Tag: Joe Cloyd

Some pointers for the uninitiated that have never dealt with blowhard Koolaid drinkers like Rep. Jeffrey Guice

Folks, the story of Nicole Nichols trying to approach State Representative Jeffrey Guice is illustrative in a myriad of ways the main one being your average State Legislator is out of touch with the needs of their constituents. In this case we’ve come to a day in the poorest state in the Union where the less fortunate, in this case a family with a breadwinner that works two jobs, are regarded as freeloaders for using state resources in the form of medicaid to keep their Type 1 Diabetes stricken daughter alive.  In the case of the now blocked HB 1523, these same out of touch legislators voted against their own constituents by passing blatantly discriminatory legislation of the type guaranteed to create a backlash against the hospitality industry costing us visitors and the associated tax dollars in the process to go with the self inflicted black eye.  You gotta wonder if these folks have any clue how their average constituent lives and for most of them the answer is a resounding no.

But that doesn’t mean your average $tate legi$lator i$ incapable of communicating. They love communication$ in fact, ju$t a$k Phil Bryant’$ wunderkind Joe Cloyd and Josh Gregory, who routinely $core five and $ix figure no bid communication$ contract$ from $tate governmental agencie$. Unlike the working poor, those guy$ are not regarded as freeloader$ in the rece$$e$ of the $tate Capital $o they must be able to reach the average $tate Legi$lator in a way not widely known to the uninitiated such as Mrs. Nichols.

Now with Mississippi’s campaign finance laws being what they are the best way I can tell to approach a $tate legi$lator for help i$ with a bag filled with ca$h. If you are one of the 47% of the overall populace that doesn’t have $400 laying around to cover an emergency room visit (the number is certain much higher in Mississippi) or pay off contribute to the campaign of your state legislator, do not despair because all is not lost. If I may be so bold as to suggest that Mrs. Nichols offer to communicate via no bid contract on the State’s behalf (with the obligatory campaign finance return of 50% of the loot) her financial worries would be over and the legislative class would hold her in much higher regard.

Just a thought folks, please feel free to add yours in comments.

Where’s Waldo Part 1: Hiding in the no-bid DMR Consulting Contracts that’s where

What would appear at first blush to be a straight forward post has gotten a tad more complicated so what I am going to do is identify what the crackerjack Slabbed Investigative Journalism team found plus a bit more and then put some more meat on the bones in subsequent posts.

I guess the first question would involve identifying Waldo and for that we turn to this Google search string to accomplish that. I used Google instead of homegrown Slabbed links to illustrate that the gang at Frontier Strategies has attracted a good bit of statewide media attention and that attention has not necessarily been positive. I’ll let Wayne Weidie explain via this post on the Weidie Report dating back almost a year ago concerning the bruising primary battle between Senator Thad Cochran and State Senator Chris McDaniel that left the incumbent Senator in second place behind the newcomer McDaniel. Here is a snippet:

Poor campaign decision from the start

For his campaign leadership, Sen. Cochran had Kirk Sims and Josh Gregory fostered on him by Sen. Roger Wicker and Gov. Bryant. Sims was Bryant’s chief of staff before he was named campaign manager. No small factor is that Sims is Wicker’s son-in-law. Gregory has always been the man behind the throne for Bryant, and Gregory is already looking for his next horse to ride into the Governor’s Mansion after Bryant presumably is re-elected and serves his second term.

While the Cochran campaign had other able campaign professionals, by any measure, the management of the campaign was a disaster.

For people that make their living doing political coms consulting, the golden children of the Boss Hogg administration have not fared as well since Boss’s coattails departed the Govs mansion back in 2011 and the above criticism, from an well known, seasoned political operative had to sting.  And yet it is more than just giving bad campaign advice as issues involving the maturity certain of the GOP golden boys have also been raised right here on these pages but the focus of my search was for Frontiersman Joe Cloyd and his long rumored no bid contracts with Mississippi DMR that morphed into a long term project.

