Canton Municipal Utilities records state that the government-owned public utility paid $75,000 to former Chief Executive Officer, Kenny Wayne Jones. CMU provided the records after JJ sued CMU in Madison County Chancery Court. The CMU Board of Directors fired Mr. Jones earlier this year. CMU paid Mr. Jones even though he never sued his former employer.
Posted below (p.3) is a copy of a CMU check made out to Kenny Wayne Jones and his attorney, Lisa Ross, for $75,000 on January 19, 2018. Mr. Jones did request a hearing from CMU but one was never held. Mr. Jones signed the "confidential" settlement agreement.
JJ reported on March 19:
Canton Municipal Utilities refused to disclose whether it paid a severance to former Executive Director Kenny Wayne Jones. JJ submitted a public records request to CMU on February 21 for a copy of any settlement agreements, checks made payable to Mr. Jones in the previous 90 days, and any payments made to Mr. Jones in the last 90 days. JJ received several tips that the former Executive Director received a severance package from CMU and attempted to verify them. Mr. Jones was recently fired by CMU. Earlier post.
CMU attorney Ed Blackmon said that the requested documents were personnel records and thus exempted from the Public Records Act. However, the Ethics Commission, Attorney General, and a Hinds County Chancery Court have all ruled that settlement agreements with government bodies are indeed public record. CMU provided the records a few days after receiving service of the lawsuit.
Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen represented this correspondent.
61 comments:
What potential claims did Kenny Wayne have against CMU?
Kingfish, it might be a good idea to black out the banking information on the check as well.
Shakedown by Kenny Wayne & Blackmon & Blackmon...
As we know a (NDA)Non Disclosure Agreement are worthless by all the ones Trump haters have breached.
Dang, plundering the tax base has become a way of life to a large segment of our society. There is no wonder streets, water lines etc are never repaired because there is "no money". The feeding frenzy circling each and every tax dollar is disgusting.
Hell who cares..... Stacey Pickering was too scared to take on the Blackmons and I’ll bet you State Auditor white is scared too! Let’s elect an Auditor in 2019 that will go after these crooks.#NewMSAuditor
CMU is untouchable.........
Who is the State Auditor? Who is the DA?
My power bill was almost $700 this month and then I see this. Who is responsible? Who can we complain to? Shameful
WAKE UP MISSISSIPPI. WAKE UP SHAD WHITE AND DO YOUR JOB.
OK People..... The State Auditor has been in Canton for months and has found nothing. This is totally legal. CMU could have paid Kenny $1,000,000 and it’s legal. So shut up about CMU.
Like the Dental Board HS grad job story the Clarion-Ledger rips you off w/o attribution or credit for the legwork on this one in 3 ... 2 ... 1.
Sam R Hall is a fraud.
Why is WLBT not reporting this? Clarion Ledger?
Kingfish for State Auditor in 2019.
Nothing to see here folks, let's move along. Pickering wasn't afraid of anyone. Just like the credit card expose a few months ago. Everything is above board.
@1:20pm. What ever in the world did the State Auditors office do about the credit card abuse at CMU? Have not heard a peep in what a year? Did I miss something or was the credit card abuse swept under the rug?
@1:06pm. No SH@T. Anyone would be better than the clowns we have had. Well I guess we should give Shad a chance to show us if he has any backbone or is he bought and paid for like Pickering. Keep up the great work KF.
So Kenny Wayne was paid $75k golden umbrella for 1 year of work? WOW.
Kingfish what ever happened with CMU using city money to pay their personal legal bills?
What’s funny is Eric Gilkey who appointed all 5 CMU commissioners was recently given a big money job at CMU and named Vice President of CMU. Oh and he is in Kenny Wayne old job. AND Barbara Blackmon made over $1 million in legal fees since becoming the attorney 18 months ago. Hey but who cares?? DA Dont, Auditor Don’t AG Don’t. Glad I don’t live in Canton.
$75,000 of city money given for what? Why was he “given” that money? KF can you tell us?
@2:17pm good question.
This is terrible business. But it's probably not illegal. This is the type of thing that the only way to stop it is to elect a better mayor and a better board of aldermen, because they appoint the CMU board. The city of canton voters elected these clowns, then these clowns appointed clowns to the CMU board, now the CMU customers are paying the price.
For those CMU customers who don't have a voice (example is Lake Caroline who doesn't get to vote for mayor or aldermen, but does have to absorb terrible CMU spending in their utility rates), then you really get screwed. If I lived in Caroline, I would beg to be taken over by a neighboring utility. I assume that is Bear Creek on water and sewer, and Entergy on electric.
State Auditor sanctions this type of behavior by doing NOTHING
As noted above at 2:21 Eric Gilkey works for CMU, while also being an Alderman for City of Canton.
A question for all the attorneys that follow this site - Would that not be a conflict of interest that the Ethics Commission would need to look into?
Or would that be simply solved by him abstaining from any voting related to CMU?
You boys like to beat a dead dog so much, I wonder which one of you dropped off the two dead puppies at 1
55south and Lakeland.
Canton - The Jackson-like hellhole of Madison County!
@3:54 I'm not attorney. However, since the board of aldermen (Gilkey) appoints the CMU board members, who in turn hire the GM, who in turn hires the employees, then I do think it is a conflict of interest.
