‘Curious transfers’ questioned at Natchez aldermen meeting

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, July 8, 2009

NATCHEZ — During a briefly heated discussion Tuesday, City Clerk Donnie Holloway assured Alderman Dan Dillard that there are no inter-fund loans that the board of aldermen do not know about.

That assurance came after Dillard asked about what he called “curious transfers,” in particular, $578,000 in transfers from the capital improvement fund.

“Where is the $578,000?” Dillard asked.

Holloway responded in a raised voice that Dillard knew where the money was.

“It’s in Daisy Street,” Holloway said. “It’s in Zoa Street.”

Daisy Street and Zoa Street were repaired using monies from the capital improvement fund.

The discussion came up after Dillard took a few moments during the meeting to assure the public the aldermen are working to address the city’s budget woes.

“When we began last year to put this budget together, it became apparent that (the past) administration and the current administration has borrowed against next year’s tax revenue,” Dillard said. “I liken it to a farmer borrowing seed money against next year. That’s not necessarily unusual, but it becomes a problem when each year you continue to borrow money.”

Because of that the aldermen took the position that they would scale back the budget as much as possible, Dillard said.

Two of the city’s big spending departments, the police and fire departments, might actually meet or come in under budget because the city had budgeted for gas prices to be higher than they have been, Dillard said.

“So where are we owing?” Dillard said. “The fact is there are no outward signs of this bleeding. It concerns this board member that we are yet to identify and project with a certain amount of certainty what our financial standing is.”

Dillard suggested the city make no expenditures, no travel and no purchases until it knows for certain where it stands financially.

“Government should always look for ways to be more cost effective,” he said.

In other business, the board also voted to approve an extension to the retaining wall project on Commerce Street.

The extension was originally part of the plan, but was cut for cost purposes, City Engineer David Gardner said.

However, bids for the project came in much lower than were budgeted for, and the city can afford to add the extension, he said.

The extension will bring the total project cost to $72,000, still well below the $80,000 budgeted for the project.

The project is 85 percent federally funded and 15 percent locally funded, Gardner said.

In other news:

4Gardner said the city has received environmental clearance from the Mississippi Department of Transportation to begin both the Natchez Trails Project and the Union Street overlay project.

“The ball is up and rolling for these projects to get everything under way construction wise,” Gardner said.

4Gardner told the board that Canadian National Railroad has agreed to donate two portions of abandoned railroad property, one between Broadway Street and Canal Street and the other between Canal Street and Briel Avenue.

The first piece of property will be used in the trails project, and the second piece of property will be useful if the city ever wants to extend Orleans Street, Gardner said.

4Alderman James “Ricky” Gray made an appeal to the city’s citizens to be aware of litter.

“I hope each and every one of us realizes our responsibility to clean up around our property,” Gray said. “It’s not the city’s responsibility. It won’t take more than 2-3 minutes of your time to pick up the paper outside of your house.”

Alderman Mark Fortenbery agreed.

“Public works is already bogged down,” he said. “When we go pick up something and go back an hour later and it is back, it is just pathetic.”

4Auditor Deanne Tanksley reported to the aldermen that an audit of the city’s financial statements and federal awards came back with a clean audit opinion.