The MC Herald reported last week:
"Madison County officials can soon expect the results of a state audit that looked at the county's contracts for services. "We will have a final draft in a week for the Board of Supervisors and a final report a week after that," said Laney Grantham, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Audit.The final report in two weeks will be made public, she said."
The Madison County spin machine went into action:
"Board of Supervisors president Tim Johnson said last week he expected state auditors to finish the report, which began in April, fairly quickly."We've been communicating and working with the auditor's office to finalize the report," Johnson said."
The chumminess of Mr. Johnson's comments continued as he explained to the reporter there was nothing at all to worry about:
"Johnson said he was told by auditors that the state's inquiry had "a narrow focus" by looking at county contracts. The state's action is looking at the county's paperwork and its contracts, he said. "We gave the auditors all the information they needed so it will be a fair assessment and we can continue with the county's business."There isn't any criminal liability," Johnson said. "They are not looking to make any supervisor liable."
Rudy even went so far as to tell his favorite mouthpiece, boy blunder Steve Watson at The Madison County Journal, "I am looking forward to being vindicated," Warnock said. "We're excited about it."
JJ has obtained some information about the audit and it paints a somewhat different picture than what is seen on the Tim & Rudy show. Several sources informed JJ some facts about the audit:
Tim Johnson knows very well the Auditor can not impose criminal liability on the County. If he makes findings he thinks are criminal in nature, he can only refer it to the Attorney General for prosecution. The Auditor issued a draft containing the preliminary findings of the audit. County officials were allowed to review the draft. Under state law, they are allowed to offer corrections and explanations. It will not be surprising if many of these problems are suddenly "corrected" after being pointed out by the Auditor, hence the sudden spin by certain individuals in Madison County. I was not going to post this information as I wanted to show some respect for the "process" and the Auditor's office but if certain "individuals" are obviously going to start selectively leaking parts of the report to the media, there is nothing wrong with clarifying things a little bit. Stay tuned folks, this is just getting started.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Auditor: Contracts geared to protect engineer's interests instead of taxpayers.
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15 comments:
This is part of what's wrong with our current system - there's no way to really dig into suspected inappropriate behavior. The Auditor's office may have done a good job getting through the first layer of documents, but they're a long way from the truth. The funny thing is that the truth, if ever determined, could go as far to vindicate Rudy as it could to condemn him. I continue to believe that he's not as confident in his position as he and Tim want us to believe or he'd go ahead and release the subcontracts for all to see. We'll never know the whole story...Bill Billingsley
Bill Billingsley you are so correct I too believe if they had wanted just to shut Mary up and put her in her place they would have turned over everything to show that Mary was just vindictive but I believe them not has left you to believe they are quilty and they do not want the taxpayers in their business other than just handing over dollars to pad their pockets.
Now Rudy or Timmy will have some come back but we all know who they are!!!!
No smoking gun. Nothing but sloppy business practices.
This is all a sideshow. It was always about MHB's hard feelings that the bond spend was going elsewhere.
1:24 (Elvis or Rudy is that you???), keep telling yourself that. Pickering would not have stepped into Madison County if he thought there was no dirt to be had. Consider, as well, MHB's non-announcement last week that she might possibly run for State Auditor. That could cut both ways, but Stacey will bird dog this to show the public that he is capable of uncovering corruption with the added bonus of shutting MHB up. It's a win/win for him. Warnock and Elvis, not so much.
Is Hawkins-Butler going to run for Auditor as an Independent or Donkeycrat? Because she won't have a snowball's chance to beat Pickering in a statewide GOP primary. Pickering isn't looking at matters in MadCo because he's trying to stave off her primary challenge. You are naive if you think otherwise.
I think it is great that this information and the process is public. It shows a commitment to keeping things square. Yeah, there is going to be spin, what I would really like to see is the detailed list of recommended changes per audit results.
This is not the way to run business in Madison County. How many other contracts are designed to favor the vendor over the county. I am assuming that the County Attorney looked these over??? If so, why are these contracts geared to protect the Engineer and not the county? Please respond??? Inquiring minds want to know. Who actually wrote the contracts? Bozo the Clown?
And who is suppose to oversee the deadlines, terms, etc.? OMG no wonder the taxpayers are PISSED!
1:45, nowhere in my comments do I say that Pickering is trying to force MHB out of a primary. What I said was the bonus is shutting her up. She's bitched loud and long about Rudy (probably for good reason) and this could be Pickering's golden opportunity to really make a name for himself.
Steve Watson is nobody's mouthpiece!
huh?
Run for Auditor or not, MHB comes out of this looking good even without the subcontracts. Where there is smoke there is fire. And from the list KF posted, the smoke is billowing right now. No amount of spin can cover all the mismanagement on this list. There is no way Tim, Paul or Karl comes out of this looking like anything but Rudy's enablers.
MHB was right to question the lack of oversight on the BOS, and the audit findings show her independent analyst was right in his report. Tim comes out looking like a kindergartener in all this.
On the political front, anybody that thinks MHB's decision to run for Auditor would be squashed over one case in Madison County is deluding themselves. And anybody that thinks that her chances in a GOP Primary are equal to a snowballs in hell doesn't take into account a great many factors. Not the least of which are her long career and list of contacts, and the trouble Pickering has brought on himself that is making the rounds in the inner workings of the party right now.
She doesn't have a snowball's chance in a statewide primary against a sitting incumbent.
I didn't say she would win. But, it would be a hell of a fun race to watch.
Mary needs to stay put. She's right at home telling people what their building should look like and getting parks built, but but she'd be in way over her head in the State Auditor's position (assuming she could somehow get elected).
"I for one definitely would want that practice of subcontracting to cease," District 2 Supervisor Karl Banks said last year when Warnock's fees first became an issue. "If Rudy is having to go out and hire an engineering firm with different expertise that deal needs to be coming directly to us."
Anyone think that is so Karl can give that subcontract to one of his buddies?
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