Rinaldi Report
Litter, Noisy and Speeding Cars by Peter Rinaldi
Mayor Dan Gibson said he is getting noise and litter complaints every day. Gibson said residents are tired of cars and trucks with no mufflers or loud mufflers and loud music. He said people are also speeding at 60-70 mph on downtown streets.
Alderman Billie Joe Frazier said police officers have the authority to write tickets. But the officers need to examine cars for legal equipment and actually catch the speeders on radar to make a ticket stick.
The problems in littering, noise and speeding reflect the local decline in observance of laws, including firing of guns in the city limits, shoplifting and petty thefts. When hundreds and hundreds of people decide the laws do not apply to them and they will do what they want, misdemeanor and felony crime flourish.
City leaders went through a long period where they refused to acknowledge that crime was getting worse. They knew their police department and chiefs were not doing the job. But they kept and promoted people who were not competent and praised the PD despite its leadership and staffing failures. And they lied to the public about safety. Things got out of control.
Police Chief Lee Best will present a report at the next aldermen’s meeting. His crime report will show an increased number of responses to citizen complaints and an increase in felony and misdemeanor arrests.
This recent crime outbreak started during the Grennell administration and has continued through the Gibson years. But it will take Best and his team two years to really have a major impact in reversing the trend.
We’ve gone through more than 10 years of speeches, prayer meetings and pledges to fix crime problems with next to nothing accomplished. The citizens of Natchez created the crime problem. And officials ignored it, watching the problems and impacts grow.
The shootings, the break ins, assaults, littering, driving violations and loud music are all part of the of the decline and the crime crisis. It’s going to take some time for enforcement to be both effective and a deterrent.
Adams County Port Follies by Peter Rinaldi
Simply, it loads and unloads materials for shipping by river, rail or truck. It also stores materials in its silos and warehouses for clients. Products stores and shipped over the years include: • Forest & Paper Products: Lumber, plywood, linerboard, and baled wood pulp. • Industrial Metals: Steel coils, standard steel, steel shapes, and plates. • Oil, Gas & Energy Support: Frac sand, steel pipe, and liquid petroleum products. • Agricultural Goods: Grain, cotton, and dry or liquid fertilizers. • Chemicals & Minerals: Various minerals, industrial chemicals (including products managed for major industrial chemical tenants like BASF), and machinery components.
But it has had difficulty executing its mission. Its top customer BASF complanied to supervisors that port employees were doing a lousy job. BASF complained to the Adams County Board of Supervisors about poor warehouse operations, mixing up international shipments, and failing silo integrity that threatened business at its Vidalia, Louisiana site. The chemical giant threatened to pull its business—worth roughly 23% ($624,000 annually) of the port's total revenue—unless major fixes occurred.
Key Complaints from BASF • Mistakes in Shipping: Containers were loaded with the wrong products or incorrect quantities, including an incident where product shipments were mixed up and sent to wrong international customers, forcing BASF to spend over $70,000 to rush-deliver replacements. • Poor Inventory Tracking & Handling: Basic warehouse and inventory management tasks executed by port staff fell well below acceptable standards. • Silo Integrity Issues: Physical degradation and maintenance neglect of the storage silos endangered site and business continuity. Impact and Response • Financial Risk: Losing BASF would strip approximately $624,000 a year from the Adams County Port budget, potentially forcing it local tax hikes or insolvency.
Proposed Changes: BASF considered shifting its shipping operations to a third party instead of port employees. Hopefully, the problem brought up earlier this year have been solved. If not, the port and Adan’s County finances will be in peril.
I received disturbing news from the port this year in addition to the BASF blues. 1. Some grains were being sold to hunters. The port does not own grains. It ships them for others. If the allegation was true, it meant at least one employee was stealing client product and reselling it. 2. Large amounts of cash were kept in the port safe, without being deposited and accounted for. Making those funds suspectible to theft. 3. Security was not enforced. Gates were not always locked after hours. The warehouse was often open to anyone who wanted to drive in.
I knew for sure that allegation number 2 was correct, as both supervisors and the general state auditor had confirmed such. I knew allegation number 3 could be possibly correct, because I have driven on the property myself in the past and drove right into the warehouse in my Dodge Caravan. As to allegation number 1, I have two sources that say it’s true. But of course, those sources could be mistaken or lying.
Port commissioner David Carter says they’re wrong. Carter also said the era of keeping large amounts of cash in the safe are over. But he did not say how much was in cash, where the cash came from, where it went, deposited or spent. And I saw nothing in the last audit that mentioned this irregularity. I know the state auditor looked into it. But the state made no public report. Then there’s the question of good management. We know report employees, the port Director and the port commissioners bungled their BASF business, threatening the finances of the entire operation.
Supervisors have had two opportunities to fix the situation and refused to do so. First, the port borrowed $2 million from taxpayers and never paid it back. The county had to pay back the state loan, and that means taxpayers had to pay back the loan. The port director and commissioners should’ve been removed from their positions for malfeasance for failing to pay the loan. Then when the BASF nightmare was revealed earlier this year, supervisors should’ve again removed the port director and the port commissioners.
Again, the port showed its leadership and management was terrible. Wes Middleton and Kevin Wilson spoke up. But Ricky Gray defended the port against this supposed racist attack. And Angela Hutchins and Warren Gaines said nothing. The fix was in. There would be no management changes. Well, just how good is that management?
We don’t have the 2025 figures yet, as supervisors are late on their audit. Port revenues, losses, from Bridgers CPAs 2024 $2.8 million, -$557,000, 2023 $2.7 million, -$479,000, 2022 $2.9 million, -$79,000. 2021, $2.0 million, -$908,000.That’s some management. $2 million in losses.
