin, even though the should be done by the administration. It has not though.
I think Mike is man enough to endure someone “fussing” at him at a meeting. Come on.
Anyway, see if you can still find the interview on WLOX.
I have no idea if any of them have campaign managers, but the best bet is for the 3 of them to speak directly (and quickly) so there are misunderstandings, hurt feelings or anything else negative. The facts are the facts: Farve or Fillingame will win the general election. That’s no knock on Harding. From the numbers, if the names on the ballot were “Dewey ‘F U’ Cheatum (D)” and “Prudent ‘Mother Theresa’ Honest-McPerfect (R),” Mayor Cheatum it would be. Anyway, this isn’t about them, it is about the community they all say they care about.
How to do it? First, if Mr. Harding will agree and ask his supporters to campaign for and commit to _vote_ for Farve in the runoff (and make clear that those who voted in the Ward 4 GOP primary cannot vote in the runoff and should not even try), that is the start. Also, it needs to be pointed out to GOP voters that if they do vote for Farve in the runoff and he wins, they are legally bound to vote for him in the general election, but if Fillingame wins the runoff, they can legally vote for Mr. Harding in the general election. *** Don’t invite a problem by glossing that over. *** Then, let the media know: the Sea Coast Echo, Sun Herald, WLOX, WXXV, etc. If Farve has the budget, flyers can’t hurt, but folks personally getting the word out is the cheap, easy and most importantly, fast way. Remember “Maggie” in Ward 6 – if Farve, Ramsey and Harding went to Ward 6 together and said, “OK, Ward 6, we are here…help us help you…,” that could pick up a fair number of folks. And lastly, remember, all Farve needs is 1 more vote than Fillingame, so the goal should be that, not beating Fillingame like a dead horse, however good that might feel to some.
*** And _DO NOT_ get mired in any conspiracy nonsense about phony absentee ballots or other wild goose chases like the county waste guy driving around the military/ex-candidate guy. Mayor Farve and the new council can address that later if it needs addressing, but first, you gotta have a Mayor Farve. ***
As to Farve making broad promises to city employees, I’d be careful there. Why would an incoming mayor fire anyone who was doing a good job and why wouldn’t he fire any folks that aren’t (or were only there as a favor from the losing mayor)? And chances are, the folks in each category know what category they are in. As a city council member, Farve probably has a good idea of who and what is what and also likely is that the employees know he knows. So, the only way he gains any support is to make promises he has no intention of keeping, which is not a good way to begin what is supposedly a new, fresh, honest and “better” city government. That said, you locals know the specifics better than I do, so if good employees who are in no real danger of losing their jobs are scared when they have no reason to be and if Farve honestly can say, “I know a lot of you are hard-working, valuable city employees and I intend to keep you on…,” sure, it can only help.
And a minor note: learn to say “Mike Farve,” or even “Farve” rather than “Mike.” Ask folks to support and vote for “Mike Farve for Mayor.” Sure, many folks know instantly who “Mike” is, but don’t assume every (potential) voter knows. You want people to think “Mike Farve” without having to think about it because that is the name you want them to recognize instantly and focus on on their ballots. Likewise, cut out the “Lucifer” and other “nickname” stuff. If you draw contrasts between Mike Farve and Les Fillingame, or point out Les Fillingame’s failures, make sure people know instantly who you mean.
I don’t think I have seen someone so afraid of losing power as our current mayor has displayed. Recently, comments attacking Lana Noonan have gotten out of hand. If anyone opposes the mayor’s re-election on Facebook, you get attacked by his family members or former employees. Exposure of questionable practices at city hall, by this site and the Alliance for Good Government has opened the eyes of many citizens. No one should be afraid of speaking their opinion. Since my crystal ball is in for repair, I cannot say if Mike Favre will be a good mayor. He appears to be a fair and honest person. One certainly does not need ESP to know what we have endured for the last 8 years. I was befuddled years ago as to how many people could blindly follow someone like Jim Jones. It sill goes on today. Please vote for change, we have lost so many rights is the town and it will only get worse if a re-election happens.
Thanks for your kind words, Spyderwoman. You know that old saying, “if they don’t like the message, they go after the messenger. That means they can’t defend or justify their actions, so they try to degrade their critics. We are used to it. It actually gets funny sometime.
I imagine they have scared some folks off like that. Not gonna work here. We don’t scare easy!!!
Big thanks to Nunn, Lana, and Doug for working with the people of our area to change mayors. The people have the power BUT…they have to do a little work to get what they want.
Use the advice given people….you can make a difference. If you are unhappy with the current leadership – vote them out. Get out and work it people! Make it happen!!!
Fact:
This administration is spreading BS to scare the employees into their support.
They are going to be fired.
Wake up, you are civil service protected !!!!
Can’t go on & fire them.
Heard the same 4 years ago.
Talk about teachers, how about the mayor’s daughter always on the phone when your u walk in.
Fact,
Yes, of all people to go after, teachers. Unreal!
Every person I talk to that lives in the Bay I have reminded them to go and vote. And most important Call their friends and family. This has to be a true grass roots spread all over BSL to go and vote. One person I talked to last night didn’t even realize there was a run off. she thought the next election was June and Favre and Les were in that run off.
Get the message out verbally, make calls, talk to everyone on the street. This is important.