Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Dispatches from Pelahatchie, Summer Edition


Highlights: 
-State Auditor calls out Former Mayor
-City Attorney suddenly quits
-City Attorney accuses Mayor of ignoring bid laws

Former Pelahatchie Mayor Knox Ross complained he is a victim of persecution by the State Auditor.  State Auditor Stacey Pickering demanded that Mr. Ross and the Aldermen who served from 2014 to 2017 repay $421,688 in drug seizure funds that were illegally spent.  Mr. Ross told the Clarion-Ledger two weeks ago:


Ross has hired an attorney to argue for the town in the state auditor's probe. Ross said the board acted on the advice of its CPA and followed protocols not unfamiliar to similarly sized towns. He said he was surprised the auditor's office didn't contact him or other board officials during the investigation. 

"We were surprised by the action, as we believed, and continue to believe based on the audits and subsequent additional review of the fund operations by our certified public accountant, that we were operating within the law ... 

The funds were all spent on public purposes for the benefit of our town," Ross said in a letter to Pickering's office.   "There was nothing illegal or improper. No money went missing, there's been no embezzlement," he said.  Rest of article.
The Jackson Free Press reported:

The board of aldermen has not been open to the media, with all five aldermen either ignoring this reporter's past calls or hanging up at the mention of Beechem.

However, the group released a statement Tuesday entitled "The Mayor Who Cried Wolf," condemning Beechem and resurfacing accusations that she does not live in Pelahatchie, among other statements. Beechem said she dealt with these claims when she ran for mayor and submitted proof of residency. The Pelahatchie aldermen and former Mayor Ross are holding a press conference Wednesday.

The aldermen's statement says their own city auditor told them they could borrow drug-seizure money as long as they repaid it each year. The statement also says that Pickering's office did not interview the aldermen or the former mayor, and that borrowing the drug money is common. Rest of article.

Indeed, the statement says:

The Board was notified of the investigation through media, aldermen say. Neither they nor Ross were interviewed by the auditor’s office about the way they used the drug money, they say. Aldermen want to know why their town is being singled out by Pickering since many small towns across the state use drug seizure money to pay the bills and then repay those funds during the same calendar year.
There is just one problem with claiming the State Auditor did not talk to the former Mayor or Aldermen - they are not true.

Mr. Pickering told this correspondent yesterday that Knox Ross twice met with him and his staff at the State Auditor's office in the spring of this year.   Attorney Frank Trapp accompanied Mr. Ross on each visit.  Mr. Pickering said he was going to issue the demand letter to Pelahatchie in early March but postponed doing so after Mr. Ross promised to provide documents that would exonerate the Pelahatchie officials.  However, Mr. Ross never provided the documents and Mr. Pickering finally issued the demand letters on May 21. 



Meanwhile, the Board of Aldermen met last night after providing a public notice only a few hours earlier.   Mayor Ryshonda Beechem did not attend the meeting.  However, the meeting did not lack for drama despite the Mayor's absence.  as City Attorney Brad Mills announced he was resigning his position when the meeting concluded.

The Board also revoked approval of a claim for $8,876 that was approved at the previous board meeting.  Murphy's Lawn & Landscape built a retaining wall at the baseball field at Mill Town Park Athletic Complex.  The Mayor apparently ordered the work.  Murphy's completed the project and sent an invoice to Pelahatchie on May 25.  The invoice is included in the documents posted below.

Mr. Mills said that the Mayor did not obtain a second bid or quote as required to do so since the project cost more than $5,000 but less than $50,000.  He said Section 37-7-13 of the Mississippi Code decreed that the Mayor shall seek two competitive bids in writing although advertisement was not necessary.  Mr. Mills opined that the Mayor illegally spent the money without following the statute.   The Board revoked the approval for payment of the claim on a unanimous vote.

So ends this week's dispatch from Pelahatchie.

26 comments:

Antard said...

The truth is so elusive.

Anonymous said...

Only nugget I see is that if a person did not follow bid procedure or asked for money not pre-approved could be fined 500 dollars or imprisonment or both. Please explain the golden nugget.

Anonymous said...

The Golden Nugget is found up that attorney's nose. Quite the reach there.

The walls are closing fast.

Anonymous said...




3:51 apparently can't see the forest for the trees!

Indeed, the statement says:

The Board was notified of the investigation through media, aldermen say. Neither they nor Ross were interviewed by the auditor’s office about the way they used the drug money, they say. Aldermen want to know why their town is being singled out by Pickering since many small towns across the state use drug seizure money to pay the bills and then repay those funds during the same calendar year.

There is just one problem with claiming the State Auditor did not talk to the former Mayor or Aldermen - they are not true.

Mr. Pickering told this correspondent yesterday that Knox Ross twice met with him and his staff at the State Auditor's office in the spring of this year. Attorney Frank Trapp accompanied Mr. Ross on each visit.


A close read reveals that "this correspondent" mentioned in the quote found in the JJ post apparently is none other than the KF.

Anonymous said...