I don't think Gilkey should be allowed to work at CMU. Or maybe he is okay if he doesn't vote when they appoint CMU board members.
This stinks. Lake Caroline rate payers need to vote for a new Auditor. Otherwise this will continue. Mary said it best, The Auditors Office is bought and paid for. #Mary4Auditor2019
I hope ALL 82 counties and every CITY in MS are watching and reading the presidencies that are being set in Canton. Thanks State Officials and DA for setting the stage for the future.
Surprised CMU isn't paying Othor Cain. Everybody else seems to be.
Most people don’t make $75k in a year. This clown gets $75k for nothing.
So if a county wants to pay a severance to a county employee they can legally make payment? I thought will and pleasure was the standard? If this is true a lot of money is about to get paid to retiring city & county employees.
Shad White please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.
Lol. Would the real “Shad Shady please stand up”. SHAD SHADY. #shadshady
Having lived in canton all these years I’ve never seen the city in this bad of shape. These people don’t care about Canton folk.
This was Kenny Wayne’s payout from Barbara Blackmon for taking the knee during the last election.
#Mary4Auditor2019. Lake Caroline is with you.
I saw them poor Lil pups too.
Our board has decided we want a new city clerk because our guy has gotten a little old. However we don’t want to fire him so this allows us to pay him a four year lump sum payment of what he makes in a year to retire. $300,000 and a retirement dinner using the city credit card and he can spend his days with the grand kids. Thank you for MS for these great benefits.
@8:29pm. DAMN that is too funny.
"Shad those things bouncing off your chin are Ed Blackmon’s nuts."
Dayum! Who's manning the blog radar tonite?
Whoever it is got some big nuts.
Why is Kingfish the only damn media outlet ready and willing to go to the mat with these organizations who refuse to be transparent?
@7:44 I moved out of Canton. When Canton folk elect Truly, Gilkey, and Les Penn, then this is what you get. When Canton folk remain quiet while a very competent and honest Miriam Butross gets kicked off the CMU board, but also remain quiet while Charles Weems and John Noble run it into the ground, then this is what you get. You asked for it, now you are getting it.
Rudy Warnock has sued CMU for millions after working for them for only a few months.
CMU affects all the residents in MC since they manage the sewage plant on the Big Black and charge the other cities accordingly. Lawsuits have been filed on this that could cost the other residents of MC millions. Meanwhile, the state auditor and DA look the other way.
The Blackmons are very rich for a reason, they dot every I and cross every t. Remember that when you need a lawyer. If they take your case, you probably are a winner, they don't lose often.
@12:01pm. If the blackmons are so rich why did they have to borrow over $1m against their office building in canton last March?
1:01 if you only knew what they did with that change.
An anonymous reader attempted to post this comment this morning:
Kingfish is not 'going to the mat'. He's only sticking his head into the boxing arena and hollering out enough to excite the folks in the stands, get them all agitated and loaded up with torches and pitchforks.
Awwww, isn't he cute.
@3:21pm. Rich people don’t pay interest to banks by borrowing against their office building. Rich people own banks and collect interest. But I guess your talking about “canton rich”. Blackmons are a joke!
Rumor here in canton is that one of the department heads at canton city hall is on the verge of being replaced and instead of firing the employee the board has offered the employee $30,000 severance to submit their resignation. Apparently this has been a way of doing business for years and done in executive session. I guess this is legal and no big deal.
Sam Britton for State Auditor. At least he's a CPA - none of the last four auditors were CPA's. We need someone in that office that knows what he's doing!
Maybe the anonymous reader with their underwear in a bunch can name one other journalist or media outlet in the metro area who is more consistently taking transparency matters to the Ethics Commission and/or to the courts?
@7:59am. Sam would be a good choice for State Auditor.
Jackson Jambalaya... "where nobody knows your name!"
Amazing all the people that loved Canton or were so concern with whats happening in Canton that they packed up and moved away...
I hop these fools don’t ask for my vote again! I won’t vote for any of them. Giving $75,000 away is crazy. Most folk in canton don’t make that in a two years working 40 hours a week. #madasshell
The Journal asked about this months ago. Somehow this is just getting to JJ. Penn called Blackmon to exec session to ask about the payment. It was all happening around the time the Stacey told the form cmu board to pay back some money, which hasn't been done. Blackmon gave his reasoning and no one else questioned it. From what I remember someone mentioned that CMU got "a deal" only paying him 75k because he could actually be owed up to 150k.
The Journal is a JOKE........ They couldn’t do an investigative piece if their life depended on it. They might have asked about this but passed because it was too complicated for their simple minded journalism.
The Journal is politically bias and has certain interests to protect. You won’t see a story on this subject.
Kenny Wayne is planning to run for Mayor of Canton. It takes money to run.........
BS. Most major corporations will fire you if you put personal items on the company credit card, regardless of whether you pay it back. They damn sure will fire you for buying suits on the company dime, reimbursement be damned.
Of course, the CMU defenders are engaged in a little rhetorical trick. They keep screaming these payments are not illegal. Maybe, maybe not.
However, the people had a right to see how their money is being spent. Accountability is apparently a foreign concept to the CMU defenders, who probably all work in the same two story building a mile from the interstate.
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