Jackson City Councilwoman Tina Clay said the city is not operating at a deficit at a meeting of the Finance Committee last week. Ms. Clay is Chairwoman of the committee. Jackson Mayor John Horhn warned the City Council last week the city was facing a $23 million deficit.
Tina Clay: 10:04. Thank you. Okay, this morning's meeting is going to be a little different from probably what you're expecting. Um, thank you for being here today. We are not operating with a deficit. Our budget on paper does show that we are not receiving as much revenue as we expected, and our expenditures are not above what we have received, and we do not foresee them being where it creates a deficit for the city in real value.
What is suggested today for the City of Jackson is that we continue to do the things that we've been doing—working closely with our, um, Peter Teiwussen and with Julian—and continue to do things differently. I talked to the State Auditor's Office, and the suggestions that were made are to not approve any overtime, other than essential overtime such as the police, fire department, or other essential employees. Take out all other professional, um, categories for every department, other than what has been used and what we really expect or have to use in the next two months and two weeks.
Hold capital outlays until our next budget year, other than what we've already purchased. Uh, limit or freeze operating expenses, not affecting payroll. Freeze travel, no new equipment, and take out um, ten—and, um, I've been informed that we cannot really take these numbers out without changing our budget until it's approved. So do a test, per our CFO. Take out 25, 26, only all categories that have a zero in them. If they have not been used at this point, we're going to assume that they won't be used unless it's something that you know you're going to get a bill. Um, eliminate the other professional down to what has actually been spent through today. Continue to reduce cellular phones.
And they um said to improve our accounting—and we may already do this, I'm not sure—make sure that we have a deadline each month, maybe the 15th of the month, to reconcile all bank statements so everything will be in real time. Make sure we enter and post all data as it comes in, in real time. Have everything for the month posted by the 15th. I know we don't get our tax payments from the county till the 20th. It'll always be a lag on that, but it'll be real time other than that one month. It has been suggested that we look back at three years' numbers before we make any changes or do our budget for 26-27, and that way we'll have a real idea of what the real trends are for the city and we can do a more conservative, exact, realistic budget. Although it may show that money on paper is not in, um, that we have money on paper, the departments—we ask the departments not to spend based on paper money. To spend based on what is in the bank. We don't have it, so don't spend it. Don't go crazy these last two months and spend money that you know we don't have. Let's be good stewards, employees and citizens, and continue to work together and increase revenue and ex—and decrease expenses and enjoy the city.
And so we will not look at numbers today. We'll ask that our CFO go in and make those changes and tell us what it looks like and see how close we are to the actual number, and there is no penalty because we are not operating with a deficit. So we will do what is required by law, but we do not have a deficit in terms of our expenditures.
Speaker 2: Mayor pro tem, Madam Chair?
Tina Clay: Yes, please.
Speaker 2: Peter Teiwussen, and Chief Administrative Officer. Thank you for this direction that the CFO, myself, and the administration will incorporate and report back to the—continue, I'd say, report back. I think we've been talking between the Council and the administration seriously about the budget for several months. I also appreciate both your chairmanship and leadership, as well as the comments of the Council members as we start anticipating how to best craft the 2027 budget. I think all of us are much better educated than where we were last year at this time. And I think the continued collaboration between the CFO and myself and the Council will get us where we need to be. So I just want to say thank you for this, and thank you for the continuing interaction with us.
Tina Clay: If no other questions, then this meeting is adjourned until we can get the numbers back from our CFO. Thank you.
Ashby Foote: I got questions, I got comments. Can I make a comment?
Tina Clay: Go ahead.
Ashby Foote: Okay. Um, well, I got a number of points, but the—I'm—I'd like to know an update on the status of money on deposit with JP Morgan, our new banker, and where that stands as to our balance and how much interest we're earning. Uh, the—as best estimate can be made, um, earning per month.
Jillian Caldwell: Jillian Caldwell, CFO. Um, we currently have, I would say, 90% of our funds at Chase, our new bank. We left a fe—um, we left a little bit of money over in our old account so that any outstanding checks can be um cleared through that. That account with our old bank, um, Cadence Huntington. And I will need to prepare you a report on our interest that we've currently um received on these new accounts.
Ashby Foote: Can you give me a dollar, um, a, um, back of the envelope dollar amount at Chase?
Jillian Caldwell: As far as how much we're holding?
Ashby Foote: Right, yeah.
