TRUSTBUILD: A $500,000 JOKE ON CITY TAXPAYERS
7-6-07
If you compare the budgets of the Selma Police Department and TrustBuild (also masquerading as Community Outreach), you will understand WHY WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH POLICE OFFICERS TO PROTECT SELMA CITIZENS AND THEIR PROPERTY. All of the money drained from the Police Department, which should be used to hire more officers, is now used to fund TrustBuild; a thinly veiled campaign organization for the re-election of Mayor Perkins, paid for by Selma taxpayers.
IF EVER A SOCIAL PROGRAM NEEDED TO BE TERMINATED, IT IS TRUSTBUILD. It has done nothing to gain Trust for the Perkins administration and is proving to be a total waste of money; money which should be used to hire more police officers, but instead is being used to hire the Mayor's flunkies and campaign workers.
With police manpower at an all time low, and police morale non-existant, how can ANY rational person justify police officers acting as chauffers for TrustBuild workers? Don't these officers have any PRIDE or SELF-RESPECT? How do they feel about taking salaries as Police Officers when they are "drivers" for TrustBuild workers? Frankly, we would have more pride than to be demeaned by the assignment!!
TrustBuild is another example of Mayor Perkins' misguided philosophy about how to combat crime. He thinks that if you give people enough handouts, it will change their human nature and cause them not to act in an evil and criminal way. That is a basic misunderstanding of human nature. His wrong headed philosophy has led him to deprive the Police Department of manpower while building up the TrustBuild Force. We believe that if he could have his way, he would abolish the Police Department and put social workers on every corner to direct people where to go to get handouts.
We fault the City Council for voting to fund this mistake called TrustBuild. Only Williamson and Cain voted against it. We are calling on the City Council to either abolish or drastically reduce TrustBuild funding in the coming fiscal year. This money is needed to hire more police officers to protect us!
If you want to know what a government bureaucracy sounds like, call TrustBuild at 874-5680 and listen to their menu of useless bureaucrats. For:
Ramona Hardy press 1
Teresa Carter press 2
Dorothy Hawkins press 3
Mashaun Hunter press 4
Derek Moore press 5
Dennis Rutledge press 6
Gloria Simmons press 7
Sherri James press 8
With every social worker having his own phone, work station, computer, and every other current fad in electronic equipment, it is no wonder TrustBuild is wasting over $500,000 of YOUR money every year; money which is needed to bring the Police Department up to full strength!
We were wondering if TrustBuild worker Derrick Moore is doing his "hip hop" radio program on Z 105.3 while he is suppose to be working full time on the City payroll? Before Perkins hired him, he was a disc jockey at the station. We suppose that qualified him to tell people where to go to get handouts. Other TrustBuild worker qualifications were about equal to "D Mo's", the disc jockey; the one thing they all had in common is that they are all Perkins flunkies. We won't even comment on what TrustBuild Director Sherri James' qualifications in relation to Perkins are!!
TrustBuild is a program whose time has come..TO BE ENDED! We call on the City Council to stop this waste of tax dollars and bring the Police Department up to full strength!
