Jackson Jambalaya

How much did we pay for a study we aren't even using?

Over $50 thousand between Neel-Schaffer and other one by Stantec.

Stantec report provided evaluation of roads in the county...

Sounds almost as if Rudy is involved. But, of course he isn't since he was fired over a year ago. However:

1) There has been no statement from the triumvirate (Steen, Griffin and Swingin' Bishop) as to why they would reject the professional study done and presented to the Board last year.

2)There was no statement from the triumvirate (Steen, Griffin and Swingin' Bishop) as to why the three of them underhandedly substituted a 'Gerald Steen' plan for the professional study.

3) There was no explanation from the triumvirate (you guessed it) when Supervisor Jones, following the motion for the substitute plan, asked why she and Supervisor Baxter had not even had a chance to review the Steen Road Plan. So.....BAM, Bishop is the new John Howland and swings according to the wishes of the two who don't give a rat's ass what the plan will cost the taxpayers of Madison County.

So, up here in MadCo, we're right back where we were two years ago. Tit for Tat, this for that, Quid Pro Quo, bargaining secretly, back scratching, double dealing and shafting the citizens. Bidness as usual up here in MadCo.

And of course there are several Social Media group pages that shine a bright light on Bishop for the six million dollar road paving for his campaign manager and main lawsuit-defense fund raiser, the good Doctor. A road that hosts at least a hundred vehicles a day, if that many.

Raise your hand if you think Steen and Griffin will not call in that mark! The Triumvirate will reign supreme until Bishop realizes he has crapped his pants while Steen laughs at him. Could Banks be worse?

from Davidbishopforsupervisor.com

>>
I believe running county government with the business owner concept should be a priority in Madison County, and as a business owner for 15 years, I will bring this experience and leadership to the Madison County's governing body, the Board of Supervisors.
I also believe in controlling wasteful spending of taxpayers' dollars and requiring fiscal responsibility.
I will work diligently with other district supervisors to assure that county government functions as it should.
Supplying our law enforcement and first responders with the best equipment and full support is essential and will be a priority with me.
I believe in open government; I will be a strong advocate for making sure that the people know what is going on at the Madison County courthouse.

Please contact me with any questions about the campaign.

I appreciate your vote and support!
=

DOES HE NEED TO BE REMINDED OF HIS OWN WORDS?

There is no doubt that a lot of behind the scenes deal making is going on! Steen wants to be the Mayor of Ridgeland down the road so he is trying to make a name for himself. Of which he is doing, just not the right one. Griffin wants to build a shrine to himself in the lake from nowhere. And then we have poor Bishop who is a puppet on a string. The string is so tight right now with the Banks lawsuit he just asks how high when Steen says jump. And it doesn't stop with the roads. Steen put his man in, Carl Allen in as the zoning administrator. He apparently doesn't have to go thru the planning and zoning board and makes up his own rules. Of course the 3 stooges support him. He is approving whatever the commercial folks want. Hmmm, may be a reason he no longer works for Jackson.

Folks are really more concerned about the tragedy in Sweden on Friday night, Sad....

Good roads shouldn't cost more than tree fiddy!

Bringing up the tragedy in Sweden on Friday night is a FAQIL!

Was the road study mentioned here passed by the supervisor board and what was the vote?

Why was it done in the first place ??

Whoa ---


Why in the @@@@ is Gerald Steen or any other supervisor making staffing decisions ?

An ostrich @ 4:54 PM.

Things take time! Give these folks another 20 years and Madison will be as messed up as Hinds. Same type folks, new county.

Neel-Schaffer has designed several traffic signals in Ridgeland that worked out well. One example is the former three way stop at Rice Road & Pear Orchard. I did not think there was any way that stop lights would move more traffic than three way stop signs, but they do. Quite a bit more. And late at night if no other cars are there and you have a red light - in 3-5 seconds you will be gone. I think they know what they are doing.

I think everyone's memories are short. Remember in the 70's when the FBI did a sting on county supervisors? There were a great many that spent time for doing a hell of a lot less. These guys are out of control and need to be checked out.

Our legislature and our local governments still approach ( unlike other states) our roads, bridges and highways as we still had horses and buggies and never left our local areas except to go to a football game !
It is the first thing everyone who comes to Mississippi notices immediately and that we are lush and green and undeveloped comes second and is not a surprise.
We keep Mississippi on or near the bottom as we hold on to the same ways of doing things and still expect a different result.
This sort of counties paying for studies doesn't happen elsewhere. We have an engineering school and we should have a state Institute of Government providing research at the local and state level since we have more state supported universities that generate studies for us.

