What Of Gulfport?

Gulfport’s new mayor is sworn in and the promises have begun…the new mayor got elected because he was doing it for Gulfport.

Schloegel outlined the main goals in a new strategic plan they developed: Enhance revenue through economic development, with a city emphasis on retail expansion; work with the state port and state Transportation Department to plan a transportation corridor that will meet the needs of port expansion; tap a variety of programs to help residents rehabilitate substandard housing; improve infrastructure, from roads to playgrounds; build on the momentum that has led to superior fire and police service; and achieve a new standard in early childhood education.

During his first few months in office, Schloegel will lead the city’s economic development effort. He said a hiring freeze will temporarily prevent replacement of the director who recently resigned. When the position is filled, he will look for a director with experience in retail development. He said the Harrison County Development Commission and Mississippi Development Authority do a good job of focusing on industrial development.

Declining revenue will make any program he may want to start difficult…..my question is will he find new ways of increasing the city coffers or will he be giving away the city in the name of progress?

In the past, too many mayors have given away the school and killed the children (a metaphor, I think).  They have given tax breaks where tax breaks hurt the city and then the workers pay the price….companies get the gold…workers get the shaft.

Will our new mayor be good for the city or will he just be worried about the next election?

Gulfport On The Sly

Gulfport city leaders, after a closed-door meeting, announce plans to annex 2.5 square miles north of the city. The plan is expected to draw fire from neighboring Biloxi and Harrison County and from residents in previously annexed areas who believe the city hasn’t provided adequate services there even years after annexation.

Can you feel the wool being pulled over your eyes?  Take a trip through North Gulfport sometime……check out the streets and such….after 20 years they still have not done right by the poor in the city.

Gulfport should not have been allowed to annex north up Hwy 49, they have dragged their feet on the promise improvements to the poorer neighborhoods.

A lawyer and expert on Mississippi’s open-government laws said Gulfport violated the law with its closed-door session on annexation and other matters. Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr, a lame duck who will leave office in weeks, responds that neither he nor the council did anything wrong with the secret meeting.

And his primary residence was an empty house during Katrina…….NOTHING Wrong?….yeah…right!

As The Worm Turns

Recently a local newspaper reported that a Latin American hitchhiker was discovered in the Port of Gulfport.

The small, hairy, wormy-looking creature was so unfamiliar that Customs and Border Protection officials turned over a sample to experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There, it was identified as Faustinus rhombifer Champion (Curculionidae).

Customs and Border Protection said the insect is part of a species that feeds on vegetation, stems and leaves “of a multitude of plants.” In other words, had the insect gotten into the U.S. through Gulfport, it eventually could have spread and devoured plants.

It was great that they discovered the little bugger before it had a chance to get lose on the population and do some real damage.

I have a problem with the statement that came out of the U.S. Customs & Border Protection:

“The significance of this is that it’s a pest that has not been identified before,” said Virginia Dabbs, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Although her agency said agro-terrorism has become a growing threat to the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks, that is not the case here, Dabbs said, “It is not uncommon for us to discover pests at ports.”

Agro-terrorism?  Why bring this up at all?  This bug had NOTHING to do with the attacks on the Twin Towers….this bug is just a creation of Mother Nature doing what it does…eating plants.  Why bring the word terrorism into to the story at all?  The US CBP did a fine job of locating and sending this threat back where it came from…no need to throw 9/11 into the story at all.

What is A “Primary Residence”?

This story from the Sun-Herald.

If Mayor Brent Warr and his wife, Laura, are tried on Katrina-fraud charges, a verdict could be based on a “totality” of records indicating whether their primary residence was the one they claimed on Beach Drive to qualify for federal hurricane recovery funds, according to records from a previous case.

Court testimony in a previous case indicates neither MDA nor FEMA regulations define what constitutes a “primary residence.”

The Homeowners Assistance grant paperwork asked applicants: “Was damaged residence your primary residence on Aug. 29, 2005?” To qualify for a grant, the application guidebook says, you must have “owned and occupied your home on Aug. 29, 2005,” and it must have been your “primary residence.”

The Warrs bought the beach property from the federal government around January 2004. They were living in a home owned by Brent Warr’s grandmother while the beach home was renovated. Brent Warr has said the family was substantially moved into the beach home when Katrina struck.

Bordelon said homestead exemption on a property is one indication the home is owner-occupied. But if the Warrs moved into the beach home in 2005, the law says they would need to wait until January 2006 to apply for homestead. The Harrison County Tax Assessor’s Office said the Warrs have never had homestead exemption on the beach house, although they live there now.

In addition to homestead exemption, Bordelon testified in the previous case: “We look for where somebody gets their bills, where they spend their time, where their belongings are, where do their bills go to, are they registered to vote, their driver’s license, things of that nature, things that can only be attributed to one location, generally.

“But when there is evidence of a situation where someone is fortunate enough to have more than one home, for example, the reliability of some of these factors diminishes. For example, if someone has more than one residence, they can spend time in multiple locations. So you look at where did they maintain their homestead, and those other factors increase in importance.”

Here is an idea:  primary residence?  the place where you physically live.  See that was not so hard.  If he gets to keep the cash, then everyone who filled out the paperwork should a second chance at scamming the government too.

This is just all so pathetic.

On a side note…why are not the people more outraged?  I mean a governor was impeached because of allegations….I guess the South is just more tolerant to the crimes of our elected representatives…..we have many many years of crooks in office…..that is all I can think of…….for some reason voters seldom think of them as betraying the public trust…..is it stupidity or just ignorance that allows this sort of thing to continue?

