Unafraid to Lead? It appears the Forrest County Sheriff’s Department is in need of new leadership.
A number of sheriff’s department employees and officers have been suspended in an ongoing investigation. Sources tell the Hattiesburg Patriot that allegations of sex with inmates, massive food theft, and drug smuggling have surfaced. Sources also tell the Hattiesburg patriot that approximately 11 officers have been suspended and one officer has been fired. It appears that there has been a free for all of crime among certain employees within the Sheriff’s Department that has been going on for years, with leadership turning a blind eye.
Sheriff Billy McGee had a campaign slogan “Unafraid to Lead.” Judging by the looks of the department, McGee is leading the department, or his absence of leadership is veering the department, down the roads of embarrassment and shame. It also appears that McGee has been sidetracked from his official duties with an alleged affair.
A subpoena obtained by the Hattiesburg Patriot in a divorce action demands Billy McGee’s wife produce:
any and all audio recordings, video recordings, or documentary evidence including but not limited to audio tapes, video tapes, text messages, photographs, of (female name redacted) with any other persons
Mrs. McGee’s response invokes spousal privilege as the primary means to quash the subpoena. It states:
Carol McGee hereby invokes Mississippi Rule of Evidence 504 and claims Spousal Privilege with respect to the records and information requested on the Subpoena Duces Tecum;
Mrs. McGee also invokes her right against self incrimination. It states:
Not withstanding the exercise of her statutory right in Paragraph 1 above, Carol Mcgee does hereby exercise her right against self incrimination with respect to the request of documents, records (sic) and information in the Subpoena Duces Tecum;
Documents in the possession of the Hattiesburg Patriot allege that a recorder and GPS tracker were placed in Sheriff Billy McGee’s vehicle without his knowledge. The Hattiesburg Patriot also has documentation that alleges McGee used county vehicles with undercover plates, possibly to avoid the vehicle being identified when conducting an alleged affair. In the documents, the plates are identified as FRB 346 and FRB 603.
In other documents obtained by HP, allegations claim McGee ignored official business calls while with his alleged mistress in his county vehicle. It was also alleged that Mcgee traveled at speeds of 115 MPH while traveling to meet his alleged mistress.
Back during the Hattiesburg Mayor’s race, this site reported that Forrest County Sheriff Captain Robert Earl Gray, a Lamar County resident, voted illegally in the election. When WDAM questioned McGee, he told WDAM that he was disappointed in Captain Gray, but no action would be taken. That story can be read by clicking here.
Below is the actual subpoena issued to McGee’s wife and her official response.
Local activist Thomas Blanton has taken on Mississippi Power’s Kemper Plant and is now attacking the crony capitalist Groundworx project’s contract with the city as being unconstitutional.
If you don’t know who Tommy Blanton is, you should. Blanton has been a key figure in South Mississippi fighting many bad deals for Mississippi taxpayers, and he isn’t scared to take on the big boys. Anyone who has been in his sights before knows that this is a person to be taken seriously. Blanton played a lead role in successfully stopping a nuclear dump from being located in Richton, Missisisppi back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Blanton currently has an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of the 2008 Baseload Act. The Baseload Act made it “legal” for south Mississippi ratepayer’s to have their rates increased in order to help finance the Mississippi Power Kemper County lignite fired plant and mine. The project is more than 3 billion dollars over budget.
Blanton also ran a self funded campaign for the Mississippi Public Service Commission Southern District in an attempt to stop Mississippi Power’s Kemper County plant construction and protect ratepayers from what he called “a corporate socialism and experimental lignite science project.”
In a simplification of Blanton’s legal argument against the 2008 Baseload Act, is the position that money is property (as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court), and government can’t take or authorize taking your money in order to help fiance a private company’s project, delivering ratepayers higher rates with no product or service being delivered. Mississippi rate payers will have no ownership stake, no bond holder position, or no rights to any patents should the experimental plant work. If the Baseload Act is declared unconstitutional, Mississippi Power would likely have to return the 18% rate increases to ratepayers.
Now, Blanton has his sights on the contract signed between the City of Hattiesburg and Groundworx.
