It seems the more things change in Madison County, the more they stay the same. The Madison County Journal reported today:
Supervisors approved a $40,000 per year public relations contract with Strategic Marketing Group LLC during a special called meeting on Monday.
Strategic Marketing Group LLC, whose principle is Heath Hall, began a contract with the county in March 2013, which was later terminated in June 2013, according to board minutes.
According to the agreement, SMG will "manage the implementation of a public relations/branding plan for Madison County.
Some of the duties involved include managing press conferences, writing releases, implementing and maintaining a Facebook page, and daily consultation with the county administrator and supervisors in implementation of said items.
The firm is to be paid $3,333.33 per month and the contract is set to expire Sept. 30, 2016.
Board President Karl Banks, District 1 Supervisor John Bell Crosby and District 3 Supervisor Gerald Steen voted in favor of the contract.
District 2 Supervisor John Howland and District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffith were absent from the meeting. Rest of article.
Karl is suddenly voting with Gerald to hire back Gerald's guy. Purely coincidental. Nothing to see here. Move along.
24 comments:
Banks is presently in a tough reelection campaign. I wonder who is managing his campaign?
Steen is lucky to still have a seat at the table. He better get his ass in line with the wishes of the county and stop pandering to the crooks and outlaws.
But I sure am looking forward to seeing the Facebook page that three thousand dollars a month will bring us.
The Board should hire a junior high schooler to handle the Facebook page....they actually know how to do that.............
Get ready for spelling errors, grammatical blunders and Heath to wig out when the bright lights come on.
@11:18 - How do you figure Banks is in a tough reelection campaign? Most of the people over in the west side of the county and Flora that voted republican in the primary are going to vote for Banks in November. I feel quite certain Banks is safe.
I've been told by several people in political circles that Heath is managing Karl's campaign
@1:55 And the constant flow of road department trucks to the west side of the county and to flora isn't just a coincidence that Banks now cares what they think.
Hall is a STEEN BOY!!! Steen holds all the cards now. He can pretty much do and get what ever he wants once the new board is sworn in at the first of the year. From the way it looks he can get it all now.
When the county fired ex Ridgeland/County administrator David Overby in order for Gerald Barber to get that bank building in Madison it wasnt long they dropped Heath Hall like a hot rock as well. Hall use to be the PR guy for the sheriff but dont know if he still does that or not. If I were the Sheriff I'd stay away from him.
@4:04 that is what he(Steen) thought 4 years ago. all it will take is for one of the new supes to pull a JBC and flip. Then Steen is out again and Banks runs the show.
The scheme Gerald Barber put forth to finance that building was not legal. All I wanted to do was restructure the deal to make it legal. Barber sprung this deal the afternoon before the BOS meeting that night.
My only concern about the purchase was why pay $2.3 million for a building that Barber had appraised for less than $1.4 million on the tax assessor's rolls. The building had been empty for months and had a limited market. Why pay a premium for the building. The County absolutely needed a larger building than the one on Highway 51 and Ford Street. I was just wanting to save the taxpayers money and properly structure the deal.
David Overby
"Save the county money"? Are you shittin' me? Since when is that a consideration?
Did somebody mention 'PR guy'? I see where John Bell and the boys of summer have contracted with a friend to run a facebook page and serve as PR liaison, running interference on the internet between the County goobers and the public. Do we even need to ask if this is a wise expenditure of funds?
Mr. Overby, Kudos to for you sir for responding.
Where was your comptroller and board attorney during all the bank building deal? Its seems it was both their job as well to advise the board of to the legality of any purchases. Arent both still employed by the county?
My only concern about the purchase was why pay $2.3 million for a building that Barber had appraised for less than $1.4 million on the tax assessor's rolls.
Yup. Do we need to review how much Senator David Blount and DJP Chief Cadet Ben Allen wanted the State of MS to pay for the Landmark building before it was sold on the open market for pennies on the dollar?
C-L reported that the Landmark was for sale for $7m and negotiations could have driven the price lower.
Instead Feel Gunn kept the DOR in Clinton at the former Bernie's World for the princely sum of $42m.
You decide.
This Just In: The Madison County Board of Supervisors has voted to hire John Bell Crosby, effective January 2, 2016, as County Contracts Administrator.
Once upon a time, elected officials. particularly at such low levels, didn't even know any PR people.
They had a silly notion that they could just be themselves and try to use their best judgment to do a good job.
In doing a good job, their community would be a good place to live and would prosper as a result.
They didn't see themselves and their community as a product to be packaged and sold.
Public service jobs and professions weren't about self-promotion and lining one's pocket. That's what business people did.
What, in the case of Madison County government, does BRANDING actually mean and why is it suddenly needed? Why does the BOS decide they need to employ a 'brander'? Why has the term *politics* taken on such a negative aura up here that this group of men (minus the one who is always a no-show) decides they need to waste more of my money on a position that will fiddle-fart around trying to make these people look like competent public employees?
The answers to those questions are all simple. These men have fu**ed up so large and so often and pi**ed away so much money foolishly that there are only two ways to dig themselves out of the hole. (1) resign, or (2) hire somebody to put enough lipstick on this pig that he somehow looks like a race horse. They chose the wrong option.
As I read the comments I see that most view this as a negative decision from BOS. How about viewing the decision this way, BOS are using social media to communicate the operations of our government. Therefore we the citizenry are better informed so that just maybe more of us can be are a part of the government process (good, bad, or indifferent). Social media works because it allows the citizen's voice to be heard as well. The byproduct of this decision might be more transparency and less places for our political servants to hide. We will see...
9:55, been living in Mississippi long?
@9:55 Does your whole life view begin with "once upon a time in a land far away....?" Or is this your first assignment Keith? Either way...we don't buy it!
I guess in this day and age everyone needs a FB page.......If I'm not mistaken, ex-supe D.I. Smith started a Madison county FB page a good while back. What is Heath Hall going to do that hasn't already been done? I thinks its already been mentioned that this is a Steen/Banks alliance with a lame duck along for the ride.
Two new supes in january.....I wonder how that is going to work for everyone at the court house/admin building?
4:11 - Don't discount the possibility that there will be THREE new supes in January.
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