OCEAN SPRINGS, MS – Aldermen claim they didn’t realize two Board approved contracts would lead to unlimited payments to a private consulting firm that one official says was handpicked by Mayor Kenny Holloway.
The firm Slaughter & Associates was hired to conduct an annexation study and update the city’s comprehensive plan. Both contracts included maximum cost estimates — $20,000 for the annexation study and $75,000 for the comprehensive plan — but neither included a fixed price, leaving the door open for skyrocketing expenses.
The actual cost to taxpayers exceeded those estimates by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Without cost caps or clear limits, these agreements turned what should have been a $95,000 bill into a $384,000 payout — and the spending hasn’t stopped. The city is still paying, with over $22,000 in taxpayer money sent to the consulting firm earlier this month, leaving residents wondering how much more is yet to come.
Board Members Say they Didn’t Know
Alderman Rickey Authement says he reviews each month’s docket of claims, a spreadsheet that lists all of the city’s expenditures. “I know for a fact I go through the docket of claims to see what they’re spending every month,” he said. “Sometimes I catch stuff because it looks outside the norm.”
Authement described examples of anomalies he has caught – like public works buying cheap tools at Harbor Freight, instead of higher quality products elsewhere – but says he did not notice Slaughter was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars above the estimates the Board was given.
The Ward 2 Alderman said the city does not make it easy for Board members to take notice. “The docket of claims doesn’t have detailed listings,” Authement explained. “It doesn’t say Slaughter & Associates was paid this much out of an expected total of this much. It just lists a generic payment to a consultant firm.”
Authement says now that he has been made aware of the spending, he will use his position on the city’s Finance Committee to look into the matter.
Two other Board members expressed shock at how much has been paid to the firm and by the open-ended wording of the contracts, but neither agreed to go on record.
Former Official Makes Bold Accusations
Prior to leaving her job as the city’s Community Development Director, Carter Thompson was not shy about pointing fingers.
“Mike Slaughter is the mayor’s buddy,” Thompson said of the relationship between the consultant firm’s founder and Mayor Kenny Holloway. “He handpicked Slaughter for the contract right after he took office.”
Thompson said City Clerk Patty Gaston was complicate. “Patty signed off on these invoices for the mayor and never questioned any of it,” she said. “When I told her about the difference between the estimate and what was actually paid, she didn’t bat an eyelash. Patty would hide a dead body for the mayor.”
Discrepancy Between Estimates and Actual Payments
GC Wire obtained copies of the contracts and a vendor payment report through public records requests. The numbers tell a staggering story of fiscal mismanagement. What started as two projects with clear estimates quickly spiraled into a financial quagmire, with actual costs ballooning far beyond what the city promised taxpayers. Here’s a breakdown of how much more Ocean Springs taxpayers ended up paying:
Annexation Study:
- Estimated Total (Maximum): $20,000.
- Actual Total: $248,232.91.
- Difference: $228,232.91 (a 1,141% increase over the estimate).
Comprehensive Planning:
- Estimated Total (Maximum): $75,000.
- Actual Total: $136,480.45.
- Difference: $61,480.45 (an 82% increase over the estimate).
Overall:
- Estimated Total (Maximum): $95,000.
- Actual Total: $384,713.36.
- Difference: $289,713.36 (a 305% increase over the total estimate).
View documents: Annexation Contract | Comprehensive Plan Contract | Vendor Payment History
Ongoing Payments
For Ocean Springs residents, the revelations surrounding these contracts raise serious concerns about the stewardship of public funds. The discrepancy between what was promised and what has already been paid is staggering, but the reality is even more troubling—both contracts remain active, and taxpayers are likely to face additional expenses.
The $384,000 already paid to Slaughter & Associates could very well grow, with the most recent payment of over $22,000 made just this month. This means the financial mismanagement is not a closed chapter but an ongoing issue that demands immediate attention.
Alderman Rickey Authement’s pledge to investigate through the Finance Committee is a step in the right direction, but systemic reforms are essential to prevent further damage. Reforms should include requiring fixed costs in all contracts, detailed reporting of expenditures to the Board, and independent audits of ongoing projects to identify and address runaway costs in real-time. Until these measures are in place, taxpayers remain at the mercy of unchecked spending and poorly defined agreements. The question now is how much more will Ocean Springs residents be asked to pay before accountability becomes a priority.