Jillian Caldwell: It's approximately 90 million.
Ashby Foote: Okay, thank you. Um, one of the things that—that I would like to make an important um issue in this discussion to try to come up with some money is that I would like to see all the contracts that were put in place by the previous administration redone. Or some reason why they shouldn't be redone from the beginning. Because we've got contracts where we don't make the kind of money we're supposed to be making based on what we were told when the Council voted on them. And I—I think that's a potential source of significant moneys for the city. And the, um, you know, it's uh—the fact is the previous administration has been prosecuted in court for, um, shady dealings. And, and I—I think it's—
Tina Clay: Mr. Foote, thank you for your comments.
Ashby Foote: What's that?
Tina Clay: Thank you for your comments, we heard you. We're going to look into the contracts.
Ashby Foote: I'm not through yet. I'm not through yet. I'm not through yet. The, the—so I think it's important that we review all the contracts that have been put in place by the city and make sure that we're actually getting the payments we're supposed to be getting from the contractors in a timely manner and, and, and let's look, review them from the standpoint of possibly redoing the contracts. But first, I want to make sure they're actually paying us the money. We—I was alarmed when I saw in an earlier meeting, a month or two ago, where the parking meter contract that had been put in place with great promises of money to the city had va—had generated no funds to the city. That's a lot of money that's at—at stake there because there are a lot of contracts made over the past eight years. And that's one of the things I—as a, as a potential source for funding for the city. The, um, uh, and the other thing is we, we need, um, the current status on where we stand, money spent with—now we're going to have the end of July, we'll have two months left to go—where we, what we've spent on payroll for the different departments versus what was budgeted for the different departments, so if that—
Tina Clay: Mr. Foote, I'm going to let you go ahead and talk, but we going to limit our conversation. And she's going to look at all those categories and give you the numbers before the end of the month. So today we're not going to talk numbers, and legal is going to look into the contracts for you, okay?
Ashby Foote: Okay, please do. I appreciate it.
Tina Clay: Thank you. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.
35 comments:
Welp..despite the eloquent explanations and flowery reassurances offered by.Couincilwoman Clay I am not convinced by anything she said.
The fact that she apparently said:
"What is suggested today for the City of Jackson is that we continue to do the things that we've been doing—working closely with our, um, Peter Teiwussen and with Julian—and continue to do things differently."
Well as Peter Teiwussen has resigned, and Jackson has gotten here by keeping doing things like they had been doing things...good luck with all that!
The downtown parking meter system is an odious and dangerous trap to force users to stand still, perplexed, whilst carjackers, vagrants and angry sidewalk psychos appraise the users' victim worthiness. Find industrial strength meters that take quarters and paper dollars which we all can keep handy, pay and then walk quickly away to the courthouse or some business. Sue the providers of these machines for not performing as promised. Ashby Foote has the common sense to handle this and many other stupid Lamumba decisions that remain.
Fiddling while Rome burns.
Tina has feet of Clay, better recognized now than when she later crumbles to the detriment of Jackson. If closing off fiscal discussion in order to perpetuate a myth of quick, easy fixes does not demonstrate her inadequacy for "numbers", we may all suffer her shortcomings.
We all know the COJ is flush with $$$
Unqualified to fold towels, but is sitting on the city council of our Capital City. Pathetic.
Reminder: these are the same people who think per capita crime stats are racist because they don’t understand them.
Lying Horhn is going to end up being cellmates with Aaron Banks. Please try to be a smarter fool. Pieter, who made you tell that lie?
Basically it’s “blah blah blah shut up whitey we got this”. You cannot question anything or else you’re seen as “annoying”.
Perception of crime; perception of a deficit. Right?
As I read this I really wonder is their any dept that has not
Been Held Up
1. Pay a contractor to install meters … ok
2. Collect the funds …. Ok
3. Then Bam Funds
Vani$h …. Answer$ please
4. Whose Right ?
5. A Supposed straight up
Prof Accountant leaves !
6. So He must have Seen
Some after Glow that
Said “ Turn out The Lights
It’s time To Go
7. A Balance Sheet generally does not lie or Does it …..
Mrs Tina What’s Up ?
Rearranging the deck chairs.
What an absolute circus these meetings would be without Ashby Foote and Vernon Hartley. My gosh.
If you ask Tina Clay to do something about the vagrants/zombies that walk the frontage roads of I-55 and terrorize businesses between I-55 and Ridgewood she will just tell you that they are people that have rights too and totally ignore your plea for help. Yes, unfortunately that area is part of her ward.
