MCDP President Jerry Frazier
By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher
Marion County Attorney Joe Shepard has responded to a public records request that was seeking the salary amount for the head of a local taxpayer-funded economic development organization.
The Marion County Informer filed the records request last week seeking the salary for Jerry Frazier, who is the executive director of the Marion County Economic Development District and the president of the Marion County Development Partnership.
In his response to the records request, Shepard stated, “Mr. Frazier provides three distinct professional management services as follows: Manager of the Marion County Economic Development District (MCEDD), which owns industrial parks and buildings; manager of the Marion County Development Partnership (MCDP), which is the economic development and chamber of commerce organization of this community; and also, Mr. Frazier provides oversight of the Marion County Subdivision Regulations. These professional services are provided by Mr. Frazier for an annual fee of $85,000.”
Shepard also stated in his response to the records request, “Mr. Frazier is not a salaried employee of Marion County Mississippi, the city of Columbia, Mississippi, or any governmental entities of Marion County, as well as the Marion County Development Partnership. Nor does Mr. Frazier receive any employment benefits normally associated with salaried employees, such as retirement, insurance, FICA, taxes etc., from any governmental agency or the Marion County Development Partnership.”
MCDP Office
According to the 2009-2010 MCEDD budget, the county contributed $100,000 to the MCDP for “operating expense” and $96,000 to the MCEDD for “operating expense.” The city of Columbia also gives the MCDP $40,000 annually, said City Clerk Donna McKenzie. Other than funding from the city and county, the only other money the MCDP receives is from its 250-260 members, which include local businesses, Frazier has said.
According to the MCDP Web site, there are two other MCDP employees: Vice President- Chamber of Commerce Division Carolyn Burton and Administrative Assistant Angela Harper.
The Marion County Informer filed a separate records request with Frazier last week asking that he provide a detailed line-item breakdown of how the taxpayer money is used in the MCDP and MCEDD, but county officials refused to provide the information. Andrew Foxworth, counsel for the MCDP, responded via certified letter today to that records request, saying the MCDP is not subject to the Mississippi Public Records Act because it is not a public body.
Foxworth responded to the request stating, “The MCDP is not a division or entity of the state, the city or any subdivision thereof. The MCDP was not created by the Constitution or by any law, executive order, ordinance or resolution. The MCDP is a private non-profit entity. Therefore, the MCDP does not appear to fall within the definition of a ‘public body’ as set out by the Act. As a result, the MCDP would not be subject to the terms of the Act.”
The 2010-2011 proposed MCEDD budget also asks that the county contribute $96,000 to the MCEDD for “operating expense” and $100,000 to the MCDP for “operating expense.” It is unclear if the Marion County Board of Supervisors will provide that funding for the MCDP and MCEDD in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Now, can someone tell me if this is the same Gerald B. Frazier who owns Pine Belt Properties LLC out of Hattiesburg? Found that one after searching the secretary of state’s website. If it is the same Frazier, I’m wondering why the city/county couldn’t hire someone from Columbia. Marion County to do the $85,000 job! If it’s not the same Frazier, just ignore the question and accept my apology Mr. Frazier.
An 85k salary! The average salary in Columbia is $23,010 (http://www.simplyhired.com/a/local-jobs/city/l-Columbia,+MS) So, this is no doubt an extremely high salary.
It doesn’t matter if they are a public body or not. It doesn’t matter if they are required by law to release their budget or not. The point here is that these organizations want to receive tax payer funds, and they need to be releasing at least a proposed budget for the future funding they are seeking from the city and county if they want the money!
JOSH- As to past budgets not being covered under the MPRA- Surely, or at least I hope, the board of aldermen and board of supervisors have not just written the organizations a check in the past without having more than “operating expenses” listed as what the money will be spent on. Those board minutes should include any of the above org’s proposed budgets that were submitted to the board of aldermen and supervisors, and those my friend are public record! Just find out when the org’s addressed the board to request the money and the last vote on the funding…and then request those board minutes.
http://www.governorbarbour.com/news/archive/news/2007/oct/UnityModHousing.htm
10 bucks an hour is not much money for someone dong this line of work. Considering that he is paid as a contractor and gets no insurance and probably has to pay an additional 15%
to SSI, this is a lot less than it sounds like.
I’m still confused with Foxworth’s reply. Public money is accountable by my understanding to the taxpayers. Someone has to justify its release to be spent. If the BOS are releasing that money under the broad phrase “operating expense” without an understanding of what these expenses are….someone seems to be derelict in their duties. As to how Mr. Frazier is paid….. sounds like a shell game. Just who does he punch his time clock in with? Sound like we putting the money in one pile, then moving it to another pile, etc. so in the long run you can’t tell exactly were it is or came from.(or who’s accountable to it) But I’ll bet some of it originated from my (taxpayer)pocket!
