Jackson Free Press

Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill did an odd thing Monday, and it ended up backfiring on him because of the way he did it.

Last year, Weill apparently got together with Sheriff Malcolm McMillin and some Millsaps College leaders and decided to get students there to do a study comparing the Jackson Police Department's radio of civilian-to-officer employees to those of other cities. No problem there, especially considering how much our city was in disarray then under Mayor Frank Melton. Any good information is useful.

But at issue is the motive, and then how the information was suddenly presented to the public this week.

We suspect two things. First, that Weill in 2008 was thinking that the city and county should combine law-enforcement departments under one leader, McMillin (considering that we already had the ill-advised scenario of the same man serving as chief and sheriff). Second, it seems clear that Weill is wanting to drown as many city positions in the bathtub as possible, to borrow a phrase that conservatives like to use about the government. (Make it so small that you can drown it in the bathtub, Grover Norquist famously said.)

Certainly, it makes a whole lot of sense at this juncture to explore (a) if there are excess positions in city government as a whole that can go and (b) if there are unqualified workers in jobs who should be replaced.

But when he revealed the two-page report this week, Weill didn't seem to know which scenario he was actually tackling: Were the "patronage" jobs he was attacking actually the wrong positions or the wrong people? How many jobs did Melton add? Which positions are filled with unqualified people? The study was so cursory—just a quick comparison of numbers of poorly defined "civilian" pools between cities—that it didn't even compare the numbers under Melton with the last administration.

This report was clearly not ready for primetime. However, Weill has alluded to its powers for months, saying it supports eliminating a large number of jobs as quickly as possible.

The tiny report did no such thing, however. Its only recommendation was that the mayor conduct an internal audit of positions, which anyone with a brain knows will take a bit of time. And the mayor is already planning to do this, he says.

The sad part is that Weill's argumentative approach to opening up a needed conversation likely burned through his own capital with the mayor, as well as soured many Jacksonians toward his argument. It didn't have to be this way.

Weill should try to work with the mayor in the future, seek out better information, and figure out a more politic way to spring it.

Previous Comments

ID

151603

Comment

I believe there are serious matters here that no one is addressing. That would be the validity of the Millsaps "study" and Councilman Weill's devotion to accuracy and the truth. The Councilman's vehicle for demanding immediate civilian cuts within JPD was Brister's peg count of ratios in other southern cities. Brister's work compares Jackson's ratio versus those cities but, more importantly, Brister illuminates a supposed 62% increase (+115 employees) in the ranks of JPD's civilian corps in only one year (2008) which, per the Councilman, was the direct result of patronage. Mayor Johnson's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year (FY09/10) requests an allocation for 188 positions categorized specifically as administrative personnel within JPD. The Mayor also requests payroll dollars to cover other personnel that are funded within the JPD budget for jobs categorized as Adult Detention, Public Safety Communications, Animal Control, Park Rangers, Police Security, Impound Lot and Warrant Officer. Those jobs total an additional 119 positions. It may be coincidence, though I don't believe that to be the case, that Brister reports JPD's 2007 civilian ranks as totaling 188 positions which happens to be the exact same number of administrative jobs Mayor Johnson proposes to fund within JPD this upcoming fiscal year. Further, there is a noticeable correlation between the 119 other jobs for which the Mayor is seeking funding under the next JPD budget and the 115 position increase detailed by Brister for 2008 that Weill claims resulted from patronage. Determining optimal civilian to officer ratios would be a healthy internal management exercise and I have no doubt Mayor Johnson will conduct such a review. But I do not believe that JPD's civilian ranks grew by 115 jobs (62%) in 2008 which is what the Millsaps "study" is reporting. There may be been some budgetary job shifting within city government in 2008, there may have even been some number of open positions filled by Melton cronies, but the Councilman's conclusion via Brister that there was an "explosive" incremental swelling of the civilian ranks within JPD in 2008 appears on the surface to be erroneous.

Author

GeoRoss

Date

2009-09-04T10:26:59-06:00

ID

151604

Comment

When interviewed by the leader of the YallPoliticsNation about his "proposal for more feet on the street" Councilman Weill gave an inaccurate -- bordering on evasive -- response to the following question: Y'allPNation Fearless Leader: How did this happen? Councilman Weill: Most of the explosive civilian growth in the JPD happened during the Melton administration. My guess is Chief Anderson was eager to please the late mayor by awarding these patronage jobs. The city council helped too, by shoveling money at the JPD to create the impression they were tough on crime without seeing where the money was being spent. First, the Brister report indicates that all of the growth considered explosive took place during Melton's term. What other growth is the Councilman alluding to? Is he trying to implicate Harvey Johnson pre-Melton terms? Is Councilman Weill indicating that his claims of rampant unchecked patronage are solely based on a guess? Second, McMillin became JPD Chief in mid-November 2007 a mere 2.5 months into the new fiscal year. Per Brister the explosive growth (supposedly) occurred in 2008 when Anderson was no longer heading up JPD. Of course it comes as no surprise that the Councilman would avoid casting any of his aspersions of management incompetence at McMillin. Last, Weill fails to mention that not only was he a member of "they" (the Council) that did this "shoveling" he was also a member of the majority voting bloc during that time. He also somehow doesn't mention that for some of that time period he himself served as the Chair of the Council Budget committee. Stop playing games Councilman. Mayor Johnson has more important and pressing problems to address in order to get Jackson back on track.

Author

GeoRoss

Date

2009-09-04T10:31:30-06:00

ID

151607

Comment

GeoRoss, I think calling that PR placement for Weill an "interview" is pushing it. ;-) It is funny to watch tabloggers try to play journalist, though. At least this didn't simply result from a Google search. Of course, Lange doesn't ask Weill to support anything he said there. Egg meet face for both of them.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-09-04T11:12:32-06:00