28 Aug 2014: Board of
Supervisors’ Public Hearing Meeting @ 5p
The situation we find
ourselves in tonight is serious. We can
compare ourselves to admiring a dollar item in a candy store and only having a
quarter in our pocket.
Let’s look at it another way. During the Bush Administration 2 wars were
fought by our brave military for something we didn’t need and the financial
costs of those 2 wars were not added to our national debt. That was until President Obama came into
office. Now the costs of these wars and
other expenses are staring us in the face.
That’s where we are in Tunica County. Past Supervisors have run-up enormous debt
and our current Board is having to deal with it.
Here are a few suggestions:
- One of the constant costs to Tunica County
is the cost of lawsuits. I didn’t
see this reflected in the Power Point presentation we saw on Monday
night. It is my understanding that
many of these lawsuits come from the Sheriff’s Department and account for
an annual expense of around $350,000.
Is
this correct? There was no answer.
Are
most of these suits filed by current and former employees of the Sheriff’s
Department? There was no answer.
*at this point, there was an outburst by the Sheriff
Here
is my suggestion: We now have an HR
Manager, Mr. Oliver. This new position
should help to cut down on future lawsuits but what about current suits? Can these costs and settlements be taken out
of departmental budgets?
- Since 2008, the Transparency Committee has been
asking this Board and the previous Board about transferring the Tunica
National groundskeeper’s salary to Kemper Sports. All I keep hearing is “we’re working on
it.” Stop talking and do it. In the last 6 years, we have spent
around $600,000 on this position.
Vote to do this today…please.
Either Kemper Sports accepts this decision or they can hire someone
else at their expense.
- After school programs, mentoring and the Summer
Jobs Program: It is my
understanding that the Tunica
County School
District has between 9 and 10 million
dollars in reserve. Perhaps the
School Board would vote to take over these programs not just because they
have the money but because these programs fall into their sphere of
expertise.
- The Stennis Report: Our Committee spent a good
deal of time analyzing this study.
Our full report can be found at our blog under 3 Feb 2014. One of the items the report pointed out
is that our salary structure can be divided into thirds. One third is over paid; one third is
underpaid and one third is just right.
In considering our 2015 budget, this needs to be addressed. However, this is not the big take away
in the Stennis findings.
Stennis
compared Tunica County, MS to Credo Parrish, LA. Both locations have gambling. Tunica
County has 11,000
residents. Credo Parrish has 258,000
residents. And here’s the rub: Credo Parrish has 30 more employees then Tunica County. Tunica
County has 23 times per
capita more employees then Credo Parrish.
Again, sadly it has been proven that we have been happily living way
beyond our means.
End of Presentation at the Public Hearing
- Back to the Sheriff’s Department: For those of you who don’t know, the
salaries of MS Sheriffs are set by the MS Legislature. This year under House Bill HR1409 our
Sheriff received a raise of $10,000 plus rebates on taxes which brings
Sheriff Hamp’s salary to $80,000 a year starting on 1 Jul 2014.
Are
all of these numbers correct?
What
was very interesting about this legislation is that all other counties had a
reason such as an increase in responsibilities next to the amount of the
increase. There was no reason given for
the Tunica County Sheriff and Tunica
County was the only
County without a given rationale.
In conclusion please
consider:
- Charging the costs of lawsuits and settlements to
the department involved.
- Move the groundskeeper’s salary to Kemper Sports.
- Ask the School Board to consider funding after
school programs, mentoring and Summer Jobs Programs.
- Lower the Sheriff’s budget by $10,000 to
accommodate for the legislative raise.
More will be listed as we go
along on our blog.
BTW, I thought you
would like to know that our blog has almost 16,000 hits and only a handful of
comments. This should tell this Board
something about the level of fear in this County.
