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JAMES PERKINS, JR AND HIS PREPOSTEROUS LAND DEALS WHICH WENT SOUTH…
6-19-12



          Among the many reasons James Perkins, Jr should never be Mayor of Selma again is two unbelievable land purchase scheme he tried to put over on the people of Selma. Thankfully, five members of the City Council, -Williamson, Cain, Evans, Allen and Martin- saved the taxpayers MILLIONS OF DOLLARS BY EXPOSING THESE HIGH RISK, RIDICULOUS LAND PURCHASES. As usual, the four Perkins puppets-Crenshaw, Leashore, Randolph and Venter-voted for these land purchases without any regard to the risk and cost to the City of Selma.

          Lest we forget the fiscal irresponsibility of Perkins and his four minions, recall these land purchases promoted by Perkins. WE FRANKLY WONDER THAT BECAUSE THESE PROPOSED PURCHASES WERE SO OUTRAGEOUS, WHAT DID PERKINS STAND TO GET OUT OF THEM?

1. From the August 11, 2008, Minutes of the Selma City Council: A local doctor and his team appeared before the City Council, with Perkins’ support, proposing a deal which would have cost the City of Selma $38,000 a month for seven years. We believe that Dr. Bruce Taylor was sincere in trying to provide a family entertainment center with Taylorville. However, he proposed building a youth sports complex which when completed title would pass to the city. He and Perkins wanted the City Council to enter into an agreement to purchase the complex from Dr. Taylor once it was completed at a cost of $38,000 A MONTH till paid for. ADDITIONALLY, Coach Reese had told the Council it would cost an estimated $150,000.00 a year for the City to run such a complex. Councilman Cain asked how the City would pay for all of this. PERKINS’ ANSWER WAS “the Bond will be my answer for this project”.

          When the City Council did not vote to enter into this agreement to purchase the land and the complex, Dr. Taylor went ahead and built at least part of the project known as Taylorville. ANYONE DRIVING ALONG HIGHWAY 80 can see how this enterprise turned out. HAD THEN MAYOR OF PERKINS AND HIS FOUR PUPPETS ON THE COUNIL HAD THEIR WAY, THE CITY WOULD BE STILL BE STUCK WITH AN ENORMOUS DEBT FOR A DEFUNK PROJECT…just another example of Perkins’ reckless spending and lack of fiscal vision!

          Now that the Minutes of City Council meetings are on line at the City of Selma web site, go to the Minutes of August 11, 2008, and read about this Perkins fiasco. As events subsequently unfolded and Perkins lost the election three weeks later, this project never came to fruition-THANK YOU NOW MAYOR EVANS, Reid Cain, Cecil Williamson, Jean Martin and the late Dr. Allen for saving Selma taxpayers from this financial disaster and for saving us millions of dollars. In view of what eventually happened with this project, someone needs to ask Perkins about his support for it and what he thinks of it now!

2. Even more fiscally irresponsible was the attempt of Perkins and, as usual, his four puppets on the Council to BUY 111 ACRES OF LAND BEHIND THE WAL MART ON HIGHLAND AVENUE FOR ONE MILLION DOLLARS ($1,000,000.00). Initially, Perkins said the land would be used for a CEMETERY, then HOUSING plus a cemetery, then for a new school, or perhaps a civil war museum. The one constant through the entire discussion was that Perkins would never tell the City Council what he wanted the land for. At one point, Perkins issued a statement saying “the original public purpose included community development, related projects such as housing, commercial, education, as well as cemetery and parks.” Without knowing what it would be used for, HE JUST WANTED TO PAY $1 million dollars for it. He did persuade the Council to put $5,000 earnest money toward the purchase-a motion which was opposed only by Cain and Williamson. EVENTUALLY THE CITY LOST THAT MONEY.

          The way Perkins arrived at the $1 million price was that the City would pay $30,000 an acre for 10 acres and approximately $6800 an acre for the other 101 acres. The Council questioned those figures because other than the acres which were in a flood plain and could never be used, all of the acreage LOOKED JUST ALIKE.

          How did Perkins’ propose to pay the $1 million? It looks to us that HE WAS USING SOME ADVISORS FROM GREECE FOR THAT ANSWER: See if you can make any sense of how Perkins proposed to pay for this land, and this is a direct quote from the Council Minutes of October 23, 2006:
“Mayor Perkins…recommends to the Council that it move forward in negotiating with the financial institution, that we move forward with a $100,000.00 deposit only, interest only monthly for approximately $3,900 per month which would give an interest rate of between 5% and 5.25%, an annual reduction of principal of 10% of the balance, which would be approximately $90,000.00.” If you can figure that out, both Greece and Spain could use your expertise right now.

          Despite Perkins, Crenshaw, Leashore, Randolph and Venter’s best efforts to get the city to spend $1 for this land, the 5 votes of Evans, Cain, Williamson , Allen and Martin kept the city from spending this money. The whole process was best summed by Dr. Williamson who said the city should not spend money it did not have, for land it did not need, for purposes it did not know!

          There are numerous reasons why James Perkins, Jr. should not be the Mayor of this City. These two fiscally irresponsible land deals are among many we will point out in coming weeks. READ the Council Minutes on line for October 23, 2006 and November 13, 2006 for full details of this potential fiscal disaster.

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          We did not know, but were pleased to hear Dr. Williamson point out on Viewpoint last week, that Ms. Lydia Chapmon, co-host of the ALL LIES program on HATE RADIO 105.3 is also the Campaign Manager for James Perkins, Jr. Without any disclosure that she was serving in that capacity, Ms. Chapmon had deceitfully tried to get Randy Williams of Viewpoint to act as co-sponsor with her of a series of debates involving candidates for office in Selma. Ms Chapmon presented this as a non-partisan forum for the candidates without any disclosure that she was actually working as campaign manager for James Perkins, Jr. We think that this is intellectually dishonest and that each time she is on ALL LIES (masquerading as True Selma) promoting Perkins she should tell the audience that she is working as campaign manager to elect Perkins as Mayor.

          As for HATE RADIO 105.3, the public comment period about their license is running from April 24-July 23. We urge you to contact the FCC and urge that their license not be renewed on the grounds that they do not operate in the best interests of this community. How can anyone say that a station which spews hate, division, and controversy day after day is operating in the community’s best interest? This cancer needs to be removed from the body of Selma!

          It looks to us like the Perkins Team is shapely up very clearly for the August 28 election. His dream team looks like this:

Mayor: James Perkins, Jr.
Council President: Franklin NOT A BISHOP Fortier, Rufus Ford, Tremaine Gordon
Ward 2: Carolyn Robinson, Rod West
Ward 4: Dorothy Chapmon (mother of ALL LIES host, Lydia)
Ward 5: Sam Randolph
Ward 6: Johnnie Leashore
Ward 7: Bennie Ruth Crenshaw
Ward 8: Michael Johnson, Lorenzo Harrison

We can only pray and work diligently to see that these people are not elected on AUGUIST 28.