Weekly/biweekly Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 01/12/2013 5:53:22 AM PST by Uncle Chip
A Michigan civil servant is in hot water after being exposed as holding down two six-figure public posts at the same time - earning him more than the Vice President.
Barnett Jones, has been paid $273,750 since May as Flint's administrator of public safety and head of security for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, despite the fact the posts are both full-time and based 70 miles apart, according to the Free Press.
The lawman resigned his Flint role today after the newspaper began investigating his job-juggling.
Flint City Administrator, Michael Brown, told the Press he wasn't aware of Jones' other role.
'We didn’t know that he was working at Detroit water and sewer,' Brown said. 'I was surprised and to be honest, disappointed'.
Jones' salary broke down as $135,000 a year from Flint and $138,750 from Detroit. It gave him a total salary higher than a senator, Supreme Court judge or even Vice President Joe Biden.
Jones told the Free Press on Wednesday that he was doing justice to both jobs, when the newspaper asked him if he could juggle the two.
'Absolutely,' Jones said. 'There are some days I go to both, some days I go to one. Sometimes I leave out at 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night, Saturdays. I’m a workaholic.' 'I can’t say no to people,” he added.
He didn't comment regarding his resignation today.
His boss in Detroit told the Press, she knew about his role in Flint but believed it was on an “as-needed basis, not full-time.”
She added that his work had been exemplary.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I'm sure that throughout the country, this is not a single case, but symptomatic of corruption of other instances (especially in Democrat-run Major Cities).....
A guy doing two jobs at the same time....must be an incredible organizer and manager. Of course the government doesn’t like it. He was probably too competent. The guy had to interview for both jobs and seems to do the job well enough that the boss’ didn’t have any issues with him. I guess a guy working at McDonald’s AND Burger King better watch out if the government finds out.
Fraud? He was performing both jobs with distinction according the article. He worked 16+ hours a day. I say busy bodies get out of the way. Now they will have to hire another guy to do one of the jobs. I don’t see any difference. Of course being a liberal in your thinking, i can understand your displeasure. Even conservatives are going down the tubes.
Put him in jail.
Remove both positions as government “jobs”. They’re obviously not needed, and he probably was not doing either of them.
These kinds of figures plus the retirement and benefits for “public service” make me sick.
There needs to be a controling board of private-sector directors in charge of public-sector pay and hiring.
This fox-running-the-chicken-coop garbage is criminal.
The guy Barnett Jones is one of Holder’s people “working” in law enforcement ... go figure!
The guy was physically working the jobs. 16+ hour days mostly. Deserves Kudos, not jail.
Tell me government isn’t a free ride gravy train compliments of the taxpayers.
The boss was in on the scam. These jobs were 70 miles apart. Fire her as well.
Nothing new there. A few years back, the gov’t was cutting MILITARY positions. The postions were to be refilled by the “private sector”. Military people retired and immediately took the same postions they had held the day before but now as a “private sector employee”. They didn’t even have to clean out their desks. Amazing!
Happens all the time in local governments as well. A person “retires” from his/her position and then takes the same job back as a “part time” person but without benefits. (Un-like the story in the article) “Part time” means they work only 4 days/week versus 5 days. The pay remains the same less benefits.
L/E should examine his timesheets and other govt documents filed relating to his govt jobs.
Its a felony to falsify govt documents-—forgery could also be involved.
How many other govt checks is he cashing: (1) state pension checks, (2) govt bonus checks, (3) govt annuities, (4) federal SS checks, (5) federal SSI checks, (6) state UI and Workmen’s Comp checks.
Also scrutinize his govt credit cards, expense accounts, adminstrative budgets, travel reimbursements, use of govt cars.......and so on.
Well, “who says?” is the obvious question. I know he did, in the article, but so what? I would expect that.
I think that the fact that this can be done, shows that there is absolutely ZERO oversight for public-sector “jobs”.
Who decides the pay, the positions, the benefits and the budgets? Other public-sector pigs at the trough.
I work in the private-sector for someone who voluntarily pays me for what I can do for him. I have to compete, and deal with layoffs and other “normal” issue of earning a living. The competitive market is the oversight for the private-sector.
The public-sector has no oversight. I pay for it, and I’m sick of it.
I need to find that fellow, John Galt. I wonder how long the public pigs would be around if the trough were empty.
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Workers on the public payroll using public monies, govt authority and govt funds to collude and conspire to build a lucrative self-serving empire----demands the implementation of RICO laws.
These published accounts are only the tip of the iceberg---to distract us from the massive crimes being committed. God only knows the financial bombs these trough-swillers planted in govt budgets that jetstream tax dollars to them through infinity.
The secrecy these crooks hide behind should be unveiled. Taxpayers should demand copies of (1) checks, (2) wire transfers, (3) bank account statements, (4) invoices, (5) bills, (6) delivery tickets, (7) correspondence including e-mail, employment contracts, loan agreements, and, (8) any other govt books or records. Scrutinize govt bank accounts for suspicious activites: (A) large deposits, (B) funds transferred from one account into another, (C) request for withdrawals.
The media should begin digging----report monies "public servants" paid to (a) brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers, and the like.
Taxpayers could then sue local govt, commissioners and local govt agencies, and banks holding public monies found to be covering up govt fraud.
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REFERENCE Under the Bank Secrecy Act passed by Congress, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering, govt fraud and other financial crimes.
“The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted to protect the tax-paying public from harm by identifying and detecting money laundering from criminal enterprises, govt fraud, tax evasion, and other unlawful activities,” explained the special agent in charge for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.
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We are being hollowed out from within by the greed and criminality of insiders with unlimited access to govt money. Public servants serving themselves can and should be stopped.
You own swampland, too?
It's a SCAM, and public over-paid employees are a waste of tax dollars EVERYWHERE.
Between Unions and Corruption (but then, I repeat myself!), the Taxpayer is screwed at every turn.
Politicians are ONLY employed to continue their RE-EMPLOYMENT, and spend their time handing deals to cronies, and preparing for the next job renewal (aka, Re-Election).
It’s...SuperPublicServant!
Able to perform multiple public jobs at the same time!
I wonder who his mild-mannered alter ego is. (The president, who is suspiciously absent from his ‘day job’ for long stretches of time?)
Make that...’SuperCivilServant’...(for the better alliteration at the least)
LOL
And shuffle all those financial records without an audit.
Wouldn't you just love to see his IRS records???
Records are for proles.
(Now stop wasting time with this internet-posting nonsense and get back to work to generate some taxable income, underling Chip. Deserving people depend on you!)
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