GREENVILLE — After several phone calls to city officials and two Freedom of Information Act requests, the city refuses to fully disclose how much it spends on security detail for Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson. While the city did respond to the second FOI request, the exact cost of the security detail remains undetermined.Hudson said she has been receiving death threats since first coming into office in 2004.
Hudson said the Police Department has also provided her with training in gun use and self-defense. “I’ve really had to change my lifestyle, where I go, and what I do in my time, to adjust to these threats,” Hudson said.
Hudson, who is considering a run for lieutenant governor or governor, said overcoming such threats is important for her. As a black political figure, she said she must try to show that she can persevere.
As Hudson’s status as the first black female mayor in Greenville attracted attention, so has the city’s regular use of police officers assigned to protect her. But the issue of how much is spent on the mayor’s security detail comes during an economic crunch.
This year the city has not yet been able to find funds to reopen its only public swimming pool and sales tax revenues are decreasing due to an economic downturn.
The DDT then submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Wicks’ office, which was denied. In a written response, Wicks said that hours and pay scale for officers were not listed according to what particular divisions the officers served.
The DDT asked if it was possible for Wicks and Patterson to add up the salaries of officers on security detail, and provide a lump-sum figure without disclosing any names. That request was also denied. A second Freedom of Information Act, submitted after the DDT sought legal consultation from the Mississippi Press Association, did however yield some results.In response to the second FOI request, Wicks issued a spreadsheet anonymously detailing the salaries of seven officers who work on the mayor’s security detail.
According o those figures, the city’s combined total expenses for salary, overtime pay, pension and federal withholdings that the city pays for these officers has been close to $200,000 between Oct. 1 and July 16.
According o those figures, the city’s combined total expenses for salary, overtime pay, pension and federal withholdings that the city pays for these officers has been close to $200,000 between Oct. 1 and July 16.
At that rate, the city will have paid about $252,000 to these officers by the fiscal year’s end.The figures that Wicks disclosed did not say how much it costs the city to pay for security detail training or travel expenses.
Wicks noted that the $200,000 is not limited to payment for security detail duties, as the officers on Hudson’s detail also perform all other duties required of first class police officers.
Because there are no numbers disclosing which hours are dedicated to security detail and which hours are spent working on regular police duties, the cost of the mayor’s security detail is still very much unclear.
Hudson has argued that any controversy over how much the city spends on bodyguards may stem from the fact that in addition to her security detail there are police officers assigned to protect City Hall.
The latter group of officers, she said, are not personally assigned to her. Rather, she said, they serve to defend the property and personnel of City Hall. One other city pays for bodyguards.
Greenville’s population, according to a 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, is about 37,000. The DDT called cities of comparable size or greater to determine whether they had security details assigned to their mayors.
According to these telephone interviews, Tupelo with a population of 35,000 does not pay for regularly attending mayoral bodyguards. Neither do Meridian, population 38,000; Biloxi, 44,000; Hattiesburg, 50,000; nor Gulfport, 64,000.
Although officials in Hattiesburg said the city does not provide an ongoing security detail for Mayor Johnny Dupree, who is black, they did say that security details are provided in cases where Dupree receives threats.
The only Mississippi city of comparable size or greater than Greenville that regularly assigns security detail to its mayor is the state capital, Jackson, whose population of 176,000 is more than five times that of Greenville’s. Jackson, however, has a violent crime rate of 86 per 10,000 population, which is nearly 2.5 times higher than Greenville’s.
During Hudson’s early years in office, however, the crime rate was much higher here. According to a Uniform Crime Rate report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 2004 Greenville’s crime rate was 62 per 10,000 population, while the violent crime rate today is at 36 per population of 10,000.
It is in this earlier, high-crime atmosphere that Hudson said she and City Hall in general first began receiving threats.
It is hard to believe that Mayor Hudson is the most targeted victim of crime in Greenville. If incompetence and apathy were factors in being "targeted", she should be about 15th in line!
Ego, paranoia and "Daddy" are the driving factors behind this incredible waste of money. Murders in Greenville are rarely racially motivated. They are primarily black on black and drug related.
So, why in a majority black city, run by a majority black leadership, should we have to pony up $200,000 a year to "protect" a black mayor?
I would bet that for $200 grand we could have an indoor, Olympic size, heated swimming pool, with security... in case the mayor wished to visit.
I think that race should be a non-issue with regard to whom we elect as mayor in Greenville; however, a price-tag of $200,000 a year for security, might be a factor we need to consider in the next election.
Perhaps, we just can't afford Mayor Hudson...
Forthright
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61 comments:
This saga with Hudson has actually gone beyond comical and reached the sickening stage.
