At my presentation to the Bay St. Louis City Council on November 7, I asked for a commitment from the new City Council, the new guardians of our tax dollars. I as them to hold ACCOUNTABLE anyone who misuses our public money, not use us as the bail bondsman for the behavior of our elected officials and employees.
From 2013 to 2017, the taxpayers were strapped with loans, audited by the State Department of Revenue, and Department of Justice, which revealed late sales tax fees to the state, and the illegal co-mingling of a Federal Department of Justice Police Grant into the city’s General Fund by the former Mayor and City Clerk.
This total of over $872,000 was passed on to the unsuspecting taxpayer, who has been doing without city services for a very long time. When I think of what this $872,000 could have bought for citizens, it makes me sick. And we still don’t know what the missing money paid for.
So, I boldly asked for a commitment from those who are now managing our tax dollars—go after the incompetents, unethicals, and illegals. Stop passing the bills for all of this on to the taxpayers just because we are here. Use those surety bonds you purchase with our tax dollars, or quit buying them.
ACCOUNTABILITY NEEDS TO BE THE NEW NAME OF THE GAME IN THE BAY. WITH A TAX HIKE AND INCREASE IN UTILITY RATES, WE WON’T SETTLE FOR LESS.
DAVID WELLS
BAY ST. LOUIS–WARD 6