To answer 5:34...No, the 'paid for professional study' was never voted on as a 'move forward' plan. It was voted on to have the study and to pay for it, but it was ignored when the magic-trio substituted Steen's Plan. Procedurally, that motion (with Bishop's second of the Steen motion) HAD to be voted on and it passed. Baxter and Jones were sitting there in the dark having never even SEEN the plan that passed.

Neel-Schaffer are professional engineers of the highest calibre and conducted and presented a professional, unbiased study of the county road-maize with recommendations. Gerald Steen has a high school education. Need we go further with the analysis?

The supervisors have historically 'made' the hiring decisions. Banks' girl is the head of Human Resources. Another Banks' girl was head of the road department that handled garbage pickup. The mother of one of Banks' grandchildren works in the building. Griffin has relatives throughout the payroll system. Tim Johnson's friend-gal in Starkville had the insurance contract for Madison County for a number of years. Rudy always decided who got to do most of the ground-work. There was no recruiting going on. Human Resources was there only to process paperwork and do Banks' bidding for years.

Steen and Bishop snatched the hiring decision away from the hiring authority, Tony Greer, when the previous Zoning Administrator was ruled incompetent to carry out the duties of the job. Steen wanted Carl Allen for reasons not yet revealed. Bishop favored Allen (although he'd never met the man) because his lawyer wanted Allen in the job. The two of them took over the process and forced the hiring of Allen who thinks he is an autocrat, changing rules and making decisions. His success can be measured in terms of Jackson, MS, which is where he worked in zoning for years. Some say his arrogance recently led to the resignation of a zoning commissioner. Will the board rein him in? Probably not.

7:50 pm is the ostrich. He's worried about individuals getting pissy and rude in Sweden but he's not worried that we have a President that lies. He's worried about ISIS but not about countries with actual nuclear missiles that can reach us or soon will. He isn't listening to our allies who are worried about what's happening here and agree with McCain (who , by the way, has no political reason for BS anymore)and who might know more than 7:50 pm about ...well ...f'ing everything. He's forgotten our allies tried to warn us off going into Iraq which caused much of our fiscal and international woes.
7:50 pm isn't worried about scientists warning us our planet is being unsustainable to life because of pollution and climate change and over population. Math and science are too f'ing hard. Who cares about core borings geological digs that show us what existed and didn't exist in our environment before and after humans showed up?
We will save 70000 jobs in a dying industry in one state and build a trillion dollar wall instead of a billions of dollars fence because you can't remember how you loved having the cheap labor when illegals first came and Chavez was protesting.
Please Lord, let 7:50 pm have to go over a bridge when it collapses when he goes hunting ! His family will enjoy his nicely paved in Madison until they have no clean water or air to breath.

Woof, woof.

Why spend money on a study if you knew all along you weren't going to follow it?

We can debate the hiring of Carl Allen all day. What can't be debated is that Scott Weeks had absolutely no clue what he was doing. That position has been a disaster since Brad Sellers retired. So a change had to be made. Scott was a nice guy, but lazy and clueless.

Baxter is an idiot. Period. Worthless.

Sheila is learning and doing her best. The effort is there and she wants to make things better, she is just ineffective right now.

Steen is playing chess while the rest are playing checkers. He is giving them a lesson on "politics". It's sad that it happens that way.

Man this site is great, just think of how much better it would be if we (included myself there) couldn't post as "Anonymous". So you have to ask yourself, which of the posters above are currently on the Madison Co. BOS?

@ 10:40

Exactly what I thought! LOL

But actually some of this is very accurate. Those reading will have to determine what is true.

With the exception of the post at 8:04, this is an informative discussion. That sumbitch is on some REAL drugs!

The point here ain't the mentality of Baxter, although he's a pretty sharp guy. It's the fact that Bishop's campaign promises (posted above) were lies and he knew it. He was ripe for the pickin' and Steen came along and plucked his fat ass off the lemon tree and owns him.

Six Million Virlilia Road dollars later, we see the real Bishop.

Have you ever driven on virlilia?

We can't even get our street (residential, Madison county) repaired. Last year they came and put some gravel over the worst holes (entire width of street in one area was destroyed by dump trucks) and threw some gravel on top. Last I heard it was to be fixed by Jan. 2017. Of course, that didn't happen. Our road looks horrible and tears up cars. I feel for the people trying to sell a house out here with it looking like this. Native Mississippian here who moved away for about two decades, came back to MS and I am astounded by the road upkeep (among other things). We pay our taxes and it still looks like this. (And, I'm still peeved about them taking away my recycling).