It would be interesting to find out if the port’s equipment and inventory list actually matches what is on the grounds and in the buildings. Or have pieces of equipment wandered away over the years? Hmmm. Yes, they stink at management. Despite decades of being in the business, the port bosses don’t know how to make money. The port director and commissioners are not good at their jobs. And taxpayers have to underwrite their activities.
So how do Anthony Hauer and port commissioners David Carter, Chandler Russ and the three other commissioners keep their posts? As I told you before, supervisors don’t pay attention to cash flow and don’t get monthly reports. And the port folks know what’s going on for sure and won’t do anything to fix core problems, because they know supervisors have their backs. Ricky said so plainly. And you, the taxpayers, have the supervisors backs. You pay for it.
Broken Budgeting by Peter Rinaldi
Adams County supervisors admitted their budget process is broken and have extended the consultant contract of Chuck Lambert to help Tuwanna Williams both fix the budget and the process. Lambert is being paid $2000 a month and is expected to be kept on board at least six months. The county’s budget woes should have been fixed by the September 15 deadline for passing the 2026-2027 budget.
But Williams said the budget categories and line items are so inaccurate and uncertain, it may take a year to correct the situation. New county administrator Williams has faced difficulties because some line items have been posted incorrectly or not at all. And the budget estimates and actual spending are miles apart. Revenues are often misstated, too. Supervisors have consistently failed to get monthly revenue, expenditure, cash balance, accounts receivable, accounts payable and debt service reports. That means they never have any idea where they stand financially and are at risk of running huge deficits because some department heads are not careful with spending.
Supervisors themselves are prone to spending above the budget because of special requests during the year. If you remember, just three ago, supervisors failed to monitor spending which led to a massive multi million deficit and an immediate 15 percent tax increase. — It’s fortunate that supervisors hired Williams, who frankly admits that the budget process is out of control. This has actually been going on years for years.
Maybe she can fix the mess. She doesn’t have an accounting background, which is why Lambert has been retained. There was always a disconnect and discrepancies between what the supervisors had budgeted to spend, the actual accounts payable and expenditures in relation to revenues. The current mythical budget calls for $46 million to be spent this year with a $4 million deficit. Supervisors aren’t sure what their revenues are nor their expenses. And as long as they refuse to do monthly reports, they will never know.
Frankly, they hired three incompetent county administrators in a row and Mitzi Conn gave up on them and moved to work at the airport because of the county leaders’ incompetence and corruption. Nobody who is honest and capable will work long for moronic leaders. Life is too short to deal with such incompetence and corruption. Conn has never given me any inside information. And I never asked her for any. I already knew what was happening and wrote of it.
But I’ve known for some time from other county sources and audits that supervisors and many of their department heads cannot handle their jobs. Most of this has been woeful incompetence. But some of the problems include outright theft of cash, disappearing and undocumented funds from Justice Court and the Adams County Port. Supervisors have known of this corruption and covered it up, with individual supervisors playing a role in the coverup, with two of the five directly implicated and a third turning a blind eye to the treachery.
Poverty in Natchez by Peter Rinaldi
Due to deindustrialization and job losses, the percentage of poor has risen in Natchez. There haven’t been enough new jobs created. More jobs lost than found. These two factors have contributed to a higher percentage of poor.
2000 28.6%
2010 31.2%
2020 29.6%
2026 33.7%
The most startling insight I discovered when studying figures from the census, the State of Mississippi and the federal reserve was that the economy recovered slowly after the 2020 pandemic shut down, but the poor in Natchez did not share in that recovery. Their incomes grew exceptionally even more slowly. So today, six years after the pandemic shutdown and six years after the shutdown ended, Mississippi’s median household income is $55,000, whereas Natchez’s is only $37,000. That means that 50% of households in Natchez have an annual income of $37,000 or less.
The obvious question is how do we bring households up to the state average? Or should we accept that economy will remain like the rest of the Delta, so difficult that Natchez’s present and future will be determined by the handouts we receive from state and federal government, including grants, loans, welfare, social security, disability payments, Medicare and Medicaid?
It Takes a Government "to Raze" a Village by Peter Rinaldi
MDAH has changed the name of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians to the Natchez Tribal History Center. This is not surprising. After all, MDAH kicked the Pow Wow off the grounds and closed Jefferson College, so that visitors could not see how badly MDAH bosses were letting the buildings deteriorate.
The current administration of MDAH has not always been that friendly to Natchez. The Grand Village collections of artifacts and displays are woefully and poorly exhibited with no updates in 50 years. That made the place unworthy to be called a museum. And the visitor numbers reflected its poor standing. Historic Jefferson was always under budgeted, and had a lackluster museum. MDAH allowed the president’s house to deteriorate so badly, it is more a pile of kindling than a stately home.
MDAH Executive Director Katie Blount retired June 30. During her tenure, Natchez received quite a few MDAH grants, which have helped the community. But her management of both Natchez properties was pitiful. The closure and termination of employees at Historic Jefferson was handled so badly and with such callousness, that she reminded me of a truck driver trying to do ballet. Let’s hope the next truck driver appointed to her position does a better job.
Grand Village is scheduled for a redo in the coming year. It will be interesting to see if they actually place a collection of southeast Indian artifacts in the museum, the displays are interesting and interactive and the history told is accurate.
Grand Village has always been a pretty place to walk but always earned a grade of a big fat F as a museum. Hope they do better in the future. Otherwise, I’d like to ask the legislature to rename both places as the Katie Blount Ignored Museums of Incompetence I & II
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