Jackson Jambalaya

Looks like someone had a real nice Christmas!

Damn. Does anyone pack a lunch anymore? I'm not sure when we started expecting employers to feed us.

if one did not notice that whole "Canton Municipal Utilities" part of the address, one would simply state: "so why are you posting someone's personal credit card purchases online?"

......other than that, the employees of the Canton Municipal Utilities sure do eat well! And often!! And it would appear they generally prefer fried foods!!!

Dang Tammy, girl what you need from the Jewelry Store that cost $2,400!! And Ross....and Belk.....and Kirklands? GTFOH!! Someone call Stacy Pickering immediately!!

Each person must be presonally responsible for the charges on these cards. They then expense out the business related charges. There is no way an internal auditor would let them charge personal expenses to the company.

CMU...Single handedly propping up the Canton fried food industry. We may need to check their cholesterol charts for their own safety.

My baby did'n du nuffin..............

They seem to be keeping Marlo's BBQ in business. And how the hell does anyone spend $83.25 at the Waffle House?

Nice purchase interest rate. How do I get in on that deal?

Wow. I'm a public employee and our office manager stresses out over buying three cases of soda for guests each month.

Whaaat!!! Are they being reimbursed for this stuff?

What about the “late payment” penalties? Are you kidding me? Thank you Lake Caroline residents for picking up the tab! I’m pissed

Nice purchase interest rate. How do I get in on that deal?

Having the taxpayers behind the bill tends to lessen the card issuer risk. It's not like they'd let their gravy (BBQ) train get shut down when a little tax increase will git r dun when the bill is overdue.

Happy Halloween Lake Caroline residents!!! CMU is offering Trick or Treats.

Unfortunately, this is ALL too common! I have friends who work for both the Federal and State governments, and the amount of money those agencies spend / waste on "legitimate purchases" for equipment, etc. (that, more often than not, ends up at their personal residences for their personal use) is STAGGERING........and that's not even a good word to describe it! And that's just from a couple of offices in one city. Can you imagine what the total would be for the entire country! Reign all of the waste / graft in, and the US no longer has any debt issues!

Granted, most of the personal expenditures on the bills presented above are indefensible, so one HAS to assume CMU will get reimbursed for those or someone will go to jail. However, the percentage of taxpayer money that is spent for "legitimate" items (that, ultimately, gets "laundered" for personal use), must be astronomical!

Let's remember since Kenny is a state Senator he's not used to spending his own money anyway. Hard to break old habits.

Unfortunately, trying to report stuff like this to the State Auditor or District Attorney can backfire on the whistleblower. Seen it happen if the perp of the crime is connected.

It isn't unusual for companies to provide their employees business credit cards, that they can use for personal business. The employee is responsible for all charges including late payments. If company expenses are charged they are reimbursed as per company policy. The card agreement is between the person named on the bill and the card company.

This will pale next to what Rudy gets them for.

Where is Rudy ?
Has anyone seen or heard from him lately ?

Just look at the payments made, each person named is responsible for and pays his or her own bill. I afraid you went fishing and all you caught was an empty boot this time Kingfisher.

Anyone charging lemon pepper chicken wings at the Skybox?

@4:58, then why are there accounting codes hand written on many of the bills? And signatures?

12:34 is right. I have a friend who was given the opportunity to get a credit card through her company for travel, but all personal expenses had to be paid by her. The card actually had her name on it, but it was a company credit card. I think it had a lower interest rate than what she could have gotten elsewhere. By the way, that BBQ must be good. I think I'll try it.

The accounting codes you see are most probably charges that are expenses related to company business. BTW... The Food at Marlo's is all delicious...he sells more than BBQ.

Kenny Wayne has always loved spending other people’s money. Who would hire him as Exec Dir? Does he know anything about utilities?

@6:04, that may well be the case. CMU is a government entity, as it is owned by the city. should employees be allowed to use the government entity's credit rating? I've worked for both the state and federal governments. Should I be able to borrow at rates using the federal government's credit rating? Pretty sure it's a PITA if you charge personal expenses to state or federal credit cards if it's allowed at all. Even if it's technically okay for CMU employees to charge personal expenses, it's clear that the frequency of personal charges shows that inadequate checks are in place. Wonder why there was all that fighting over the leadership of the utility? Free money perhaps?

