OCEAN SPRINGS, MS – From a missing city attorney contract to a quarter-million-dollar blank check agreement, and even a massive tax miscalculation that left schools scrambling for emergency funding, the city’s financial management appears to be reckless at best and completely out of control at worst.
The City of Ocean Springs’ financial oversight is in absolute chaos, and taxpayers are the ones paying the price.
Officials addressed some of these issues at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
The City Attorney’s Phantom Contract
When GC Wire filed a public records request for the contract between the Ocean Springs and its official City Attorney. The response was stunning.
The city provided a contract that expired in 2016 — with no renewal, no amendments, and no updated agreements. Even more concerning, the document contained no signature page, meaning there is no evidence that it was ever fully executed.
To make matters worse, city officials were adamant that no other documents exist. After sending the incomplete, expired contract, the City Clerk’s office stated: “This correspondence will serve to close this matter.”
In other words, this is all they have. Yet, the attorney and his firm have continued to collect payments for over a decade.
The incomplete contract reads, “Attorney employment shall commence and be effective as of December 1, 2013, and shall continue until June 30, 2016, unless extended by the Mayor and Board at the time of completion.”
GC Wire reached out to the City Clerk’s office: “If the city attorney has continued serving the city, there should be resolutions or meeting minutes reflecting an extension or renewal. If no formal contract exists, please provide any resolutions, board approvals, or other documentation that legitimizes the continued service of the attorney or firm.”
The city did not respond to that email, however the issue was raised by this reporter at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
Acting City Attorney Will Norman refused to confirm whether a signed contract even exists. Instead, he deflected, claiming he had already sent the contract (he hadn’t) and dismissively said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
When further pressed, Norman said that he would send related minutes from previous Board meetings. However, those documents were not sent by the time of publication.
Listen to the exchange here:
View the incomplete contract here.
The $273,000 Slaughter & Associates ‘Blank Check’ Contract
This isn’t the first time Ocean Springs has quietly funneled taxpayer dollars into a contract without public oversight.
In 2021, the city approved a contract with Slaughter & Associates, a private consulting firm, to conduct an annexation study. The board was told the contract was “estimated” to cost $20,000, but it had no actual cap on spending.
That opened the floodgates for runaway costs, and residents are still paying for it today.
To date, the city has paid $273,139 for the contract that was originally described as a $20,000 expense — a 1,265% increase over what residents were led to believe.
And the spending hasn’t stopped. Just last month, the city cut another check for $22,000 on this same contract.
Rickey Authement: The Board Didn’t Know
Alderman Rickey Authement, a member of the city’s Finance Committee, admitted that he didn’t realize how much the city had spent on the contract.
“The docket of claims doesn’t have detailed listings,” Authement said. “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.”
In other words, he acknowledges that the aldermen were approving payments without realizing how far over budget they had gone.
This raises the questions:
- If the Board didn’t approve additional funding, then who did?
- Who kept signing off on these escalating payments?
- If the Board isn’t in control of the city’s checkbook, then who is?
Mayor Shrugs Off Quarter Million Dollar Payment Over Estimate
When confronted about this at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Kenny Holloway dismissed concerns. “Annexation is a lawsuit,” he said. “Lawsuits are expensive. That’s just how it works.”
But that’s not how contracts are supposed to work.
If a contract only estimates costs and has no cap, then the city is essentially writing a blank check — a dangerous precedent for financial management for any city.
“You don’t know who’s going to oppose annexation,” the mayor added. “It was supposed to be a friendly annexation. When we came down to it, the county opposed it, so then we went into litigation. Litigation at $250, $300 an hour on both sides is quite expensive. So you don’t know where you’re going to end up in a lawsuit financially. Unfortunately, there’s no contracts that say you’re going to spend X amount of money on a lawsuit. So that’s how this thing got to that point. If it would have been the friendly annexation that we anticipated, it would have been much less.”
Holloway’s statement contradicts earlier statements from former Community Development Director Carter Thompson. At a previous Board meeting, Thompson confidently announced about the annexation, “The city will be sued.”
Ideally, when a city signs a contract with a vendor, there is either a fixed price or wording included that the contract shall not exceed a certain threshold. If adjustments are later needed, the Board of Aldermen or City Council would authorize additional spending via a public vote.
Ocean Springs chose the blank check approach.
Listen to Mayor Holloway’s explanation here:
View the “estimated” $20,000 contract here.
A Half-Million Dollar Tax Error – and Taxpayers Will Cover the Interest
If unchecked spending wasn’t enough, a costly mistake by City Hall has left Ocean Springs homeowners and the school district scrambling.
Late last year, Ocean Springs acknowledged the City Clerk’s office had accidentally entered the wrong property tax millage rate when calculating tax bills. Homeowners were charged too little, and the Ocean Springs School District came up $475,000 short for the school budget.
The consequences? Taxpayers will pay for the city’s mistake — plus interest.
- The school district, expecting that $475,000 in funding, was forced to take out a loan to cover the shortfall.
- Over the next three years, homeowners will see extra charges added to their tax bills to repay the missing funds.
- The exact amount of interest taxpayers will be forced to cover has not been disclosed.
This wasn’t a school funding crisis. This was a clerical error made entirely by the City of Ocean Springs.
Is Grant Money Being Spent Just as Carelessly?
Mayor Kenny Holloway frequently touts the millions of dollars in grant money that he has helped secure for Ocean Springs. But given how recklessly other public funds are being spent, it begs the question:
Is that money being handled any better?
As the late Notorious B.I.G. warned: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”
If the city is this careless with legal contracts, vendor payments, and tax revenue, then how much confidence should taxpayers have that grant funds are being managed responsibly?
How much of that money is being used efficiently — and how much is vanishing into the same financial black hole as the city attorney’s missing contract and Slaughter & Associates’ ever-growing bill?
Why Are the Aldermen Silent?
The most concerning part of this entire situation isn’t just the reckless spending — it’s the silence from the people elected to represent the public.
For those who frequently attend or watch Board of Aldermen meetings, you would think the city is running smooth as silk. The elected officials smile, nod, and approve items with little to no discussion. There are no public acknowledgments of these financial disasters.
On the occasions when residents bring up these issues during the public comments portions of meetings, those comments are ignored – with the Board simply thanking them and calling for the next speaker to approach.
Yet behind the scenes, some aldermen admit they don’t have control over the spending. Others refuse to comment at all.
Why?
- Are they afraid to speak up?
- Are they purposely ignoring the issues?
- Why aren’t the representatives of the residents actually representing the interests of the residents?
What exactly are they afraid of?
City officials are eager to downplay concerns about reckless spending, but not a single alderman has come forward to publicly explain how or why these financial missteps keep happening.
Why should taxpayers have confidence in city leadership when their representatives refuse to answer basic questions?
Who Is Controlling Ocean Springs’ Money?
The pattern is clear: money is being spent without accountability.
- The city attorney keeps getting paid without a valid contract the city is willing to produce.
- The Slaughter & Associates contract ballooned from an estimated $20,000 to over $273,000 without a vote to approve the extra quarter million dollars spending.
- A financial mistake by City Hall cost the schools $475,000, and instead of the city absorbing the cost, taxpayers are being forced to clean up the mess.
- Millions of dollars in grant money are coming in, but is it just fueling more reckless spending?
- Elected officials are refusing to address these issues publicly.
If aldermen weren’t approving these payments, then who is making these financial decisions?
The mayor? The city clerk? Some unnamed city staff?
And why are the people elected to represent the public refusing to talk about it? These are important questions to ask ahead of the April 1st city-wide elections.
I would be extremely angry and wanting answers if I lived in Ocean Springs right now!