Local Hattiesburg Attorney Michael Adelman
Represented by local Hattiesburg attorney Michael Adelman, on July 28th, Blanton filed a Motion to Intervene in Chancery Court in the Groundworx lawsuit against the City. The argument is similar in nature as the Baseload argument against Mississippi Power, but also relies on the Mississippi Constitution as the second legal foundation for the motion.
Article VII Section 183 of the Mississippi Constitution reads as follows: SECTION 183. No county, city, town, or other municipal corporation shall hereafter become a subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or other corporation or association, or make appropriation, or loan its credit in aid of such corporation or association. All authority heretofore conferred for any of the purposes aforesaid by the legislature or by the charter of any corporation, is hereby repealed.
One wastewater engineer called Hattiesburg political leaders “Dumb and Dumber.” Click on this picture to read the article.
This motion creates interesting problems and questions for both the City’s administration and Groundworx. The City’s attorneys will undoubtedly address this matter with the administration if they haven’t already. A local attorney told the Hattiesburg Patriot that any sound defense against litigation involves a layered defense, and the City’s attorneys will have to advise the City on this matter. The question becomes will the City agree with Blanton and adopt his argument as a one of their defensive layers?
If the City adopts this as part of their defense strategy the City will have admitted to having authorized and signed an unconstitutional contract. It could very well open the City’s private attorneys up to malpractice or errors and omissions claims by the City. If the city ignores Blanton’s argument, and Blanton is successful, then the mayor, city attorney, city council members, and their legal representatives will look quite foolish. Groundworx would also lose all claims for monetary damages; since the contract would become null and void.
A judge ruled that the city had no obligation to raise our sewer rates to help Groundworx finance their discharge system. Click to enlarge
If Groundworx intends to continue it’s claim with the city, which at this point is very weak, they will have to address this motion in Chancery Court on October 6th. The contract has already been ruled in court as having been breached by Groundworx, and the City had grounds to terminate the contract. The City Council authorized the Mayor terminate Groundworx’s contract for breach on August 5th, 2014. Groundworx will undoubtedly argue that Blanton doesn’t have standing in the matter and attempt to have his Motion to Intervene dismissed.
When contacted for a comment Blanton said:
“Napoleon said, ‘In politics, stupidity is not a liability.’ “
Carl Nicholson, the city’s outside accountant with Nicholson and Associates, became extremely agitated when he was questioned in the hallway of city hall regarding statements he made before council. Nicholson, whose fiduciary duty is to the city of Hattiesburg, was originally there to discuss the annual audit of the City of Hattiesburg, but the conversation bled over into the the city’s waste water issues as the city’s bond rating discussion was underway.
Nicholson advised council that he spoke with a top level EPA official who stated the city of Hattiesburg and other South Mississippi cities would not be able to discharge treated waste water into the river beyond 2020. This would leave land application as the only long term solution. If true, the EPA official who told him this needs to be revealed for contradicting their official position, and if it isn’t true, there could very well be serious breach of fiduciary responsibility on the part of Mr. Nicholson. The matter should be investigated by the FBI since it was said an EPA official who allegedly made these ridiculous remarks to Mr. Nicholson.
Regardless of what Nicholson was told or not told by this nameless EPA official, the comments are in complete contradiction with what MDEQ and EPA have stated on the record. Those agencies have approved the Bardenpho method for treating waste in our current lagoon system. This method would eliminate the smell in our lagoon and could be paid for with the savings in electricity from the current, broken system. The cost of this solution is minuscule when compared to Groundworx, and ratepayers would seen little if any rate increases. If Groundworx is implemented city sewer bills will increase $40 – $60 per month per household.
This city is being sued by Groundworx, and Nicholson’s public comments on the matter will likely not benefit the city’s interests, and they could quite possible harm the interest of Hattiesburg residents in Groundworx litigation.
After he spoke he was questioned in the hallway about the name of the EPA official. Nicholson refused to provide the name. When he was challenged that MDEQ and EPA reports contradicted his statements, he became upset and physically threatened the reporter. Video is below. #greedworx
Bennett York just needs $140 Million to get Hattiesburg’s poop and stinking rich. Any investors out there?
“Betting on the Come” is derived from a gambling expression and means you don’t have what you want or need, now at the moment; but, you are betting or hoping you will have what you want or need when the time come.