Look at the bills CMU isn't responsible for anything, Visa decided to give a group of folks preferred terms. It only concerns CMU when expenses that are charged to CMU are involved and their bills are used as receipts.

funny thing about Marlo’s is that they up charge your bill 2.5% when you use a credit card. They have good food but I often go somewhere else when I don’t cash. Sad state of affairs with CMU these days.

Wonder if Tammy is buying stuff for the commissioners? Commissioners don’t have credit cards but Tammy is their secretary. Tammy will tell the FBI what they need to know.

I wonder if the Mayor has a credit card?? Feds need to look into anything involving Truly or Blackmon’s.

The General Manager, Kenny Wayne, is wearing a Rolex, engraved by Ed Blackmon! Can you say conflict???? Hey Ed what can I get for my birthday??

12:34 and 8:00 -- my company has Trustmark Visas (same as this group) for employees -- trust me - I AM RESPONSIBLE for the bills -- not the name on the card. They never get a bill. The employees would know if I didn't pay the bill because the card would not work when required but they NEVER get a bill. Look closely at the phone number for inquiries on the bill -- it's local....not some abstract Visa Office.......it's Trustmark......they'll be calling CMU when the bills are not paid.

Internally, if required, I can retrieve money spent by anyone personally (WHICH DOESN'T HAPPEN WITH ME BECAUSE OF RIGID COMPANY RULES). The credit reporting is not in the person's name (won't show up on their personal credit) but on DNB for the company.

Good try - but CMU pays the bill. If they don't -- no credit cards from Trustmark. Late doesn't go against the person whose name is on the card but against the company (in this case government agency). This abstract idea that companies support employees by handing them credit cards with low interest rates which they can use personally, when they want to, is ludicrous. Company sponsored credit cards are for...........COMPANY BUSINESS ONLY (or should be). In this case -- these Trustmark business cards were abused. PERIOD! Question is -- did anyone retrieve the money paid out on personal expenses. My guess -- NOT -- someone at CMU in Canton just wrote the checks and never questioned the expenses. Ever heard of RECEIPTS?? That's a novel concept isn't it.......accounting 101.

It’s not right that the tax payers are paying for steak dinners at Tomahawk Steak house. My family doesn’t eat there but I’m suppose to pay for the CMU employees to eat there? This is simply wrong on so many levels. But no one cares about abuse, so what can we do?

I wonder how many Christmas presents were bought at Walmart for the commissioners grandkids?

8:50 I hope you and anybody else try to make that case my attorney is going to love it when you have to pay him and all other associated court cost .

Someone is trying to make a mountain with sand in a hurricane.

You guys are so busy looking at Canton, let's talk about the mess in Pearl, when are we going to do public records request for them and Madison, Florence, Richland and Clinton???

As I type this there are 39 comments, more than a handful of them are knowledgeable about Marlo’s BBQ. So let’s just get it out.... most of the comments are by the same people or from a few that live in Canton. I have talked to people in canton today. 1 didn’t know where Marlo’s was, and the others said they have been 1-4 times the entire time it’s been open, and they didn’t know how anyone outside of Canton would really know where it was, etc. I must also say that the ones that went were very complimentary about Marlo’s and said the food was good!

I'm all for sunshine in other municipalities, 11:02. Let's finish Canton's enema first and then move on to the next city.

Why would the utilities dept need to drop $2k at a jewelry store?

I'll wait.

Ok so in 2014 John Wallace was Executive Director, in 2015 Brian Fennigan was Exec Dir, then in 2016 Mark Johnson was Exec Dir. Mark Brown took over for Mark Johnson when he quit in 2016. So Mark Brown finished out 2016 and in 2017 Kenny Wayne Jones was named Exec Dir. so I’m 3 years CMU has had 5 Exec Directors. And not to mention 4 different CFOs. But hey I’m just a CMU CSR. What do I know.

WMGO in canton just reported all expenses are justified as necessary operating expenses.

let's talk about the mess in Pearl, when are we going to do public records request for them and Madison, Florence, Richland and Clinton???

Any idea @11:02 when you'll be submitting those requests? What is your timeline?

Good management starts with the ability to efficiently manage your own time and the time of your employees. If employees are gofers for a manager"s personal shopping and errands, then they aren't working at their jobs, are they?
And, it's beyond stupid to use a skilled/professional employee as a errand boy or girl given the differences in wages by the hour.
Show me a manager who uses employees as gofers (unless their job description is "personal assistant") and I'll show you a male ( the rarity in female managers is so rare as to be almost non-existent) who is an arrogant, lazy, asshole who will infect the entire organizational culture.

