A debate Wednesday on whether the city could pay for Carlos and Roberto Rosales’ meals next week in Denver revealed the documentarians have already received $18,750 in public funds for a contract the city council had not approved.
Council members also learned Wednesday that Mayor Stephen Jones signed the contract in March without the council’s blessing and ostensibly without a full legal review from City Attorney Jeff Turnage. Jones was absent from the work session as he was traveling on city business.
On a 4-1 vote during the work session at the Municipal Complex, the council somewhat begrudgingly approved the contract retroactively and cleared the way for the documentarians to travel with City Grant Administrator Susan Wilder to Denver on Sunday, where they will interview retired Lt. Col James Harvey, a 102-year-old surviving Tuskegee Airman, as part of a documentary honoring the late Alva Temple, who settled in Columbus after his time in the military. Harvey and Temple served together during World War II, and the two were also members of the team that won the U.S. Air Force’s first Top Gun competition in 1949.
The documentary will become part of the Alva Temple Museum at the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport.
“This is probably the most important interview we’ll do for this documentary film,” Wilder told the council when requesting approval for the Denver trip at the work session.
The Rosaleses’ company, CS Digital Productions, has a $37,500 contract with the city to complete the documentary, which the mayor signed March 31. That contract, Wilder said, also makes the city responsible for paying for the company’s travel for the project.
Wilder said private donations paid for the car rental, gas and lodging. She was requesting earmarking up to $700 for meals from a Mississippi Humanities Council grant received for the project – which the city, county and Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau all matched.
Ward 2 Councilman Roderick Smith asked if the city could legally pay for meals for non-employees, and Wilder referenced the contract, which was news to the council and Turnage. So was Wilder telling them the city paid half up-front. While the council did not approve the contract before Wednesday, it did approve the April 7 claims docket that shows an $18,750 payment to CS Digital Productions.
Still, Turnage said it was “prudent” for the council to ratify the contract since it had already been signed. Ideally, he said, he would review the contract and the council would approve it before it was signed, but he did not recall ever seeing it.
“Without the contract, (the company is) not going to get the other half,” he said.
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene said he chalked it up to an oversight and was fine following Turnage’s advice. Gary Jefferson, who ultimately voted against ratifying the contract, voiced concerns over the council learning about administrative action after the fact.
“Why would we approve something two months later?” he asked. “… This is what keeps me in trouble. … We’re always ratifying something after the fact, after it’s found out. If we weren’t having this discussion with Ms. Wilder today, we’d have never known this contract was approved. … I don’t think people voted for me to come up here to make these decisions just to continually go along, go along, ratify and justify. … These things cannot continue to happen and we normalize it.”
Wilder continued to advocate for the trip to Denver, offering to buy the meals herself and submit receipts for reimbursement.
“I’m not asking that,” Ward 6 Councilman Jason Spears said. “I am just saying there is a procedure that has obviously not been followed. … Bottom line is you just told us that we’ve spent $17-or-$18,000 on a contract we haven’t even seen. Secondly, we’re being asked on the moment to approve travel for people who aren’t even employees of the city. Do you see where the rub really is?”
“I do,” Wilder responded.
“… If I have to hold my nose and figure it out on the other side, I can do that because I don’t want you to be in a situation,” Spears continued. “But I can assure you 100% this won’t come before us again this way. Because whoever is making these unilateral decisions, it’s time to come to the carpet.”
Spears also noted he did not blame Wilder for what happened and he believes in the Alva Temple project.
“I just feel like this system continues to corrupt our ability to function,” he said.
What happened?
Wilder told The Dispatch she obtained three quotes from documentary companies and identified CS Digital Productions as the best. She said she then gave the draft contract to Turnage herself.
“I don’t have any evidence of that, and I don’t remember it,” Turnage told The Dispatch on Wednesday afternoon. “… There was obviously an error in the process. Whose fault it is, I don’t know. But that would be a personnel matter anyway.”
Jones, speaking to The Dispatch on Wednesday evening, said he saw the document beside his door and assumed Turnage had already reviewed it, per the mayor’s policy.
“I don’t know if it went to Jeff or if it didn’t,” he said. “Obviously, it was beside my door and I signed it.”
He also acknowledged he wasn’t fully clear on what he was signing.
“Susan’s job is to write grants,” Jones said. “It shouldn’t be to do contracts with people. So when I sign stuff for her, I’m thinking we’re submitting for a grant, not signing a contract to hire somebody. … Once I get back, I will find out exactly how it happened.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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