Friday, May 9, 2014

Meet the two faces of public corruption in Hinds County.

Hinds County Supervisor Peggy Hobson-Calhoun wanted to adopt a "best business practices" resolution at the regular meeting of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors last Monday.   Her resolution would direct the Hinds County Economic Development Authority to vet and conduct due diligence on all companies seeking to do business with Hinds County.  In other words, the Supervisor wanted to check out companies seeking to get a check from the company.  However, Supervisors Robert Graham and Kenneth Stokes fought the measure tooth and nail as is shown in the video below.  Can't imagine why they would do so. 




One can remember one would-be lobbyist last year who failed to tell the county he was a disbarred lawyer when the board voted to hire him.  Then there is the $4.2 million contract for radio tower maintenance awarded to a company that did not exist.  Or the Old Capitol Green fellows who had very little money but wanted $17 million to build a parking garage. A parking garage for more downtown office space when there is a 40% vacancy rate downtown. 

Stokes and Graham tried to stop the measure by claiming the motion would apply to all new businesses in Hinds County.  They kept arguing businesses didn't need more red tape and it would keep businesses from moving to Hinds County.  How disingenuous. (see 5:12 in video for Stokes.).  The motion clearly said the policy only applied to those seeking to do business with Hinds County, not in Hinds County.

Translation: The resolution does not affect Guiseppe Poontangilleni if he wishes to open an olive oil import business on Capitol Street.  If he decides to try to sell olive oil to the county, well, then he gets checked out by the county.  This is standard practice in the business world.  Try to get a contract from Wal-Mart and see how much due diligence Bentonville performs.  Graham and Stokes lying.  Imagine that.

Posted by Kingfish at 9:02 AM

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting.

Some county contractors are behind in their water bills and they need the county business to get their city water service turned back on.

May 9, 2014 at 9:07 AM
Anonymous said...

Number for the local FBI field office is 601-948-5000. Ask for Public Corruption Division if you have any information of wrongdoing by elected officials.

May 9, 2014 at 9:20 AM
Anonymous said...

I'm liking Peggy more and more. Did the measure pass 3-2?

May 9, 2014 at 9:27 AM
Is This an Example of Your Discretion Graham? said...

Lt. Robert Graham of the Jackson Police DepartmentM is a willful ignoramus and serial impersonator.

I'm a little but unusual type of police officer. The reason why I'm kind of unusual is every time the chief would put me on the street, I would mess up bad enough for them to put me back in dispatch.

May 9, 2014 at 9:35 AM
Anonymous said...

Those were the good ol' days when Graham and Stokes could call up Doug Anderson and get him to grunt his vote over the phone to award an illegal professional services contract.

May 9, 2014 at 9:39 AM
Anonymous said...

Always thankful Kingfish how much reporting you devote to good govt and govt corruption.

The C-L doesn't investigate any longer and the JFP is, well, the joke it has always been.

Thank you Kingfish.

May 9, 2014 at 10:02 AM
Anonymous said...

graham (the legend) doesn't want any more layers between him and the bidness - might cut into his kickbacks.

May 9, 2014 at 10:25 AM
Anonymous said...

Amazing that anyone with half a brain would vote against a motion to institute sound business practices that would prevent waste of taxpayer funds and prevent future legal problems. But then again, the video suggests that having half a brain may be giving two of the supes too much credit. Hinds county finally has a voting majority that actually appears interested in doing the right thing.

May 9, 2014 at 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...

Seriously Fish, you are changing the politics of the area in a much needed manner. Kudos

May 9, 2014 at 12:43 PM
Anonymous said...

smdh

May 9, 2014 at 1:02 PM
Anonymous said...

My take was, whether they're minority contractor or not, they should meet the same criteria of legality, expertise, and financial means to complete a project.

May 9, 2014 at 1:15 PM
Anonymous said...

Sunshine is the best detergent.

May 9, 2014 at 1:35 PM
Anonymous said...

Someone broght a baby to a business meeting. Just another addition to the circus.

May 9, 2014 at 2:20 PM
Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for posting this. It is heartening to see that it passed, 3-2. How in the world can Sup. Stokes and Graham be so stupid as to think it would apply to all companies wanting to locate to Hinds County? Are they that dumb or are they evil?

May 9, 2014 at 9:04 PM

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