The Clarion-Ledger published a story Monday about the District 1 Hinds County Supervisor race. Article. Needless to say, Ms. Ingram once again provided an example of lazy reporting for which she is becoming known.
For example, Ms. Ingram wrote this paragraph:
"In May, at Graham's urging, the county ended a third contract with Airwave to provide maintenance for its 60-plus emergency sirens because most of the sirens had been replaced since 2008 and are still under warranty. That contract called for the county to pay Airwave $146,000 for fiscal 2011, with increasing payments reaching $195,000 in 2014."
What Ms. Ingram DID NOT report was this little nugget from the November 2, 2009 board minutes:
"Airwave maintenace contract for sirens.
UPON A motion of Robert Graham and a second by Douglas Anderson, Peggy Hobson Calhoun voting aye, Phil Fisher voting nay, George Smith voting aye, it was RESOLVED to enter into a Maintenance Agreement with Airwaves for the Early Warning Siren System at a cost of $146,000.00 per quarter." (Note: The minutes are incorrect. See comment below for actual cost.)
That's right. While she is reporting Mr. Graham ended the contracts what she does NOT mention because she was too lazy to read the minutes is he was the one who awarded the contract to Airwave in the first place. What she also does not mention was Graham and his fellow supervisors rejected the lowest bid from Precision and instead accepted a higher bid from Federal Signal.* In fact, Supervisor Graham made the motion to accept the bid from Federal Signal even though there was a cheaper bid out there from a more qualified company. Remember that county employees when you look at your paychecks after those furloughs were implemented but hey, he still has his two cars provided by the county.
However, Ms. Ingram also reported Mr. Graham is "a former dispatch supervisor and Jackson police spokesman who is an internationally known emergency communications trainer".
Charles Carter, CEO of the National Emergency Communications Institute, wrote this letter to the editor. The newspaper did not publish the letter. It has been provided to this website and is published in its entirety:
"This is my response to an article in the Clarion Ledger written by Ruth Ingram.
David Hampton
Editor
Clarion Ledger
In response to the article by Ruth Ingram, she refers to Robert Graham as "an internationally known emergency communications trainer." This is once again a misrepresentation of the facts as Graham is so well known for." The facts are that he has worked for or spoken at conferences by 9-1-1 training companies internationally known. On his website, he claims customers as “his customers” but they were agencies NECI sent him to as a “NECI contract instructor” such as the FBI Academy, Waco, TX, and several others.
Graham is a fraud in every aspect. When he verbally represented himself as a police officer and commander over the 9-1-1 center and an internation-ally-known trainer, it was a moral fraud. When he taught courses at the Jackson Police Academy for a fee while drawing a salary from the City of Jackson, when violating copyright laws, when fabricating certificates making 9-1-1 agencies eligible for reimbursement from the state 9-1-1 board for paying him a fee was a criminal fraud for which I hope the district attorney will hold him accountable.
Since 2007, I have related these facts to the following Clarion Ledger reporters who all failed to report them since 2007: Leah Rupp, Chris Joyner, Grace Simmons-Fisher, Kathleen Baydala, and Molly Parker. None of them wrote a single word of my allegations even when provided with supporting documents. Why not?
You had a reporter at my press conference last Monday at Jackson City hall. He asked questions but nothing I said that day was printed. Why not?
Charles D. Carter
CEO/President
NECI"
The reporter was indeed present at the press conference but no story was published.
*Precision sued in Hinds County Circuit Court. Precision argued Federal was not certified to sell the sirens in Mississippi. Judge Tomie Green ruled against Precision and ordered the board to rebid the contract. Oddly enough, this gave Federal time to obtain the proper certification. The board awarded the contract to Federal again. Precision appealed and lost earlier this year.
From the November 17 minutes:
"Graham made motion to approve bid from Federal Signal to purchase 10 outdoor sirens at $27,400 per siren. Whalen protested, said it had the lowest bid. "Mr. Nathan Hargrove, Brown Communication, updated the Board of the technical aspect of the grant purchase and installation. He stated that he was in agreement with Ms. Partee and the Purchasing Department’s recommendation to award the bid to Federal Signal." (Much longer entry on page 5 of minutes)"
Friday, November 4, 2011
Clarion-Ledger refuses to print response to Graham story
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12 comments:
Is this ignorance or is she honestly covering for Graham at this point?
IMHO it is impossible for this many people to all be so incompetent over one topic. The other alternative explanation is that this is a series of deliberate decisions by the C-L editorial staff to present ONLY false and misleading information to voters and taxpayers.
Why?
I guess it's for the same reason that The Clarion Ledger hasn't done thorough reporting on Proposition 26 and challenged our gubernatorial candidates and pastors such as Rev. Perkins about their support of a proposition that will literally kill women who have etopic pregnancies.
They are about profit and don't want to offend powerful people in the State for fear it will hurt their business.
Deliberate ignorance gets them off the ethical hook.
Having had a fair degree of 'experience' with Hampie and the Ledger, I'm certain his explanation for not publishing that letter would be that it was accusatory and libelous (the man is a fraud).
However, that baby won't poot. Hampie's title is Editor and he certainly had, and could have utilized, the authority to edit out the offensive sentence if he felt it warranted censoring. Hampton always, ALWAYS uses as a first defense for his incompetence the excuse of 'we don't publish public attacks or libelous comments'.
Ole Hamp realizes which side of the community butters his toast, or something like that.
KF:
Your copy from the board minutes states Airwave will get $146k per quarter, but the CL states annually. Which is correct?
I copied it directly from the minutes. I have the actual contract. Let me check.
The minutes were wrong but Ms. Ingram is wrong too. The actual contract states:
$146,000 paid on 9/30/2010
$110,100 paid on 9/30/2011
$169,000 paid on 9/30/2012
$180,000 paid on 9/30/2013
$195,000 paid on 9/30/2014
As someone once said: "I'm confident that the truth will be the light,"
...and the light shall set you free.
Maybe Graham is one of the few paid subscribers left.
He's subscribed for the coupons at this point.
KF must have left Kangaroo in charge for the weekend.
Nope. We saw you. Just let you be. More important things to do than babysit you.
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