Big Day For Gulfport PD

A five-day undercover operation in Gulfport netted the arrests of 22 people, including four juveniles, on charges including prostitution and felony drug and weapons violations, Gulfport Police Chief Alan Weatherford said.

During the operation, police said they served five search warrants at suspected drug houses in the city, which resulted in the seizure of more than 10 grams of cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy pills, drug paraphernalia and other items used in the facilitation of illegal drug sales. Two handguns also were seized.

Weatherford said the undercover police officers and other individuals who wanted to cooperate with police officers assisted the investigation that led to the prostitution arrests. Also charged with prostitution were Denise Pack, 36, Cynthia Mullins, 39, Chandra Parker, 42, and Sandra Fairley, 54.  (damn!  if i gonna buy some tail, she is sure gonna be a tight body, not some senior citizen.)

Another man, Kelton Haralson, 18, was arrested on a counterfeit drug possession charge after police officers allegedly found on him a plastic bag with several pieces of counterfeit crack cocaine, commonly referred to as bunk.  (he got arrested for NOT having drugs?)

What a great day!  The PD got 5 ounces of weed, a bag of soap and some over the hill hookers,  a few pills and a partridge in a pear tree.  This was done on a 5 day sting!  Your tax dollars at work……..if they wanted a good day try the parking lots of casinos.

More Trouble For Warr

Mayor Brent Warr and his wife, Laura, were originally indicted in November on 11 counts of Katrina fraud, but court records show those charges were sealed while the investigation continued.

The second indictment against the Warrs, unsealed last week in U.S. District Court, contained 16 charges against each of them. It supersedes the original indictment.

One conspiracy charge and four insurance fraud charges were added to the second indictment, issued Jan. 22. The second indictment remained under seal until the Warrs appeared in court Wednesday, entering not guilty pleas.

The 11 original charges involve $150,000 in homeowner assistance funds and $9,558 in FEMA funds the Warrs received for Katrina damage to their beachfront home. Those charges have been incorporated into the second indictment.

Prosecutors contend the Warrs lied to secure the federal funds, claiming the home as their primary residence when they actually lived in a house that belonged to Brent Warr’s grandmother while the beach home was being renovated.

Illinois impeached a gover5nor over allegations, what will Gulfport do?

Gulfport Mayor Fights Indictment

A Hurricane Katrina-recovery ambassador to President George W. Bush and the nation, Mayor Brent Warr says his work and the city’s will continue as prosecutors prepare a federal case against him and his wife, Laura, on 16 charges of Katrina fraud.

The Warrs cried quietly Wednesday in the corridor of the U.S. District courthouse just blocks from City Hall after they were each indicted on 16 charges: one count of conspiracy, one count of fraud, two counts of theft of public funds, four counts of making false statements, three counts of wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud.

The indictment says the Warrs reconstructed their beachfront mansion with $222,798 in ill-gotten gains from FEMA, HUD and Lexington Insurance Co. from September 2005 to March 2007. The Warrs received the maximum $150,000 HUD homeowners grant through the Mississippi Development Authority, $9,558 in FEMA funds and $88,440.10 from Lexington Insurance Co., the indictment says.

Gulfport’s first couple potentially faces maximum penalties of 210 years each in prison and fines of up to $4 million each. The government also is seeking forfeiture of their Katrina recovery and insurance funds, or assets of equal value.

Their trial is tentatively scheduled for April 6. Their attorney, Joe Sam Owen of Gulfport, told the judge that the Warrs would have separate attorneys by Monday. There is a potential conflict of interest when a couple is represented by the same attorney.

Charges Against The Warrs

In case one is interested in the charges filed against Mr & Mrs Warr here they be:

Charges against Brent and Laura Warr:

Count 1: Conspiracy

Count 2: Fraud

Counts 3-6: False statements

Maximum penalty on each count, counts 1-6: five years in prison, $250,000 fine.

Counts 7-8: Theft of federal funds

Maximum penalty on each count, counts 7 and 8: 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine.

Counts 9-11: Wire fraud

Count 12-16: Mail fraud

Maximum penalty on each count, counts 9-16: 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

City Council members expect the work of the city to move forward despite Mayor Brent Warr’s personal problems.Most of the council were in Jackson on Wednesday attending the Mississippi Municipal League conference; however, two returned to Gulfport on Wednesday afternoon after they heard that Warr and his wife, Laura, were indicted in federal court on 16 counts of Hurricane Katrina fraud.

Most of the council said they were surprised at the number of counts.

FLASH! WARR INDICTED!

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The mayor of a Mississippi city hit hard by Hurricane Katrina has been indicted after federal officials say he filed a false claim for disaster assistance.

Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr says the charges have nothing to do with his job and he will continue to run the city, which was heavily damaged by Katrina’s wind and storm surge in 2005.

The indictment alleges Warr and his wife, Laura, sought a grant for a hurricane-damaged beachfront house they did not live in. Gulfport is on the coast about 80 miles east of New Orleans.

The Warrs pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Charges include conspiring to defraud the federal government and filing a false claim for disaster assistance.

Brent Warr is the highest-ranking municipal official indicted for Katrina fraud to date.

MS: Mayor Gets Investigated

A federal investigation into whether Mayor Brent Warr broke the law when he received a grant to rebuild his home continues after more than a year.

Warr received a grant designed to help homeowners rebuild through the Mississippi Development Authority after Hurricane Katrina.

The feds want to know whether Warr’s damaged beachfront home was his primary residence.

To qualify for a homeowner grant of up to $150,000, an applicant had to prove they owned and lived in their home prior to Aug. 29, 2005. In addition, the applicant must prove the home was their primary residence through land deeds or personal bill statements.