|
The Rinaldi Report
by Peter Rinaldi
A tough little town
Poor Ferriday. Four years
ago, in an election marked by fraud, funeral home director Gene Allen
narrowly beat Mayor Glen McGlothin. McGlothin, the perpetual good sport,
never contested the election. But it was obvious that shenanigans helped
propel Allen into office. Now, as Allen is ending is first and last term
as mayor, Ferriday police officers are under indictment for a variety of
crimes. They’ve pled innocent, of course, and are innocent unless proved
otherwise.
The tone starts at the top. Allen’s tone was definitely one not
to be admired. It was easy to see that Allen’s propensity to shoot from
the hip would cause him trouble. You might remember what I wrote four
years ago – that a guy who will lie about his residency to qualify to
run for mayor will also lie about many other things. Accustomed to
coordinating funerals, it appeared that Mayor Allen was actually
orchestrating the burial of Ferriday, one step at a time.
The departure of Wal-Mart struck a terrible economic blow. But
there is some renewed interest by developers in Ferriday because of
highway access and the lower cost to build and operate. Expectations are
high now that McGlothin has won another term. Yet the town’s resources
are still slim at best, dependant on “foreign aid,” state and federal
largesse to make many things happen.
In the meantime, while the Ferriday economy struggles along,
McGlothin must show a change in direction, including the hiring of a new
police chief. Whoever the new mayor picks must be a person of good
character who is capable of running and improving the cop shop, not just
a political buddy.
While Allen and McGlothin talked repeatedly about revamping the
water system for eight years, little has been done to stem the negative
cash flow. A recent audit showed the town is losing money on its water
and sewer operations, in part, because meters don’t work and aren’t
being read. So revenue is being lost. Additionally, there needs to be a
modest water rate increase. You can only provide basic good service,
including necessary repairs, when you charge a fair rate for the
service.
Goodbye Gene. Hello again, Glen. Let’s hope the town we love to
love, little Ferriday, has a political turnaround and some economic
progress. Its citizens deserve no less than much improved government.
Two management companies?
Natchez Regional employees are breathing a sigh of
relief, after a flurry of press reports indicated the hospital was in
financial trouble. The hospital trustees have decided to file
bankruptcy, in hopes of rewriting a number of disadvantageous contracts
and cutting expenses. Jobs appear secure for the short term.
It has recently come to light that the hospital actually has two
management companies. Quorum, the outgoing company, says it has not
received official notice to leave. Trustees say the official termination
notice is in the mail.
You should ask questions like: 1) Why did hospital trustees
originally endorse all these bad contracts that put the medical center
in the financial soup? 2) Which attorney gave them such good advice to
approve these contracts? 3) Why hasn’t Quorum been shown the door,
especially after the new management company is on board? 4) Why pay a
new management company $60,000 a month – what can it do that a solid
administrator can’t do? 5) Why haven’t any of the managers and trustees
eliminated overstaffing, the primary cause of Regional’s negative cash
flow?
Bankruptcy is not a fix. It’s a short term way to counteract to
years of mismanagement. If the mismanagement continues, then the
hospital will be back in dire straights within two years and a sale of
the hospital to HMA or something private hospital corporation would be
likely.
Final note: Two of the current hospital trustees are serving on
the board even though their terms expired in February. Adams County
Supervisors have been dilly-dallying about making the new appointments
because local physicians are trying to hand-pick the trustees. The
political messiness continues.
Shots over the bow
The Natchez-Adams Economic Development Authority has always been
the scene of controversy because the agency has had series of directors
that were lackluster. While the authority is charged with bringing jobs
to Natchez, it’s been mostly talking the talk and not walking the walk.
Through it all, EDA chairman Woody Allen has been a consistent advocate
for the authority, despite fears from the general population that the
EDA wouldn’t accomplish much.
Outgoing board member Vidal Davis took his leave by sending a
shot across the bow the occasionally sinking EDA boat, alleging that
‘things weren’t being run right and that executive director Jeff Rowell
wasn’t doing his job.’
What Davis didn’t say is that Rowell has been constantly
frustrated in his efforts to do a good job because his own board,
including Allen, kept him in the dark regarding industrial prospects
like Rentech. Rowell hasn’t said this publicly. But Adams County
Supervisors noted that Rowell doesn’t know what’s going on as compared
to Allen and quasi-County Attorney Bob Latham. As one insider said,
‘Rowell is more like Woody’s $100,000 a year secretary.’
Supervisors were anxious for Davis to leave, in part, because
they worried his business dealings might bring up the issue of a
conflict of interest. Davis owned the land that Denbury Resources
purchased in Adams County. Davis was on the EDA board when Denbury
announced it was coming to our county. And with Allen in the petroleum
business and Davis a good friend, supervisors feared that Davis’ insider
status helped him secure that wad of cash. Davis said repeatedly that
there was no conflict of interest and the deal was worked independently
of the EDA. He also stated to me, “I never really wanted to be on the
EDA anyway.” So you should ask why he got on the board to begin with.
To his credit, Jeff Rowell is a person of high character who
wants to do right for Adams County. He has labored under a bad
situation. It should be Rowell, as the agency’s director, doing all the
heavy lifting on economic development. Instead, Allen is doing Rowell’s
job. Allen should be a policy maker and guiding leader, as should the
rest of the EDA board members. For example, when the EDA went to
Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress on behalf of Rentech, Allen and few
buddies went on the trip. They left Rowell back in Natchez to tidy up
the office, put staples in the stapler and empty the waste baskets.
Chairman Allen should be running the EDA meetings. Rowell should be
recruiting the prospects, meeting with the big shots and federal and
state authorities. That’s what he was hired to do.
The EDA board has had a series of executive directors in its short life,
almost a revolving door. Some of the hires have been just awful, some
lazy, some incompetent. So who is ultimately in charge of the hiring?
More than anyone else, it’s Allen. Hmmm. |
