What is a Statement of Economic Interest? The Mississippi Ethics Commission explains:
The Statement of Economic Interest is a financial disclosure form filed annually by certain elected and appointed officials in state and local government. It is intended to disclose the sources of a public servant’s income so that members of the public know where a public servant’s personal financial interests lie. It does not disclose the amount of income a public servant receives. The Statement of Economic Interest promotes compliance with the Ethics in Government Law disclosing potential conflicts of interest. All information disclosed is for the previous calendar year.
SRHS Watch has reviewed the statements for the current Board of Supervisors since 2009. Our findings are listed below.
District 1 Barry Cumbest – All on file for period, no deficiencies noted Of note: Spouse employed as RN at Singing River Health System for all years reported. SRHS budgets are approved by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors
District 2 Melton Harris – All on file for period, no deficiencies noted
District 3 Michael Mangum – All on file for period, no deficiencies noted
District 4 Joseph Troy Ross – 2011, 2012, 2013 not on file. 2014 deficient – Fails to list public bodies from which Ross was compensated.
District 5 John McKay – 2011 and 2012 not on file Of note: Spouse employed at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in 2010. MGCCC receives funding from Jackson County
SEIs are now filed online, so there is little likelihood that any report got lost in the mail. Just in case, you may want to call the State Ethics Commissions and verify whether or not they have reports for McKay and Ross for the missing years.
If they do have McKay’s for 2012, you might want to ask if he listed the free outings from the DMR on his report.
Search the Statements of Economic Interest database here
Contact the Mississippi Ethics Commission
Telephone: 601-359-1285
Web: www.ethics.state.ms.us
Email: [email protected]
I don’t remember all of the details of the DMR outings which I assume are the fishing trips on the charter boats. Did McKay ever reimburse any of the expenses back to DMR or the state of Ms.? Did anyone ever file an ethics complaint or repayment demand over this before or is there any way to determine this? I am going to do a little research to find out how many he went on and exactly when. Must be over 2 years now. I wonder if there is any type of statute of limitations on the misuse of tax dollars? I did see where this is retreat week at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Al for the SRHS upper class. I guess I am surprised this is not where McKay wanted to have the “meet and greet”. Maybe that would be a little too self promotional.
http://www.sunherald.com/2012/12/22/4373641_dmr-charters-fishing-trips-in.html?rh=1
Your post says “SRHS bugets are approved by Jackson County.”
Actually, aren’t the SRHS budgets supposed to be approved by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors?
But according to John McKay, the supervisors didn’t approve the SRHS budgets for some reason.
If the Jackson County Supervisors did not approve the SRHS budgets that they should have approved, then as the SNL church lady would say, “Well, isn’t that just soooo convenient for the supervisors!”
Perhaps ignorance is a convenient excuse again? Or was it was someone’s birthday and they were all busy fishing on a free charter?
Jackson County Supervisors: Having it every way but the “Sorry but we are the HMFICs and it’s partially our fault” way.
I did determine that the multiple trips taken by McKay and others was aboard the Silver Dollar 3, a 52′ Custom Built charter boat. A day trip on this boat goes for about $2000+ depending on the number of people. Birthday cakes are extra.
Why didn’t Michael Watson report being in business with doctors who are stealing time from SRHS (getting paid full time by SRHS, but working part time) to run a lab called Certus which competes with SRHS, and now, they are allowed to resign or go on vacation instead of being fired and all going to work at Memorial (and still run the lab but Memorial does not even care – and even dumber they (Memorial) actually CONTRACTED with the certus lab!) where in hell are the State ethics people on this? The doctors going to Memorial are bragging about making more money off the lab than in salaries. WTH? “I am positive” this is unethical.
Heath was aware of Certus as were other administrators. Heck, one senior administrator is married to one of attorneys whose firm is fighting the retirees! This lack of ethics is is present in every department. When the Feds start checking the billing and coding for primary care, anesthesia, and encore then things will get interesting and administrators will start resigning.
Unethical, yes without a doubt. But is it illegal?
Well, I guess this article shook up Senior Supervisor John McKay because he has since filed his Statement of Economic Interest for the years he had not previously submitted. When you go to the database and click on these years a statement now comes up stating he has filed and are the information is under review. I bet the line is longer than at a Walmart checkout on Christmas Eve to see what he has shown and file an ethics complaint if he failed to list all he received from Bill Walker and the DMR. I also did see one of the Certus doctors in the Sunherald this morning in an announcement that he is now employed by Memorial in Harrison County. Guess he and SRHS decided it would be best to just part ways. I also heard he has some info he just may pass on to the right party pertaining to some wrongdoing by SRHS management. Sounds like high stakes poker to me.
What are the penalties for failing to file or disclose required information?
Anyone who fails to file within one year of the applicable deadline or who knowingly fails to disclose required information is guilty of a crime and can be fined up to $10,000. If you file but realize later that you forgot to disclose some information, you must contact the Ethics Commission and get permission to supplement your filing. -This is from the http://www.ethics.ms.state.us Could we be dealing with crimes against the State of Ms.?
Anyone called the compliance line to report it and the other compliance issues? Make the call!