I do not understand how these people LIVE amongst this mess and they don't feel the strongest anger towards how bad things have gotten. They are literally watching their property values decrease, businesses close, and murders/other crimes happen all around them and they aren't pissed off, instead they fight for the "rights" of the vagrants and thugs. Talk about bass-ackwards. There needs to be a study done or a book written on how blind/retarded/lazy this city council is, and the voters that elect them.
Nevertheless, I am seeing what can be, unburdened by what has been.
Tina Clay better recognize real quick that Ashby Foote represents pays all the bills. Not hers
What
A
Joke
!
This is worse than a Presidential Hills HOA meeting.
Exactly.
Wait a minute - the parking meters ARE a hinderance to downtown development and could never generate enough money to bail Jackson out. Let’s make parking free and make downtown Jackson a place not just to park, but a place to eat and play and develop. The parking meters are difficult to figure out and you have to know your license plate and zone and find a meter box that may or may not work or have your cell have be handy and do a fifteen minute routine of not user friendly back and forth with texts and credit cards and if you are at a court house without your phone - you will get no reminder when time is up - it is a mess
I, um, tried to, um, read the transcript, but um, I kinda got, um, tired of um, so, the um, ums, so I um, stopped reading, and um, will um, read,um, something um, else
I graduated high school, at Forest Hill with Ms Clay in 1986… she never struck me as being smartš¤
They are simply dedicated Democrats. Their idea of government is deciding how to spend money. That's it. That's all. They can't help it. Jackson will go flat broke without a Republican to watch the money.
Horhn is no different from the others that preceded him.
He's just another "peacock" that will waltz around pretending to be he's something he's not.
He put that show on full display when he was in the
Mississippi Senate.
It must have worked for him, as his constituents licked it up during his "Mair campaign"
What does Kim Wade say ?.
"If I get to to the Pearly Gates and see a brother prancing around with a clipboard ... I ain't going in"
Oh my, do tell, please.
"What is suggested today for the City of Jackson is that we continue to do the things that we've been doing—working closely with our, um, Peter Teiwussen and with Julian—and continue to do things differently."
So how do you continue to do the things that you've been doing and at the same time continue to do things differently? Anyone? Anyone?
Obviously, not a good look when the Finance Committe Chair countermands what the Mayor has said. Clownworld.
We can't be broke, we still have checks left!!
This is what happens when the lunatics run the asylum.
Making downtown nice might draw in productive people that demand government accountability in exchange for their positive economic output. That’s the last thing local government wants.
Congress has been doing this for years - both parties. So I agree with the lunatics running the asylum. Trump giving away 2K to every newborn from money that doesn't exist.
@9:40PM 's sarcastic comment is 100 percent on point. Even court reporters, who hear speakers um-ing and uh-ing throughout their testimony or questioning by the trainloads, do not include the ums and uhs in the transcripts they produce.
So, @Kingfish, believe me when I tell you, you can stop transcribing um and uh and do so without fear of inaccurately reporting an event.
Tina: "Okay....
And instantly, given the context, I'm hearing Thrill Kill Cult's 1990 classic, 'Waiting for Mommie' (a comedic Bondage & Discipline parody romp, sampling Joan Crawford's voice in Mommie Dearest).
"Okay...we're gonna have a good time with this dear! Well everyone is tellin' me that you have been real naughty: Running round, starting troubles, playing with sombodies... Now mommy thinks it time for you to learn a little lesson..."
Nice to know that NYC isn't the only town with delusional nitwits running and ruining things. Our Manhattan place is being packed-up, right now, and I'd love to hear 'Confessions of a Knife', on the way out, to Connecticut. Oh, where is that Thrill Kill Cult CD? My bestie from Hong Kong gave that one to me. She actually enjoys tying men up. Sounds unbearably TEDIOUS, to me. But then, she's thrilled by contrasting skin textures, too... so.
Torturing an entire city council with nonsensical prattle, sounds infinitely more entertaining. So, Tina, you GO, girl!
They can't be broke otherwise Dr. Chief wouldn't be able to attend the Interpol Conference in Paris.
If they stop paying police and fire salaries Jackson will look like that city in Charlton Heston's movie The Omega Man. Lock and load.
9:35 your comments are always... interesting? I think you may just have too much time on your hands.
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