You have pretty much covered all the points as to why she should need protection but as you indicate none of them are legitimate for a mayor in Greenville.
Things like this are what make it so hard for Mr Johnson with economic development to even think about promoting the city of Greenville; let alone convince industry etc to locate in Greenville.
We could go on and on here but the bottom line is Hudson has brought Greenville to a all time low.
Our city because of our mayor and its leaders have made us the laughing stock of the state. No industry will come here and our own citizens leave here to shop and spend their money. Hudson has driven the taxpaying citizens out of the city to shop and a significant number of others are waiting to sell their homes so they can leave for good. Hudson is without a doubt the worst mayor we have ever had and also the most racial.
I have been as nice as i can and i will stop now before i really say what i want to.
Go ahead and say it. We are all right behind you! She is just abusing the system just like all of them. Look at Obama, he is flying his whole family around the world while he is suppose to be working while they are sight seeing. That takes two 737 jets, plus security, and who knows what else. Yet he constantly calls on all of us working just to get by to keep sacrificing. Why can't he sacrifice like he asks us to do? They all think we owe them . I don't owe them nothing. I was never a slave owner and I doubt he was ever a slave.
Man, I must be the luckiest person alive! I got out of there almost five years ago, sold my house and made a profit. I now never tell anyone I ever lived in Greenville Mississippi. So sorry for those that got left behind and have nothing to look forward to because Heather will never be Gov or Lt Gov and you folks are stuck with her for a long time to go.
The Mayor's abuse of her office is ongoing. The Security expenses are the worst. FYI, there is an assigned city police officer to post outside her home EVERY night! The rest of us have to cover our own safety, she gets that "personal touch", from what I hear, very personal! Recent "secret" is that her neighbor's home was robbed recently. When the GPD tried to locate the officer assigned to the Mayor's house, he could not be located in his parked vehicle..hmmm..gosh wonder where he was????? Duh???
By the way, I heard her house was back on the foreclosure list again. I have lost count on how many times that has happened. She lost her previous home on Washington Ave. a few years ago, Daddy would only save one of the two, so he saved her present home. Thanks Dad...but how many times will he do this??
As for Governor, Victor McTeer better be ready to pony up for that campaign expense.
Oh and another point to remember. She is already a part-time Mayor making full time salary with benefits. If she intends to campaign for the next two years, I say she needs to step down (or fall down, whichever)from her office as Mayor to do her stuff for the Governor's job. (Lawd help us!) Hopefully there is a rule of policy that will make her do that, but I doubt it. Then, Greenville can have a full time Mayor once again who will be focused on Greenville and not another bigger brassy ring of status.
If she can not care for her own expenses and budgets, how are we to expect her to do a good job with Greenville's???
But it expresses an uncommon, but informed view of the phenomenon we're seeing today in the press concerning our new President. It's worth your time to read, if you've not seen it before.
Google Ann Wortham for more about this great lady who tells it like it is. You might see what she has to say having a parallel with Greenville’s political situation.
Monday, May 25, 2009, 12:28 PM
Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University 's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association.
She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas.
Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.
She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality.
Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was awarded tenure.
The open letter she published just after the general election of 2008 can be found on the web by doing a search on her name.
Fellow Americans,
Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to love the ideal of America .
I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America .
Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that Blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.
I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.
I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.
Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.
So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United States, the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person.
So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good.
There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.
November 8, 2008
His ratings are falling so fast I think finally the idiots that voted for him are thinking "What the heck did my stupid self do by casting my vote for such a liar."
Naaaaa,, The people that voted for him still have no idea about what is going on, And would gladly vote him in again.
For him to appoint a Communist to powerful position close to him should surely qualify him to be impeached...surely!!!! It would have been enough to bring Bush down!
Heather Hudson is cunning, conniving, paranoid, secretative, lying, deceitful, controlling, manulipative, condescending, indifferent & conceited. Believe me, I know her personally. What more can I say?
Sounds like my Ex wife!!
Well, I'm back from vacation and into the world of Greenville again. I was looking forward to peace and quiet in my neighborhood, but I am having to endure the booming cars with their offensive sounds and lyrics. On top of it, I read the article here about our "mayor". Why can't we just have the laws enforced around here? Why do police officers have to PROTECT the mayor. She is a citizen just like the rest of us. Perhaps she would not have to be protected if she were doing her job? I just don't get it?
I think the public needs to know exactly what we pay her body guards. I really resent tax payer money spent in this manner.
It was on the news that Heather is now in Nigeria. I wonder if she took her bodyguards????
She can't pay her house loan but she has the money to travel to Nigeria. Sounds like her priorities aren't straight. If my house were in foreclosure I sure wouldn't be spending money to travel. I think I would be trying to keep my house. No wonder our city is in such trouble. It looks like she runs the city the same way as her house.