So….this man is making more than our mayor!!!???
We can save our county twenty thousand dollars, I’ll take the job for sixty five thousand a year.
Josh for mayor, only activity I see within that building is a female out side smoking!
Wouldn’t it be great if the City and County would just pass a no smoking policy. I see even ones from the police dept. smoking in the police cars. Even the prisoners have to take their smoking breaks. Other places have banned smoking. Why can’t we?
People kill me with wanting rights and freedoms as long as it falls into their line of thinking! You want Big Brother deciding if people can or can not smoke because you are obviously not a smoker. However, I wonder if you would be so enthusiatic about Big Brother bans if it affected something you chose to partake in?
The last time I checked, this is the UNITED STATES of AMERICA right…not some Communist controlled country..right??? Men and women are fighting and dying to protect OUR freedom and rights! Yet some people still want to have selective freedoms and rights by insisting the government steps in and says “if you smoking, it better be because your on fire boy!!”
Were paying him eightyfive grand while our regular patrol officers are eligible for food stamps if they are a single income family… Tell me what this man does do deserve this kind of money!!!
Excellent point. Would Columbia/Marion county benefit more by adding two police officers or keeping an economic developer during a recession. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Maybe Josh could do a poll on that one.
Wouldn’t it make sense to let the local realtors handle economic development right now at a time when everything is pretty much stalled everywhere?
Just exactly what is Frazier’s job and what has he accomplished? I really don’t see our town as a booming ecenomic place. We are losing people and businesses left and right. I suggest he gets with the program. Honest dollar for an honest days work. Morning coffee’s are not helping our industry.I think we have had more industry and businesses close during his tenure and we have gained.
What’s with his role as subdivision monitor or whatever it was that Foxworth put in that response? I’ve never seen his at any town board meeting when subdivison issues were discussed. Don’t attorneys handle all the subdivision disputes and issues? Is Frazier an attorney?
Lets cut back on spending and start with doing away wiyh this wasteful organization.
I agree, cut the spending. It’s our money, stop spending it and asking for more.
How convenient to take tax payer money,but not be an entity or division of the city or county. If they truly are independent of the Act because of not being a public body, then let them be independent from a monetary standpoint as well. I would think that if the city or county contracts a business to perform work,that there would be an accounting of costs and assurance of a job performed properly–even though the contracted business or worker is not a salaried employee of the city or county.Just as tax payer dollars would fund such contracted work,taxpayer dollars are funding the MCDP and those paying have a right to know how their money is used.Hopefully, the supervisors and aldermen have received more info than we about budgets and expenditures before handing over taxpayer money.If so, they should share this info with the public. If not, then shame on them too.
No. It would not be great if our city passed a no smoking policy. If police, etc., want to waste their money and health, that is their business. The cigarette Nazis need to mind their own business. There are far more pressing issues to worry about than somebody smoking a cigarette.
It’s not their health we are worried abount, other than we the taxpayers help pay their health insurance. It’s a proven fact that smokers have more health claims. Now, what about the non smoking Officers that have to drive the cars that have been smoked in? Can’t we at least be courteous enough to not smoke in the patrol vehicles and all city vehicles for that matter?
$…$…$… And just for the record..The MC-BOS and the City-BOA better know how that money is spent, so that when the accounting comes… they dont stand there looking as dumb as they usually do sayin, “DUH,…I dunno where the money went…duh!”. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT!!! If you write a check outta city or county fund youd better dang well have a sheet from the guy u wrote it to telling you where he spent it, if for no other reason to justify the expense and to “CYA”!!!
Heres a thought…. EVERY INCUMBENT IN OFFICE GETS VOTED OUT AND NEW PEOPLE PUT IN SO WHEN THESE PEOPLE WANTING $$$ COME AROUND WITH THEIR HAND OUT FOR THE PEOPLES HARD EARNED TAX $, PEOPLE CAN SIT DOWN AND DECIDE WHY ITS NEEDED, WHEN ALL THEY ARE GOING TO DO IT TURN AROUND AND SAY…”Now its nunya business where we spend it”…
Don’t all non profit entities have to file with the state where their money is coming from and what it is spent on. If money is coming by donations and they provide a service from those donations, they have to account to someone for those costs don’t they. aren’t their expenses public record or can be requested?
the Secretary of State has a list of non profit corporations and also ms code laws regarding non profit organizations. Code 79-11 has to do with non profit organizations.
if ANY nonprofit receives ANT tax monies then that org.. should be required to make FULL DISCLOSUR to the tax payers of Columbia JUST SAYING
I don’t have a problem with someone smoking. I have a problem with someone smoking around me when in a public place.