Council Flubs it!

City leaders waste tax dollars:

The council will continue to use Mississippi Municipal Liability for liability insurance that covers the city and the airport, despite Bill Andrews Agency's attempt to convince the council to use its services. “The MML plan required no deductibles from the city, whereas the Andrews plan required a $10,000 deductible per occurrence for both police and public officials,” said the mayor.

Council members Carl McGee, Lee Owen and Betty Watkins voted in favor of staying with MML, while council members Ann Hollowell, Errick Simmons and Kenneth Gines voted in favor of switching to Andrews, a Greenville-based agency founded in 1925. Hudson broke the tie by voting in favor of MML, which the city has used for the past four years.

But Bill Andrews, president of the Andrews agency, said his company's plan's premium was $53,037 lower per year than MML's. And because the city has had only two liability claims over the past five years, Andrews believes the council would have saved money by picking his plan over MML's.**

Seems to me a GUARANTEED savings of $53,037. as opposed to a potential $10 grand deductible would be worth the overall savings when considering there have only been two liability claims in five years. According to that, if we were insured through Bill Andrews in the past five years, we would have saved $265,185 and spent $20 grand for the two claims...let's see that comes to $245,185.00 in savings....that is a lot of mula!!! What are they thinking???? That is enough money to fund salaries for several employees or repair and improve at least a few streets!

Typical Greenville leadership strikes again!

Nothing new about this headline! Given the city's current fiscal shape, the council would be hard pressed to come up with $10,000 in any emergency, so they simply go with the higher price... after all, it is just taxpayer's money and it can be allocated each month!

This is the same mentality of the person who buys a new TV from the Rent-to-Own Center. At the end of the 2 year lease for a $300 TV, he has now spent over $1,200 for this same TV... but the payments were "so cheap", only $50 a month. Wow, what a buy!

The city is willing to "roll the dice" that Greenville will have five major claims in 2009. It is only a $53,000 wager (with an easy payment plan using our money). If there are no claims for the year, the council will all pat themselves on the back and attribute it to innovative safety measures on their part.

On the other hand, the city may be doing the right thing in forecasting a massive monetary exposure for 2009. If something isn't done about the basic infrastructure of Greenville, we will soon be losing entire automobiles into the vast sink-holes that are so prevalent on our roads. If everyone filed a claim against the city for the cost of car repairs caused by the city's irresponsibility and negligence, $50,000 would look like "chump-change".

Forthright

P.S. Not to be outdone by Alaska, Greenville will soon have it's own "road to nowhere" (Washington Avenue). It is truly impressive to stand at the old train depot and have a clear and unobstructed view of the boarded up and crumbling buildings that line both sides of the street. The new straight-a-way design will also assist the police in high-speed car chases of drug dealers and thieves.

So, just as soon as they can get those tacky 200 year old bricks covered with some fresh black asphalt, we can hold a "grand opening" celebration and, hand in hand, march down the freshly paved "road to nowhere".