Heather is on city business trying to get the people there to market their wares in Greenville, at least that is what the tv news said. So WE are paying for her trip.
Since Mayor Hudson is the President of the National Conference of Black Mayors she is representing them as well as Greenville on her Aftican trip. Questions are: 1. Who's paying for the trip, NCBM or City taxpayers? 2. What kind of commerce can a poor depraved country send to Greenville? 3. Did she take her bodyguard or her husband or both? 4. Does Kenny Gines get paid more money for stepping up as Vice-Mayor and doing her "part-time" job while she is away 95% of her term in office? Hummmmm, so many questions.
Posted on Heather's Facebook page: "Heather Hudson has seen Asians, europeans, middle Easterners, and americans and they're all doing major business in Africa but is wondering where are african americans?"
I don't know, Heather. They seem to be elbow to elbow in the Mississippi Delta! Try looking THERE!
Heather has seen Americans, but wonders where are the African Americans? May they are some of the Americans she saw. Maybe if we would get people to drop the surfix and just start calling ourselves Americans we could move on from this us vs them BS. But most Black leaders don't want that, that would leave them with nothing to bitch about and they might have to get real jobs.
I missed the news, But my mother told me there was a black lady wanting every one to only buy from black businesses. What is up with that,, white people would not do something so races!!
Every dog has his/her day...Heather Hudsion's is coming. She is going to lie one too many time and someone is going to bust her with proof of different. Let's hope it is very soon!
Maybe she is in Nigeria to learn how to operate those e-mail scams that all come from Nigeria. Millions of people lose billions of dollars each year to those in Nigeria because of those bogus e-mails. I'm sure all of you are familiar with the e-mails I'm talking about. Like the one that a long lost relative of yours was killed in a car wreck and they found you to give his fortune to. All you have to do is just send them 5 or 600 dollars to them to process the paperwork. Heather could then come home and maybe earn enough money to pay her house payment. Maybe she should move there and be one of the first afro americans to work there. She might start a trend and become a Nigerian hero by bringing back aficans back to their home. But we all know that is just too good to be true. There is no welfare, free housing,free health care,wic programs or a tax refund for those who paid NO TAXES!!! Maybe thats why she doesn't see any african americans there. Hmmmmm
which realtor company is selling the most houses in greenville? I was thinking of listing with century 21? any opinions?
I have found Centry 21 to be a little lazy around this area. Coldwell banker has the most sales and will do the work to sale your house.
Also I would stay away from remax. I was looking to buy a house and called them so I could check it out. They could not find the key and I couldn't get the guy to show me the house. I did still buy the house But I was not impressed with Remax.
Levi McCraney is a great guy. Good to work with.
I would go with Coldwell
Over $250 grand a year, times 8 years of Hudson being in office??? OMG, that comes to $2 million bucks!!!!!!!!
Think what Greenville could have used that kind of money for better reasons...like to the pool project, the parks, events! Talk about throwing good money after bad! If she is so afraid, she should do her city a favor and step down for someone who would not be so afraid and not cost us a fortune. Greenville can not afford this Mayor or any like her!
Why are you selling your house? Don't you want to stay in G'ville where there are so many opportunties?
ha, ha--i am ready to leave this lovely "port" city. everyone is leaving that can afford to. I want my children to have great opportunities. all we have here is the entitlement syndrome. people that are happy to live off of their disability checks. people waiting to sue a company at the drop of a hat. no business would want to be here. eventually all that will left are federal and state bldgs.
Is these trip that are paid for by the city approved by the city board??
You can bet our tax dollars are paying for her Nigeria trip. Oh yeah, in that starving country, commerce is flourishing! She is nuts!
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=60811
LAGOS, 5 September 2006 (IRIN) - Canoes glide through the black, stinking water as children run along an overhead maze of precarious walkways through Makoko, a growing slum on stilts in Nigeria’s sprawling commercial capital, Lagos.
Oh it sounds like a wonderful place to see...uhhh..no thanks!
Wonder what wonders she will bring back with her to give to our fair city from Nigeria? What did she bring back from Germany or Spain??? Nothing???...I expect the same results then...just another excuse to travel on the tax payers' monies.
I would bet that she is seen as some type of royalty there being that she is a mayor of a city in the USA. Maybe she will want to move and be treated like a goddess.
From your lips to God's ears! Take her on Nigeria, please!
From your lips to God's ears! Take her on Nigeria, please!
From your lips to God's ears! Take her on Nigeria, please!
My vote is for Coldwell Banker, but it really doesn't matter... because you ain't going nowhere fast! My neighbor's house has been on the market for 5 years with no offers at all.