You see folks normally you’d head straight over to the Mississippi State Transparency portal and pull up all the contracts by state agency and then locate the one you’re looking for – wham, bam, boom its done. But nothing connected with Joe Cloyd ever came up thus the issue became one of resolving the information imparted to Slabbed by sources in the Bolton Building Janitorial Department, an impeccable source of information on all things DMR without cluing the General in as to which sanitation engineer was leaking Slabbed New Media. Continue reading “Where’s Waldo Part 1: Hiding in the no-bid DMR Consulting Contracts that’s where”

Comment bump | Tidelandgate: Never a dull moment here in the Bay

Slabbed can add confirmation of Desdemona’s comment (edited):

Little fun fact for those interested… Good ole Rep Eure is REALLY good friends (like county club good friends) with the famous Miller Time. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe there was some kind of spat (not sure of the details) between Baria and a few employees of Marine Resources some time back (i could be wrong, yet it could have been a rumor) Eure being on the Appropriations Committee controlling money that is managed by Marine Resources… Coincidence? I think not. So, whatever shall we do with the remaining money boys? Same game, different players my friends…

In summary:

  • Rep. Eure is REALLY good friends with Jamie Miller, who is also very good friends with Joe Cloyd.
  • There was a confrontation between Rep Baria and DMR staffers
  • Rep Eure controls the house purse strings over DMR Tideland funding.
  • Rep Baria is currently on the bench in the State House as it is controlled by the GOP
  • Rep Baria and Bay Waveland School Superintendent Rebecca Ladner politicized the local public school district back in January with Ladner’s participation in the Democrat response to Gov Phil’s State of the State address, an action that continues to generate local criticism all these months later.
  • The City of Bay St Louis track record of financial mismanagement under the Fillingame Administration speaks for itself.
  • The Fillingame Administration removed the Harbor wave break from the State Funded Harbor design plans.  The pavilion at the Harbor where the bands play is super nice though.
  • BWSD Superintendent Ladner was recently rewarded for her actions with a new three year contract.

If this sounds like a FUBAR type situation to you, then we’re all on the same page.  And of course the people that suffer from the partisanship are the people that live here but that’s normally how it works.

In other news, Rep Baria’s replacement in the State Senate, Phillip Moran, the guy that Rep Baria tried putting under the bus in the early news coverage of Tidelandgate [Seacoast Echo story here] is on Tuesday’s City Council agenda: Continue reading “Comment bump | Tidelandgate: Never a dull moment here in the Bay”

Jamie Miller hasn’t learned yet that you can’t fire everyone……..

There is always gonna be someone that knows the score that is gonna talk to somebody. Reigning in the political hacks/lightweights that permeated Congressman Palazzo’s staff and managing a state agency are two different things.  DMR Executive Director Jamie Miller may find that out one day.

Everyone remember the sweetheart contract Miller let to Frontier Gulf Coast for Public Relations work that the “Public” never discerned?

Complaint filed against DMR over tracking of agency expenses ~ Anita Lee

Folks Miller is paying mucho money for bean counting and PR:

The half-page “time & expense analysis” listed hours worked by five Horne employees, by title, at hourly rates ranging from $48 to $285 an hour. Hourly fees for Horne totaled $111,973.50 and undocumented expenses were $9,041.45. The sheet also listed an hourly rate of $150 for a Frontier consultant, 286 hours worked and a total charge of $42,900. An EnStrat consultant charged $150 an hour for 234.50 hours, for a total of $35,581.80.

Maybe the reason Miller keeps firing long time employees is DMR can’t afford to pay salaries after they pay for all their no bid professional services contracts. It is good to see others are paying attention too.

Sunday Links: May 6th looms larger, Oooops Greenlit no more, sorry plus new GOP bagmen

First up from denial is a very dangerous thing file:

Mayor says no shortfall for Bay ~ Dwayne Bremer

Fed judges: ‘Jammer1954’ wasn’t federal prosecutor ~ John Simerman

All eyes now on Aircheck.

Finally this blast from the recent past that is well worth highlighting:

The Real Face of Mississippi Government ~ James @ Jackson Jambalaya

In Mississippi tax breaks and the gang at Port and Harbor in the news

First we have a reader question:

In the Sun Herald this morning on page 3A under “D’Iberville approves tax break to attract business” Joe Cloyd’s CDBG Long Term Work Force housing Riverside senior apartments is asking the city to abate ad valorem taxes for three years. This is not a business that produces or pays any sales taxes and was built with taxpayer money in most part already. Where does it end?

Such things usually end in bankruptcy because the piggies that are hooked into the taxpayer trough rarely stop feeding on their own.

Next up since the Bay St Louis social media policy was topical at last night’s City Council meeting I have this from Eric Goldman.org:

Police Officer’s Facebook Post Criticizing Her Boss Isn’t Protected Speech–Graziosi v. Greenville ~ Venkat Balasubramani

The bottom line is the law in this area is not settled by any stretch of the imagination for public sector employees. Continue reading “In Mississippi tax breaks and the gang at Port and Harbor in the news”

Please join Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Brent Christensen, officials from the Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation, local officials and Joe Cloyd…

Because today at 2PM:

What: Riverside Adult Living Community Ribbon Cutting and Open House
Where: 12420 Lamey Bridge Road, D’Iberville, Miss.