By Billy Davis

A county-owned GMC truck driven by Supervisor James Birge accumulated 42,330 miles during the 2009-2010 fiscal year, far outpacing other supervisors and employees in the county road department.   

Birge averaged 814 miles a week in the county-owned automobile, 16,200 more miles during the year than the next-closest total.

Assistant road manager Raymond Mickens accumulated 26,099 miles, the most among road department employees, mileage records show.

Lygunnah Bean, who oversees the road department, accumulated 13,431 miles during the same one-year period.

“I ride a lot, up and down the county roads,” Birge said this week, when asked about the mileage.

Only one other county supervisor, Vernice Avant, still drives a county-owned truck. She drove 5,349 miles in her 2008 Ford F-150 during the most recent fiscal year.

The mileage records were given to The Panolian by Bob Bryant, a Crenshaw resident who has emerged as a political activist in recent years.

Bryant said he used the Freedom of Information Act to submit an open records request to Panola County government. He obtained records for travel reimbursement, Fuel Man refueling records, and hotel stays.

Mileage totals come from Fuel Man brand gas cards, fleet cards used by government officials to refuel their vehicles. Mileage is recorded at each refueling, giving a record of accumulated miles.

Bryant said he requested information to learn how county officials are handling taxpayers’ money.

“We’re in the middle of a recession,” he said. “What I wanted to know is if county government, instead of cutting back, is adding to.”

Road department trimmed fleet

According to Bean, any scrutiny of Fuel Man costs in the road department will show proper use of county funds.

The road department has trimmed its fleet of vehicles in recent years, which has reduced fuel costs for county government, Bean explained.

“There hasn’t been a public complaint, made against our department, about proper use of county resources,” he said. “We’re managing our resources well.”

Bryant’s scrutiny of fuel purchases pointed to road department purchases that are recorded as a “miscellaneous card.”

Those gas purchases fuel heavy equipment such as a road paver and small engines such as chainsaws, Bean explained.

Reimbursements reviewed

Bryant also submitted figures that show private automobile miles accumulated by the three remaining supervisors — Gary Thompson, Kelly Morris and Bubba Waldrup. They turn in mileage for county business and are reimbursed each month. 

The Panolian chose to use its own figures, since reimbursement amounts are published in the newspaper as public notices.

Twelve months of reimbursement checks showed the three supervisors were paid a total of $11,770.55 during the fiscal year.

Thompson pocketed $5,026.25 in reimbursement checks during the fiscal year. Morris was paid $3,514.75 and Waldrup was paid $3,229.55.

Using the federal 50-cents-a-mile reimbursement rate, which Panola County follows, Thompson, Morris and Waldrup logged a total of 23,541 miles during the 12-month period.

Refuelings reviewed

The Panolian reviewed 12 months of Birge’s Fuel Man purchases that showed he filled up 59 times during the year, little more than once a week.

Birge’s gas purchases did include some flurries of activity at the gas pump, including four fill-ups in four days last April at a cost of $186.48.

In December 2009, Birge refueled four times in two weeks at a cost of $129.79. The following month he filled up seven times in seventeen days, costing taxpayers $244.20

Avant refueled 22 times during the year, Fuel Man figures show.

Birge: ‘I go to lunch’

Birge was seated in his county truck Tuesday evening, at the courthouse in Batesville, when a reporter explained that his Fuel Man fill-ups show more than 42,000 miles.

“I go to lunch in it,” he said of the county truck. “Sometimes I might stop by some place.”

Birge operates a plumbing business, Birge Plumbing Co., and said he uses a private automobile for that work.

Five boxes of Red Jacket brand plumbing supplies, lying in the bed of the county pickup truck, were destined for a water well at his own home, according to Birge. 

“You can’t do personal work in the taxpayers’ vehicle,” Birge said. “It’s against the law.”

“That’s the worst thing in the world to do that,” the supervisor added.

Mississippi state law prohibits public officials from enjoying any private financial gain from public office.

Use of a public vehicle for personal use would also run afoul of State Attorney General’s opinions, most recently a 2008 case from Lafayette County. When a coroner asked to drive a county vehicle to a private job, the Attorney General ruled that, despite the inconvenience, the coroner was required to park the county vehicle and use it only for official use.

The odometer on Birge’s county truck showed 197,650 miles, or 15,985 miles traveled in 4 ½ months.