@8:00am.......Duh WMGO is paid thousands and thousands of dollars annually by CMU for “Adverstising / Image consulting”.

Sorry WMGO doesn’t get paid thousands and thousands of dollars.....if y’all can’t see that this is Rudy and his flunkies doing you are really blind.....

@8:46am. So you know Kenny Wayne Jones?

Sure, Rudy must be at fault for CMU employees' improper use of credit cards. Was Rudy mentioned in the recently released Kennedy assassination documents, too?

lol, @8:56 you do realize that can be proven don't you? Any ratepayer can ask for copies/receipts/etc of what CMU has paid to WMGO for advertising. Its no secret CMU spends a lot of money with the local radio station, and really, nothing is wrong with that, but don't say its not true.

It is AMAZING to me how many people on here seem to be connected to Canton!

WMGO and Jerry Lousteau are terrible. All he does is read the newspaper and picks up stories other news people have written. He needs to leave town and stop spreading garbage. I reckon the only reason he still comes around Canton is that he still waiting on his retirement check. That retirement check being his ongoing lawsuit against the city of Canton.

1210, I live in Jackson. But I have eaten at Marios several times. (And this is my first post on this subject, despite your deductive reasoning.) But I've never had a bill of three figures, much less four, even though I not only got the BBQ but also sides and tea.

People....all this boils down to is the employees that are “working” in a governmental office are blatantly stealing money & the taxpayers are paying for it!!

So, Kingfish, what's wrong with my post asking how many of these people are black? Oh, Wait! We can't go there, can we?

8:46 - What the hell has any of this got to do with 'gophers'? There is no evidence here that these employees were sent out to purchase things for supervisory staff members (even the males you seem to hate). These people were gifted with company-backed credit cards and told to use them as they please and make monthly payments if they can. When they can't or don't, the company is on the hook. If they quit their job after running up two thou in charges, the rate-payers eat that.

This is no different than the women who work in various water department drive thrus all over this state, taking cash payments from customers and pocketing that money for their own use and putting back some of it, 'if they can'.

Canton and Madison County have more criminals than Parchman.

The reason we don't see Rudy's name on this list is because he wasn't there long enough to fill out the Credit Card Application. It takes about a month and a half to get one issued, I was told.

Wouldn't it be fun to find out how many of these card-holders have been denied cards or had their rates increased on cards issued based on their personal credit-worthiness, slow payment history or other such negatives?

Folks in Canton are being fleeced.

"Anonymous Anonymous said...It isn't unusual for companies to provide their employees business credit cards, that they can use for personal business. The employee is responsible for all charges including late payments. If company expenses are charged they are reimbursed as per company policy. The card agreement is between the person named on the bill and the card company.October 31, 2017 at 12:34 PM"

I'll call bullshit on that ^^^ claim. It is indeed unusual for a government office to provide credit cards to employees for their own use. In fact I've never known of a government body to do it, before Kingfish exposed this one.

While it may happen in the private sector, residents of the community are not put at risk in those situations. And you seem to ignore the fact that it requires at least one additional employee in accounting to track all this crap and make sure employees paychecks are summarily garnisheed when they are slow-payers or simply refuse or quit the job. In fact that may require TWO additional accounting clerks.

What we don't see (yet) is how many employees are getting free gasoline. When an investigative agency gets involved, some Pigs and Chickens will come home to roost.

So... I've got a contract on my house in NEJ (didn't put it on the market, someone asked to buy it - I am dead serious), so I started checking out options a few months ago. I don't want to move to Rankin County because I just don't - lakeland drive wears me out - . judge me. Now this - complete incompetence on the part of whoever oversees them and employees that are happy to rip off taxpayers. I am so burned out on bad news from Madison (friends on the Nextdoors send me screenshots of issues there pretty much daily as I've asked for advice about a good place to buy), so what now? I have recently had an experience with Mad Cty government that was a ditto of my Jackson experiences when I was doing research for a private group - basically a bunch of govt employees that have no concept of customer service - even the very basics.. Super disappointing that there is just nowhere to go in the metro area that is safe, not corrupt, and desirable. This is just such a bummer.