On Monday June 2nd, Groundworx provided the city with an update on their planned construction of the proposed $140 million dollar waste water discharge system. An attorney for Groundworx, Andy Taggart announced that Groundworx is ready to begin construction on 300 miles of irrigation pipe, except for one, tiny thing. Groundworx doesn’t have $140,000,000 to build the system and can’t get funding!
Taggart then threatened to sue the city if the city didn’t raise revenue (taxes or fees) to show that Hattiesburg can afford the $16,600,000 per year system; thereby assisting Groundworx in getting their bond issued. The problem is, according to attorneys assisting the Hattiesburg Patriot, the contract doesn’t require the city to do so. On the contrary, the contract specifically states the following.
Groundworx is in serious trouble of being in default of their contract, since they have not been able to obtain financing.
In order for Groundworx to get financing they need to issue a bond. In order to get a bond issued the underwriters need to see that the city has the money to pay the $16,600,000 per year to pay for the project. The problem for Groundworx is that whoever drafted the contract overlooked one very important clause. The clause that requires the city to raise rates to demonstrate to bond underwriters that Hattiesburg can afford these annual payments.
The cost of the land application is enormous. At a cost of $16,600,000 per year, that’s an average cost of $212.00 for every man, woman, and child in Hattiesburg and Petal as well as the total student population at USM. With 16,000 active water meters that’s over $1,200.00 annually per meter! The worst of it is that MDEQ and DEA have both approved advanced treatment methods using our present lagoon system, which would save hundreds of millions of dollars. Some members on the city council are pushing hard to buy land and spend the money, placing the burden of this unnecessary project on the backs of average citizens.
City Prosecutor, Local Attorney, and Small Business Advocate Alexander Ignatiev won a victory against the American Family Association on behalf of local small businesses supporting non discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Hattiesburg City Prosecutor and local attorney Alexander Ignatiev is known to be a staunch advocate for small businesses in Mississippi, and his latest push back on behalf of his clients against the American Family Association’s statements is evidence of his advocacy. At the heart of the issue is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Governor Bryant and the resulting “We Don’t Discriminate” campaign initiated by Mississippi businesses.
Ignatiev alleged in a letter to the AFA that the organization made defamatory statements when the AFA posted on its website a list of business supporting the “We Don’t Discriminate” sticker campaign and saying,
“Ironically, this sticker represents the very promotion of discrimination…against the freedom of religious convictions. Businesses that display this sticker believe Christians should be forced, by law, to embrace homosexuality and deny their faith in personal business practices.”
Ignatiev fired back alleging defamation in the AFA’s claim that the businesses were discriminating based on religious affiliation, a violation of the 14th amendment. Ignatiev wrote in a certified letter,
These statements are defamatory and actionable per se under the laws of the State of Mississippi, because they accuse my clients of unlawfully discriminating against persons in violation of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1965, a felony punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 241, subjecting my clients to a penalty of up to ten years in prison. They are also materially false, and provably so, in connection with my clients, The Golden Growler, The Keg and Barrel, and La Finestra. These statements have been published with actual malice, which means that they have been published with reckless disregard for their truthfulness, or with actual knowledge of their falsity, which removes any First Amendment protection from those statements.
The AFA backed down and has since removed the language in question.
Mr. Ignatiev was acting in his capacity as a private attorney and not as the city prosecutor. Do you think the “We Don’t Discriminate” campaign discriminates against Christians? Do you think the Religious Freedom Bill discriminates based on sexual orientation?
Ignatiev’s full letter is below. If there is a Google error simply click to download the document and the window will populate.
After attending a Concerned Citizens for Responsible Wastewater Presentation on April 17th, Councilman Carter Carroll pulled back from the $600 Million 30 year contract with Groundworx. Carroll said in his question and answer segment seen in the video below,
“Just until a few months ago we really didn’t know what the cost of getting out of the river was going to be. And let me just say this, I think $144 Million Dollars to take care the city our size sewer system is ridiculous. Now that we’ve taken care of the smell from the USA Yeast it kinda opens up another avenue. We certainly need to make the right decision for Hattiesburg.”
Actually the cost is $600 Million dollars over 30 years. That put a tremendous financial burden on the citizens with increases totaling over $1,200 per year in sewer increases PER METER.