The vote for a bond for 10 million dollars is expected tomorrow at the next meeting.

The questions are:

Will David Bishop vote w/ Gerald Steen and support the debt to the taxpayers?

Is Bishop a puppet and owned by Steen?

What are the real colors?

Yes I've driven Virlilia Road... it will not take millions to pave the area not funded by State Aid......

The end game is not for that road.
Watch and see if this passes.

Six million dollars for a road used by a hundred vehicles per day? For real? Which large property owners are getting this reward?

Well, the most ignorant comment here (and there are a few to choose from) goes to 5:26 for being upset that they "took away her recycling".

Recycling costs the government unit (city, county, whatever) money. The collection is not free and the market for the recycled materials is limited and decreasing. The cost difference in between treating this as garbage and picked up with the other trash and having the recycling program is money that could best be spent elsewhere - maybe even paving Virlilla Road. Well, of course that won't fly because that money needs to be borrowed. But maybe on a GPS unit for county supervisor's trucks. Oh wait..... never mind. OK, bring back the recycling program and lets waste our tax dollars there.

The BOS is not in the least concerned about costs as there is no penalty for wasting money on STUDIES. We are moving to the past in the future. Sort of like a vegetable, you know the "beet" system is in "full steam" ahead. Day of reckoning will arrive when time to vote comes up, unless someone finds a sack of cash somewhere, or the trial and Banks is Back Onboard.

Paying for the study was to keep the politics out of it.
Give an overview of traffic counts and condition of roads in the county only.

Steen blew right past it, dropped his plan.
Bishop and Griffin right along with him.

Over 1/2 of the roads on the Steen plan are in Ridgeland and Madison.

Now he, Griffin and Bishop want to borrow $$ to pave roads. The roads in the cities are funded 50/50 and NO one truly knows what those Cities have on hand to Match with ..........

DUMB!

9:09. Are you sure the city has to match bond/borrowed money?

No; The cities do not have any 50/50 match requirement on this borrowed bond mess. Not sure where that came from. But, that's not the point anyway. The point is borrowing ten million dollars over twenty years to pay for roads that will, at best, last nine to eleven years. It's like putting your Happy Meal on a credit card.

Most of the roads on the plan are in the Gluckstadt area. the plan was limited to that area and did not include other areas of the county. Most of the Plan road improvements are in the pipeline or underway. Lots of folks in the City of Madison are happy with the so called Steen plan.

Looks like rather than viewing the list of roads, some of you are willing to wait on passage of the plan to see what's in it. Go look at the damned list of roads instead of guessing where most of them (and the costs) are and who benefits.

2-2
Griffin abstained

Bond failed!

Bishop still asked for 8 million tho......

Griffin knew his abstention would kill the motion. He did that because he could not get Steen and Bishop to support his fishin' hole (yet).

Griffin's mentality is like that of a fellow from the Middle-East. They can wait generations, half a century or more for their plan to succeed. He's in no hurry for the approval of "Griffin's Mudhole and Class Reunion Destination Park".

He will continue to play a card here and there, make a deal here and there, but, in the end, every time the other two won't grant him his wish, he will pull his card, sull up like a fat toad and pout.

"Bankruptcy now is a business tool." {David Griffin - Madison County Supervisor, in explaining the art of borrowing money}

Sorry: To edit @ 10:49.....{DAVID BISHOP-Madison County Supervisor, in explaining the art of borrowing money}

Can I really be held accountable for getting Bishop and Griffin confused?

LOL~~ what the heck DID Bishop say?

10 mil to 7 mil to 8 mil and Bankruptcy in all one long mumbling..

Then he said we will look at all the options.
Heck that should have been done before HE voted for what he voted for on Jan 17!
He was asked to support tabling...NOOOOOOO he couldn't do that.
Now look at this mess.

Bishop sure needs to realize he better get on board with moving traffic to I55 NOW.


Does he know what he is doing?

A month ago, Bishop participated in a coup to make himself Board President. It failed. Tuesday we got a preview of what it would be like if Bishop becomes president. 14 minutes of random, disjointed, discombobulated mumbling and attempting to appear to be a businessman. Saying virtually nothing and repeating it twice. Claiming Bankruptcy is a business tool and suggesting roundabouts are the end-all to traffic congestion.

This man, judging from my distance, has shot himself in both foot so many times it's a wonder he is still in office. He has as much chance of re-election as Hugh Freeze does of staying employed.

Does any of the road plan approved you all are calling a Steen plan move traffic NOW in Gluckstadt to I-55?