I just hope all the Black people that voted for Hudson realize that just being black will not take Greenville on the path to recovery.
This city still has a chance with the right leadership. That leader may be black or white but the one thing for sure is we are doomed if any existing city council member or Hudson are elected as our next Mayor.
We need a PROVEN Business Leader who does not require a body guard.
AMEN TO THE ABOVE
Houses are selling in Greenville, just need to get the word out. I deal with houses every day.. They are selling. Might not get what you want but if you are wanting to sell. it will sell.
What he means is, that if you want to leave this promised land called G'ville, you have to sacrifice your house by giving it away. I pay taxes on my house for 140,000 but realtors say it will sell for maybe 80,000. So how bad do you want to leave? Is it worth losing 60,000 dollars?
"SDRHA is a not a public housing authority, it is a business" Director states in yesterday's ddt. How does a business get government tags on all vehicles? And is all of their property tax-exempt? They owned a lot of property. When property switches from private to SDRHA or a church, property taxes are eliminated!!
My house is appraised at $175,000 and the best offer I have had was $70,000. Unfortunately, I owe $80,000 after 16 years of payments, which means that I would have to PAY $10,000 plus commission and closing costs to "unload" my piece of Greenville! And the really sad news is that... I am seriously considering it!
naa, hold out at least for 80k. just walk away!
The question we need to ask about our town is this...Is Greenville in better shape now with Mayor Hudson than it was during Mayor Artman's leadership??
Oh that is an easy answer...NOOO! Besides, Mayor Paul did not require bodyguards, so right off the bat he was saving us $250 grand a year in comparison to Mayor Hudson.
What I don't get is this. She is a part time Mayor. She only works the Mayor's office in mornings and afternoons on Council meeting days, that is when she is in town and not traveling the world. She found a loop hole in the Mayor's job description and now only works part time, the other part of the day is at her law office....but...she gets paid for a full time job and benefits. So why are we paying for full time bodyguards, 24/7??? If she feels the need for a security guard escort to enter and exit the city hall building, fine enough. Beyond that, let her pay for it!
Here is a good question. Who do you know who would make a great business/city Manager- aka- Mayor? Someone who would care about Greenville and the community well being? We need to get some ideas going before the next election to have some choices this time!
Another question, who should be saved in the next elections of City Council and which of them all should go...besides the Mayor of course!LOL
I am not against a black mayor, but a person that abuses the position yes! The only way the people of Greenville will be able to get her out of office is to have another Black person run for the position, And maybe Kim will run again and make it!! She is one person that will take care of Greenville.
Greenville would be much better off to just clean house. Hudson is poison and the council lets her get by with it.
Our vice mayor is probably her main puppet.
The bottom line is we need CHANGE and by keeping the majority of our City council does not represent the change we need.
I would like to see Kim Dowdy run again. She is such a dedicated, caring, and efficient candidate and would truly be a Mayor to all people. We need to start giving this lots of thought if we are to save Greenville.
Kim Dowdy was not a strong enough candidate then or now to even come close to beating Hudson. It would be a waste of her time and money to try again.
The best casndidate needs to be someone strong, well known and respected for being involved in Greenville and Greenville economics. A Savvy business person with great public relation skills.
Kim is a nice person, but she does not fit the bill.
This person should have already achieved financial security to show he/she is secure on their own finances and can handle business finances and management of Greenville. This person needs to be free of gossip and scandal, an all around decent, down to earth, friend to all races and a true care to get Greenville back on track.
Who does that describe? I have no idea at this point, but we better start looking now, to be ready when the time comes with a good choice, who can win and be good for our community. These qualities need to be in our City Council members too!!!!
Sounds like Carl McGee to me!
Or, Benji Nelken.
Benji sounds like a winner to me!!!!
Benji would be fantastic...but I doubt he would want the job or the headaches!
Benji is a great guy, but I don't think he'd make a great mayor.
maybe some one needs to help her tell her whats shes doing wrong. insted of being neg. everone learn from fuckups just do it till u get it rite
Why the Government is stupid....here's Peter Schiff on the plain and simple truth of minimum wage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LaPGIIAyk4
But here in Greenville, how many of our politicians support minimum wage? I suppose that's why we have so many on welfare doing nothing. Industries have left and are not coming because our workforce isn't even worth the minimum wage at $7.50/hour. Now if I were "allowed" by the government to hire people for less, I may actually be able to create a job. Instead, I can't, and therefore my taxes will pay for this person to sit around on welfare.
Why aren't/weren't minimum wage increases during this recession being rolled back or delayed?
Sorry....I meant $7.25 /hour.
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