Carter Carroll and Kim Bradley told citizens that “getting out of the river” is a must, referencing “EPA regulators” because permits are more restrictive and getting out from under EPA permits is a must. However, much of the land application area is in the Leaf River flood-way. So much so that Carroll mentioned in the video that they had to have EPA approved buffers in those areas. Carroll admitted that getting out of the river is not a requirement or necessity, but rather “a philosophy.”
USA Yeast was the largest problem Hattiesburg had with our lagoon system. Hattiesburg has 50% of the aeration we need at present, but when USA Yeast begins pre-treating their waste this summer we will have 20% excess aeration capacity. EPA reports have stated that our current lagoon system can function to meet limits even withthe current USA Yeast discharge into the lagoons with adequate aeration.
Citizens have become more concerned after it became common knowledge that relatives of Councilwoman Mary Dryden and Kim Bradley will profit from the Groundworx project. Some have suggested that there may be ethical conflicts of interest involving their vote for the Groundowrx contract as well as Bradley and Dryden’s vote to hike sewer rates for the purpose of helping Groundworx secure taxpayer assisted financing.
The entire, unedited question and answer session is below.
A 2012 email obtained by the Hattiesburg Patriot depicts an engineer with Air Diffusion technologies at his wits end having to deal the Hattiesburg City Council’s irresponsible wastewater decisions. The city council refused free bottom air for the north lagoon in favor of much more expensive, less effective surface “paddle boat” aerators, which were known to be largely ineffective in lagoons deeper than 4 feet. Hattiesburg’s lagoons are 10 feet deep. The bottom aeration could be paid for with the electrical savings. The Engineer, John Hilde, with Air Diffusion Systems, says in a 1.15.2012 email,
” I am so frustrated with the lack of cooperation in Hattiesburg city Council that I have washed my hands of Dumb and Dumber political leaders. They all need to study energy and accounting! What they (City Council) are doing is inexcusable and the people need to be told the truth.”
CLICK to ENLARGE. Members of the 2012 City Council: Kim Bradley, Carter Carroll, Dave Ware, Deborah Delgado, and Henry Naylor
During an expansion of the city’s lagoon system, members of the city council voted to purchase top surface aeration that was known to be ineffective at breaking down sludge at the bottom of the lagoon. Surface “paddle boat aerators” use a tremendous amount of electricity; much more so that bottom air bubblers. Cost savings from electrical and maintenance expenses would have paid for the correct aeration.
Another letter obtained by the Hattiesburg Patriot and dated August 16th, 2011 is from wastewater expert Stephen Mitchell. Mitchell has worked on correcting aeration issues in the south lagoon where bottom diffusion air was installed. In a letter to the Mayor and city council, Mitchell warned the about repeating the expensive mistakes of the past of installing the inadequate surface “paddleboat” aerators in the north lagoon. Paddle boat style aerators use twice the electricity and are less affective than bottom air diffusion. Mitchell commented in a letter to the Mayor and City Council:
“Why would the city want to repeat the previous mistakes by installing horizontal rotor aerators in the new North lagoon System, that created issues in both systems?”
“Why would the city want these issues to come to the forefront during the next few years and, also, appreciably increase the power consumption?”
“What would the citizens think of the city wasting $283,000.00 per year, not to mention the capital expenditure for another system that has already proven inefficient.”
“I would think the citizens would be concerned about using an aeration system, that has failed in the past, and increased power consumption.”
CLICK to ENLARGE. Members of the 2012 City Council ignored wastewater experts to repeat the same mistakes of the past. Now they want to spend $140 Million Dollars on a system Hattiesburg residents don’t need.
Mr. Mitchell’s full letter along with bio engineer John Hilde’s email is below. If you see a Google error, either refresh the page of click the download link and it will populate the window.
$500 Million to fix a $7 Million dollar problem is money down the toilet according to a group of concerned citizens.
After review by independent attorneys advising a group of concerned citizens, one attorney called the contract “an annuity for Groundworx.” Another said Groundworx had “no skin in the game.” Groundworx itemized each item that the city would be paying for under the agreement. Among the items on the list were a $100,000 welcome center and $5,000 for rain coats. Groundworx comes to the table with virtually nothing from an operational standpoint, relying on a $140 million dollar bond to jump start the fledgling company, which includes a baseline Annual Payment of $16,600,000 plus interest.