Only nugget I was looking for is that if the mayor approved the 8800 dollar expenditure and was not approved by the board that she violated the law. Thanks 457 for your insight but I'm not concerned about what the audit says or what Pickering says that's for those involved to be concerned with.

Anonymous said...

Exactly the auditor did not speak with the board members. They found out through the media. KF what was explained at the Mrs was that ryshonda did not put that in the initial claim docket. She had a second one submitted at a later time. Post the video and why are you being so biased what do you have to gain

Anonymous said...

Exactly the auditor did not speak with the board members. They found out through the media. KF what was explained at the Mrs was that ryshonda did not put that in the initial claim docket. She had a second one submitted at a later time. Post the video and why are you being so biased what do you have to gain

Kingfish said...

The Auditor notified both past *ND current Mayor. It's not his job to contact every alderman everyone there is an investigation. Ross can't say he wasn't contacting when he was actually negotiating with the state Auditor and visiting his office on multiple occasions.

Kingfish said...

The video was posted Last Thursday. Quit lying.

Anonymous said...

Video from last nights meeting, the one you videoed so you quit lieing

Anonymous said...

I have never seen you post negative comment about Ryshonda but you seem to bash the board. Why is that kingfish

Kingfish said...

Nice try. It was posted and is posted.

I also post the board packets as well as the minutes for each board meeting I attend as well as the complete, unedited video.

I've bashed the board? All I've done is post the unedited videos and let you judge for yourselves what happens. My coverage of last night's meeting was pretty damn fair. Show me where it wasn't. The problem is like followers of another politician in Mississippi, you think that if someone doesn't agree with you 200%, then he is the enemy.

Anonymous said...

Why the red-ass, Kingfish? Please take disagreement and challenge like a man and deal with it without being an exploding time bomb, running around slitting throats.

Anonymous said...

How can a person tell the difference between these Pelahatchie Peckerwoods and the McDaniel supporters that used to pee in the comment pool?

As far as I can tell there ain't much difference.

Anonymous said...

Looks like KF is a bigger man than you are 7:17. He cleared your comment while you hid your panty waist behind anonymity.

Anonymous said...

Three questions:

Who was the city attorney during the time the drug seizure funds were utilized for general fund purposes?

Did the city pay the money back to the drug seizure fund from the general fund during the year that it borrowed it?

Has the outside CPA (Windham and Lacey in Pearl, MS) issued any statements since Ross is hanging his hat on their professional opinion? They are the independent auditor for many cities and governmental entities in Mississippi includind Pearl, Carthage, MDEQ, etc. They probably don’t do Pearl anymore since the mayor is related to the members of the firm though.

Anonymous said...

The Pelahatchie mayor...yawn. But on a positive note, Mike Ponzi Billings was sited cruising through Woodland Hills in his new Mercedes. I guess checking things out before the slammer door closes for a few years.

Anonymous said...

So, what can the landscape man do about collecting his $ 8,876.00? Even if the mayor did not follow correct protocol, the contractor did what was asked of him. Is he screwed?

Seems I remember that in the first video posted of a Board meeting, there was some other contractor dressing down the board about not being paid for some type of dirt work?



Anonymous said...

@8:55 I saw Billings in town too. Having lunch with one of his alleged timber clients HH at Walkers

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Pelahatchie Jambalaya.

Yawn.

Anonymous said...

Boards speak through their minutes.

All the spending should be documented by the clerk.

There is no reason for the state auditor to interview anyone if the allegation is funds from one account were misappropriated to another account.

The answer is in the paperwork.


Criminal charges are another matter. I would expect interviews.

Which makes it odd that the former mayor wants an interview.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a summit is in order. Pickering can use the "campaign" BMW (if his daughter isn't using it) to collect Ross, and they can take the "campaign" RV to Disneyworld and go garage door shopping together. Sure, it ain't a resort in Singapore, but hey, it's Mississippi.

Sarcasm aside, Pickering investigating hinkey spending is yet another sad, sick joke on decent Mississippians.

Anonymous said...

If Ross has a legal opinion and a CPA opinion stating that the funds can be spent the way they were spent, he will be doing more than hanging his hat on those opinions. He will be hanging the civil money demand on their E&O insurance. Frankly, that's what non-lawyers do -- they get legal opinions as to the legality of a certain action before they take said action. Right now, you have a bunch of he said/she said. If you were to undertake thorough background research on the parties involved, I don't think trusting the current mayor is what most people would choose to do. But, we shall see.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible to order microwave popcorn by the case? I keep running out of popcorn following this "The Real Residents of Pelahatchie" reality program.

Louis LeFleur said...

Just made the connection between the title of this thread and Richard Grant's book. Kudos, KF.

Anonymous said...

In a professional capacity I have dealt with Mississippi municipalities and their bidding for over 30 years, and it has been my experience that pretty much everyone violates or circumvents the state procurement laws pretty much all the time, although much of the time it is unintentional. Generally, the problem is that project managers or elected officials determine what their procedure is, instead of having their attorney tell them what the law requires, and then doing that.


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