22 Dec 2014 BOS's Meeting

The following is our Committee's report at the meeting:

22 Dec 2014: Board of Supervisors’ Meeting @ 5p

Thank you for the appointment this evening.

We have 2 subjects in our presentation tonight. 

The first topic is about the funding you will be voting on tonight.

At your last meeting, we heard from Lyn Arnold how the Chamber and Economic Development became so closely entangled.  At the time, this may have been a good decision.  However, needs have changed and so has our funding. 

Please consider funding Economic Development and not funding the Chamber.  In most communities, funding of a local Chamber of Commerce is obtained through individual, company and corporate memberships.  Our Chamber has been largely funded through our local governments. 

As we transition to an Efficient and Sustainable Government, we will need to replace our lost income with other revenue streams and are in need of Economic Development to attain these goals.

 

Insert comment: As best a I can remember.  At the moment we have citizens attending the pre-employment program at Northwest Community College.  After the course they are supposedly qualified to interview at Schultz or GTA.  My husband, Bob, has been in the industrial training field for many years.  As I understand the process, a prospective employee will be interviewed and hired by the company before being trained.  It appears we may need to take a look at what we are doing as there are many complaints from citizens who are not getting jobs in Tunica County. 

The second topic concerns the recent Opinion piece that ran last week in the Tunica Times.  There is a very long post on the Transparency Blog rebutting a good bit of the Tunica Times offering.  It appears this Opinion blames so many of our troubles on our County Administrator when it is way past time for we, the people of Tunica County to accept the blame for the financial mess we are in and not try to continually transfer this responsibility to someone else. 

I will address one of the three “accomplishments” attributed to Michael Thompson in this Opinion. 

“in the biggest debacle for Tunica County, Caesar’s Entertainment abruptly closed the county’s largest resort property, Harrah’s, throwing over a thousand people out of work, shuttering three hotels, a world class golf course, Cottonwoods, and the resort area’s only true convention facility, and putting an end to a successful program of charter (flights) into Tunica Airport, flights which were drawing visitors from far outside the drive-up market.” 

1. May I be so bold as to ask, who built a golf course to compete with Cottonwoods and River Bend?  We did.  Not Michael Thompson.
2. Are you clearly stating that with the closing of Harrah’s, no other casino is bringing charter flights into Tunica Airport? That would be interesting to investigate but again this is not a decision attributed to Michael Thompson.  We the people of Tunica County are the people who allowed this airport to be built without the benefit of a feasibility study.
3. Then there is the statement about “throwing over a thousand people out of work.”  The month Harrah’s closed, Tunica County’s unemployment rate was 17% for Jun 2014.  Jul was 18%.  Aug was 15%.  Sep was 13% and Oct was 12%.  Not much of a change from before Harrah’s closed.  You know what else this might show us?  Not many Tunicans were employed at Harrah's.  Don’t know for sure but maybe.

As was stated earlier in this report, there is a more extensive rebuttal on the Transparency Blog.  In closing I would like to ask the Tunica Times to recognize the factual mistakes made in this “Opinion” piece and to run an apology to Michael Thompson in their next issue.  To show you are sincere this apology needs to be front page and above the fold. 

In the meantime, Michael, I would like to offer an apology from the Tuchel household for all of the mean spirited things that have been done to you and said about you since your arrival in Tunica County.

 

End of Presentation.

 

In other business, the Board did vote to fund the Chamber for $17k.  James Dunn did say that 90% of what the Chamber does is Economic Development.  Michael Thompson said he was working with Lyn Arnold on a proposal.

 

There was something said by James Dunn about first time home buyers but there was no discussion or voting of any kind.

Randy Stewart presented architect's drawings for the community safe house.  The drawings were approved and Stewart was reminded by Dunn to keep this project within the bid as there is no room for project change orders.  My note:  Even though 95% of this project is covered by a grant, do we really need this?  Has there been a feasibility study?  And 95% of what number?

Update 24 Dec 204: This was left out of the original post.  At one point in the meeting, James Dunn asked Adrian McKay to provide a list of all of the employees who have been effected by the recent 5% reduction in pay.  Comment: There is no problem with asking for or getting the list.  This is just another example of a supervisor not working through the County Administrator.  Another way to look at this is the employee is put in a position of taking orders from 2 different bosses.  This needs to change from the way things used to be done.
  

Cedric Burnett did not attend the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.  The next Board of Supervisor's Meeting is Mon, 5 Jan 2015 at 5p.