Click to enlarge : Baseline annual payment for $16,613,403 amounts to $230.00 annually for every man, woman, and child in Hattiesburg and Petal or approximately $1,000.00 annually per meter.
To put this into perspective, the annual operating costs amount to $274.00 for every man, woman, and child in Hattiesburg and Petal. ($16,600,000 ÷ 60,600 people) Construction cost are over $2,300 for every man, woman, and child in Hattiesburg and Petal. (Hattiesburg treats Petal’s wastewater.) The contract is worth a half a billion dollars over the 30 year period and contains everything Groundworx needs to get up and running, except one thing… taxpayer assisted financing.
Groundworx was banking that a contract with the city would be enough to secure financing for the project, but this proved incorrect. The bond underwriters didn’t see the money in the city’s budget to pay for the massive construction project and operating expenses. The bond underwriters were looking for Hattiesburg to show we could afford the contract before putting the bond on the market.
Carter Carroll, Mary Dryden, and Kim Bradley tried to hike sewage rates to help Groundworx obtain financing through a bond issue, but the mayor vetoed the measure saying it wasn’t the city’s responsibility to help Groundworx obtain financing on the backs of ratepayers. In a previous meeting local citizen named Gia Croom “fainted” in the city council chambers, which stalled a vote durign a special called meeting when Councilwoman Delgado was in D.C. Deborah Delgado returned just in time to stop the veto override and subsequent sewage rate hikes.
Concerns among members of the community have surfaced over Dryden and Bradley’s apparent family connections to the half billion dollar project. Relatives of the two council members stand to profit substantially from the Groundworx project. The Groundworx contract is expected to be terminated with cause in early June, opening the door for the Mayor and council to step back choose the only solution, which is to repair our current system and begin meeting EPA requirements.
Line Item Expenses for the Construction of Groundworx’s Wastewater Discharge System.
*If you received a google docs error either refresh you page or click the download link and the document will open.
Complete Groundworx contract with City of Hattiesburg
The City of Hattiesbug’s wastewater problems began back in 2002 when something unheard of was done. The city of Hattiesburg’s enginner Bennie Sellers and outside enginners Shows Dearmon and Waites Enginnering, failed to require a pre treatment permit for USA Yeast. No other company in the industrial park could discharge raw waste into the lagoons. The enginners tasked with protecting the city failed to do so. Why would they allow this to happen?
Yeast manufacturing produces very concentrated waste and is extremely concentrated in BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), acidity, and phosphorus. Our lagoons can easily handle the yeast BOD demands if there is enough air in the water column for the bacteria to survive, but bacteria has trouble growing when the acidity of the water gets too low. USA YEast was discharging waste which had a ph OF 5. Any sensible engineer would know that to allow USA Yeast to dump waste with that low PH and high BOD would lead to a catastrophic collapse over time.
In 2002, the certain collapse of the city’s wastewater treatment system was predicted if modifications were not made to the lagoons in order to handle USA Yeast’s raw wastewater effluent. The report predicted everything that would happen. It outlined the following:
(1) Since the yeast plant’s waste-water will be a readily available food source for all types of bacteria,the likelihood of its creating severe odor problems is a virtual certainty because the soluble material in the yeast waste-water will diffuse throughout the lagoon at a very high rate.
(2) There is extremely large potential for generating large amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the pipeline between the plant and the lagoon.
(3) The current lagoon design and aeration strategy is inadequate because it is based upon a 5-Day BOD removal normally associated with domestic waste-water.
(4) The accumulation rate of solids in the lagoon will be approximately 40% faster than anticipated and require an increase in aeration capacity and cost.
(5) The current plan to treat yeast plant effluent (96-acre lagoon, 74 aerators in 20 acres and 12 aerators in 76 acres) will result in rapid accumulation of sludge in the 20 acre section.
(6) Sulfate reducing bacteria will populate the pipeline between the plant and the lagoons, producing significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide.
(7) This pipeline will serve as an incubator for these bacteria that will accumulate in the lagoon and produce more hydrogen sulfide than the aerators will be able to strip from the water.
