Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Congratulations! Now, can the pieces be sorted out?


Congratulations to the winning candidates from yesterday – particular the two “new” Supervisors, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Pegram.  The vote is clear evidence that the citizens of Tunica County are demanding better!  The vote is clear that the citizens of Tunica County are expecting better!

Be careful what you ask for . . . you might get it.  Believe it or not, the hard part will start in January.  The current Board’s policies appear to have led our County to near disaster.  It appears that you will take office with a mountain of litigation (most of which has been lost and is now on appeal – like a hail-Mary pass at with no time on the clock), no money in the bank (really worse, no money in the bank and lots of checks bill held), and a County Administrator that does not seem to know what to do other than encourage more and illegal taxes.   Further, It would seem as though the new Board members will be taking over a County that is not able to be audited. 

With all of the problems, will also come opportunities.  We would recommend starting by contacting the State Auditor and demanding that his team of auditors immediately initiate a full audit of the County – maybe even a forensic audit.  The new Board should not have to start with a cloud hanging over them.  We know where the current Board started back in January, 2012 because of the audit – which showed over $11,000,000 in general fund assets and over $6,000,000 in the road fund.  Of course based on Mr. Thompson’s budget, we know these assets/funds are gone with only about $1,500,000 as a beginning cash balance for the general fund and road fund combined as of October 1. 

There are strict legal limits on what can be done during the last year of office by Supervisors and how much money they can spend during their last months of office.  This will be monitored and the current Board members can be held personally responsible for illegal activity.

Again, congratulations and hopefully the days of “not guilty” being the standard set for our County Administrator are over.

Tunica County will do better!

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