But first we’re going to put a bit more meat on the bones of the Hancock County Development Commission fiasco:
Questions surfaced concerning who would represent the city on the Hancock County Port & Harbor Commission. In December, Council Chairman Joey Boudin – apparently without anyone else’s knowledge – wrote a letter to the governor’s office recommending local businessman Danny Johnson for the position. Johnson stood up in a public forum asking for other council members blessings as a nominee stating that “a recommendation is not a vote for or against anyone.”
However, the latest iteration of the commission was sworn in last month, so the point may be moot.
The four returning members are Robert Kane, Realtor with John McDonald Realty; Charles Gallagher, retired Navy captain and Ingalls Shipbuilding engineer; Rocky Pullman, captain of marine resources at Stennis Space Center; and Sherri Carr Bevis, the South Mississippi service coordinator for Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. New commissioners are Daryl Cornell, CEO of Triton Systems, the ATM manufacturer; Paula Jordan, office manager for Jordan Chiropractic Center; David Malley, contractor and real estate developer; and Realtor Jon W. Ritten Jr. of Coldwell Banker Coast Delta Realty.
As I mentioned Tuesday the legalities were not at all clear but after speaking with a couple of folks and finding the right Mississippi Code Section it appears the Board of Supervisors has the five appointments with the Governor having the other two ostensibly, as recommended respectively by the Cities of Waveland and Bay St Louis.
This being the case logic would dictate that someone that has never been appointed to the Board can’t be sworn in unless there is a bums rush exception in the law to which I am unaware but that would be for the lawyers to straighten out I guess. In any event who gives a shit if we just make up the Governor’s appointments ignoring the enabling legislation in the process and this brings me back to this continuing series of posts and the quotation in the post title from Monday night’s meeting that sums it up on so many levels:
These people do not know what they are doing
But that is OK folks because Bay St Louis is the coolest small town in the entire Milky Way Galaxy, cooler even than Rigel II. Let’s go ride the trolley, drink, sing songs and pretend none of this matters.