(8) Similarly, it is impossible to forecast whether or not the lagoon system will be able to maintain compliance with effluent standards under this new loading condition.
Why did the city’s engineer not sound the alarm bells? Why was USA Yeast the only company to enter the industrial park not being required to pre-treat their waste, when all other companies in the Industrial Park had pre-treatment requirements? Why was this allowed to happen?
A member of government spoke to the Hattiesburg Patriot off the record and said USA Yeast was pushed hard on Hattiesburg with great urgency by the Mississippi Development Authority, while Haley Barbour was Governor, under a fear of loss pitch. In other words, if we didn’t hurry up and sign the contract, someone else would snap up USA Yeast. If only we had been so lucky.
The city council at the time, consisting of 1,2,3,4,5 voted to approve the acceptance of USA yeast contract with no pre-treatment requirements. With the stroke of a pen, Mayor Johnny Dupree signed a contract which would plague this city to this very day. The action would ultimately lead to one of the biggest rip-off shams in Hattiesburg’s history. It would be known as the Poop Dupe. More on that later.
What transpired over the next 3 years was a disaster. As the yeast load began hitting the lagoon, the acidity began to drop and bacteria began to die at a rate that was faster than it could replace itself. The city only had approximately 30% of the air it needed without the acidity issues, but the problem became compounded. Just as predicted in the 2002 report, sludge began to accumulate at a fast pace. So much sludge accumulated in the lagoons that the sludge began accumulating against and tearing the baffle walls.
Each lagoon is divided into sections so the water can flow through it, thereby increasing the retention time that the water stays in the treatmetn lagoons, before going in the river. Typical municipal waste stays in the lagoons for 5 days from entrance to exit, heavy load from teh Yeast plant and the lack of air, the retention time should have been increased to allow for more of the waste to be digested. That was not done. Nor was any effort made to balance the PH of the yeast waste before it made it to the lagoons, and no effort was made to increase air until 2007.
In addition the surface aerators were insufficient to deliver air below five feet. The paddle boat style agitators were common in catfish ponds with depths of 4 to 5 feet, but totally insufficient for 10-12 foot deep lagoons. The aeration was paid for by Mississippi Power. The devices consumed enormous power and would provide a nice return for the power company. It turned out to be a very bad deal for residents. Given that these aerators were insufficient to meet our needs at the time, they couldn’t come close to meeting the needs of the raw waste of USA Yeast.
USA Yeast began discharging their waste in 2003. The waste was 40 times more concentrated than municipal waste, with an acidity of 5.0, much too low for the bacterial to thrive and grow. Instead, bacteria which was digesting the waste and cleaning the water, began to die. Massive amounts of sludge began piling up in the system. The sludge accumulated at such a fast rate, grew so large, sludge islands formed, and their weight tore the curtains (baffle walls), which guides the water through channels, thereby increasing retention time. as the baffle walls tore under the weight of the sludge, the lagoon began “short circuiting,” which means the wastewater was not staying in the lagoon long enough to be property treated.
An engineer who wished to remain off the record, told the Hattiesbrug Patriot, “before katrina the lagoons were like a plane on a crash course. After the power went out for 2 weeks during the Katrina crisis, it was like the wings fell of the plane.” It was surrounding this time period that teh smell affecting Hattiesburg became a nbuicense for a number of years.
In 2007 a capital replacement plan by United Water addressed to Mr. Sellers and Mayor Dupree was largely swept under the rug. Sellers left the city abruptly around 2010 and went to work with engineering firm and top Dupree Campaign Contributor Shows, Dearman, and Waits. Since that time Hattiesburg has smelled like Sulfur gas and racked up multiple EPA violations. Now, the city faces a lawsuit from the Gulf Restoration Network for the continuous polluting of the Leaf River. Citizens could be on the hook for millions of dollars in fines and attorneys fees. Interestingly, Shows, Dearman, and Waits Engineers stand to make millions fixing the mistakes.
Bennie Sellers – former city engineer and currently with Engineering Firm Shows, Dearman, and Waits.A 2007 report by United Water outlined numerous problems with management, maintenance as well as the design of the city’s lagoon system.
