Pete Perry records spending by the One Percent Sales Tax Infrastructure Commission, which is currently focused on improving neighborhood streets throughout the city of Jackson, on a spreadsheet on his computer.
“When the city issues a contract, I put the amount in there,” he said, noting that he enters what’s been paid and other financial data when he receives it.
A member of the commission since 2014, Perry began keeping his own record of the commission’s expenditures when the city failed to provide one and he’s kept at it ever since.
The commissioners received a full monthly report of how funds were spent during the first three years of the commission, he said, but then reports became sporadic.
Chaired by Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the commission oversees funds collected from the 1 percent local option sales tax. The Jackson City Council must approve specific expenditures after the commission releases the money.
Two years ago, the Legislature passed a bill that called for the commission to receive more rigorous financial reporting from the city.
At the time, Perry said he was pleased that the law required the city give members of the commission detailed monthly reports with the names of vendors and projects and amounts paid to them, something he likened to “checkbook accounting.”
The legislation has helped in getting financial reports from the city, Perry said, but he still questions if the commission members receive correct information. The commission’s decisions about how funds are used require accurate and current financial information, he said.
Fidelis Malembeka, the city’s chief financial officer, provides at the commission’s monthly meeting information about the fund that receives about $1 million each month generated by the 1 percent sales tax and a fund that represents bond revenue.
There’s a third fund, Fund 420, which has to do with matching funds provided for projects, that the commission isn’t receiving information about, Perry said.
“I’ve asked for it at the last three meetings,” he said. “We’re not getting information about that one… I’ve started calling it a mystery fund.”
Ted Duckworth, a commission member, also wonders about the completeness of the reports Malembeka provides. “I feel like he says the right things, but he’s got one hand behind his back,” he said.
Most commission meetings include a discussion about the amount of funds that are encumbered, meaning the commission has obligated them for a particular project but they have not been paid out, and funds the city council has approved, Duckworth said.
“You could have two sets of numbers, what the commission has encumbered and what the city council has approved,” he said.
There may also be discussion about matching funds provided for projects and if those have been accounted for, he said.
Duckworth recalls one point in the commission’s history that commission members received spread sheets that showed information about various projects such as the proposed cost, funds that were obligated and funds that were approved and he said that made it easy to keep track of everything.
Duckworth applauds Perry’s work as a commission member and the time he puts into keeping up with all the numbers.
“He puts a lot of effort into it and even meets with people in the city regularly,” he said. “I think Pete must have a photographic memory because he can recall so much about the projects.”
Perry shrugged it off, saying he is retired and has time on his hands compared to the other commission members who work full time.
Duckworth wonders if the city’s lack of a city engineer on the public works department staff and turnover in the public works department has affected the financial reports. Louis Wright, the interim public works department head, usually updates the commission on the progress of projects.
The commission is paving many neighborhood streets and even repairing curbs and gutters, which have been overlooked in the past, Duckworth said, and that’s something he wants Jackson residents to know about. Side streets that need repairs are also being included in neighborhoods where equipment has been mobilized.
.
