Madison County Journal-Report questions engineering fees

Excessive fees and a lack of checks and balances were questioned in a report on the county's engineering services commissioned privately last year by the mayor of Madison.

The report is the latest in an ongoing political fight between Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and certain members of the Board of Supervisors and County Engineer Rudy Warnock.

The report finds, among other things, that the county's expense reimbursements to Warnock and Associates were extremely high, including in one instance fees of nearly $19,000 over a nine-month period for use of a vehicle on a single project.

It also cites a conflict of interest where Warnock, serving as county engineer, designs and approves his own work - something the report says flies in the face of the Mississippi Board of Licensure's code of professional conduct.

Warnock has discounted the report as nothing more than political theater orchestrated by Hawkins-Butler.

The report's author, Richard J. McAfee of Detroit-based PMA Consultants, was in town Wednesday when he spoke on the Paul Gallo radio show and met with members of the media.

Overall, McAfee said with limited documentation he found no illegal acts, but pointed to over $2 million in questionable spending by the county.

Read the rest of the story at Madison County Journal Online