If you received a bandwidth error trying to view this 2002 In-Pipe document below or the below 2007 United Water Report in the embedded mode or enlarged mode, simply refresh your page and it should show the document. Of click on the “download” link and the document will open in the window. The red font in the document was added by the firm in a 2007 update to the previous report.
Click to Enlarge: Above is the response given to the Hattiesburg Patriot for several records requests. It shows the State Auditor’s office has seized bid records from the city.
Alleged malfeasance within the city of Hattiesburg’s Public Works Department under the leadership of Russell Davis and Tim Pittman has been well documented in the past. Allegations of overtime schemes, maintenance of private vehicles by city workers, and even city maintenance of a private vegetable garden were all reported by this blog in the article “Mayor Johnny Dupree Cited “personnel matters” in Scheme: Russell Davis & Tim Pittmon Repaid Over $28,000.” Both Davis and Pittman paid restitution to the city involving an alleged overtime bilking scheme, but new information is surfacing that these alleged schemes may not be all that occurred at the expense of taxpayers.
The Hattiesburg Patriot has uncovered multiple instances of what appears to be bid rigging activities involving the “Two Bid” process, involving projects within the Public Works Department when Pittman and Davis were over the department. “Two Bids” are types of bids that involve purchases or jobs costing less than $50,000. These bids are not required by law to be publicly advertised, and only two bids (or estimates) are required before awarding the job to the lowest bidder. See pages 4 and 5 of the State Auditor’s Purchase Law Overview Handbook. (b) BIDDING PROCEDURE FOR PURCHASES OVER $5,000.00 BUT NOT OVER $50,000.00 Purpose -Two Quote Bids Required Note – Must Document Best Bids – See Sec. 31-7-13 (d).
The companies involved are a “Cantrell Construction” and “Mike Miller Construction, LLC.” The Hattiesburg Patriot investigated and found that that Cantrell Construction is likely a fictitious company which likely bid up the various projects costs. Mike Miller Construction was always awarded the bids. There is no proof that Cantrell Construction has ever existed as a legitimate, legal entity. Cantrell Construction is identified as being located at 44 Trystan Dive in Petal. However, Amy Heath, who has been with the city of Petal building permit department since 2001 has never heard of “Cantrell Construction. When asked about Cantrell Construction she said, ” I do not remember a Cantrell Construction since 2001.” Heath went on to say, “We do not have any active permits on file for Cantrell Construction.”
Cantrell Construction:
(1) Never had a tax privileged license with the city of Petal to operate as a legal entity within the city
(2) Never pulled a building permit with the city of Petal (according to the permit department manager in Petal)
(3) Is not known to the building department in Petal, and they have never heard of “Billy Cantrell” or “Billy Cantrell Construction.”
(4) Has no contractor’s license with the state of Mississippi (However, this is not required for bids less than $50,000)
(5) Never had a license with the city of Hattiesburg to legally work within the city. (To perform work with the city contractors must be licensed with the city.)
“Mike Miller Construction, LLC” was awarded the bids on all three occasions involving Cantrell Construction. Tax records show that Mike Miller has a homestead residence on Cabin Road. What’s interesting is that former Public Works Manager Tim Pittman lives at 100 cabin Rd. The two are almost neighbors. Additionally, Billy Cantrell and Mike Miller were related through marriage (Cantrell’s former wife), and Michael Miller transferred property to Billy Cantrell in 2009. So, it is indisputable that the two knew one another. The three bids in question occurred in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and are embedded above. Mike Miller Construction let their license with the City of Hattiesburg lapse in 2012, the same year Tim Pittman and Russell Davis left the city after the alleged fraud was discovered in their department.
Apollo Maintenance and Construction is owned by former Public Works Director Russell Davis, with former Public Works Manager Tim Pittman, and his father Thomas Pittman.
When a records request was submitted for information related to companies owned by Tim Pittman’s father, Thomas Pittman, the Hattiesburg Patriot received a denial of those requests. The reason for the denial was the State Auditor had seized the records and the city no longer had them in their possession. Mr. Thomas Pittman owns a number of companies that have been awarded bids with the city, and he is connected with Apollo Maintenance & Construction, Inc. owned by former Director Russell Davis. Apollo didn’t receive bids from the city, but instead received work from a company who received bids with the city.
