Claiborne board split on value of $15,000 gift

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 5, 2005

[1/5/05]PORT GIBSON Claiborne County’s association with TEAM Inc. is over, and the board of supervisors is divided as to whether the county’s $15,000 gift of tax funds was well spent.

TEAM Inc. is a local nonprofit entity that was OK’d for a $100,000 emergency shelter grant from the Mississippi Development Authority. The federal government contributed $50,000, to be administered by MDA, and the City of Port Gibson was responsible for the remaining $50,000. TEAM Inc. was seeking a similar deal with Claiborne County.

Supervisors voted 3-2 in August to hire TEAM Inc. director Eddie Kinnard for $15,000 as a consultant to research homeless issues and deliver a report to the supervisors of the 12,000-resident county by the end of 2004.

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Supervisors Martha Lott and Mott Headley Jr. voted against the fee while supervisors Charles Shorts, Allen Burks and Michael Wells supported it.

Shorts said the report was supposed to include an estimate of the area’s homeless population and those who need assistance with utility bills. Shorts said Tuesday the board received a report, though he could not recall any information from it and said he did not have time to find the report itself.

“I’m satisfied as far as the information we requested,” Shorts said.

Kinnard earned the ire of the board when he failed to meet regularly with them, Shorts said.

“I haven’t been pleased as it relates to him reporting to the Claiborne County Board of Supervisors,” Shorts said.

Kinnard did meet with the board Tuesday morning after Shorts made a public request during the board’s previous meeting that Kinnard attend.

Lott took issue with Kinnard because he would not tell supervisors who in their districts were being helped by TEAM Inc. Kinnard said privacy regulations in the contract with the state prevented the non-profit from releasing names.

Kinnard then left the meeting. Others listed as board members of the non-profit could not be reached.

Lott said in an interview after the meeting that she didn’t know of anything that Kinnard or TEAM Inc. had done since receiving the money.

“At least if we’d given the money to AJFC, we could’ve helped pay some utility bills,” Lott said, referring to a program run by Community Action for Progress that helps the poor pay bills. “The $15,000 went straight to (Kinnard). I’m not aware of anyone being helped,” she said.

Shorts defended the payment to Kinnard as a good investment.

“We’re here to provide services for the betterment of the people of Claiborne County,” Shorts said.

Headley’s response to Kinnard’s work was not as positive.

“He’s through. It’s over. I’d rather not comment on that deal,” Headley said.

TEAM Inc. has connections to Evan Doss Jr., 56, a former Claiborne County tax assessor and collector who was sentenced to four years in federal prison after being convicted in 1997 of stealing money from the county and money laundering.

Doss worked as a consultant to the non-profit and its headquarters at 911 1/2 Chinquepin St. was owned by Doss, who donated it to TEAM Inc.

Doss was sent back to federal prison in Montgomery, Ala. in October to serve eight months for violating his probation because he failed to get a job or pay any of the nearly $300,000 in restitution he or companies controlled by him owe the county.