Our View

Our View

Putting ducks in a row before spending the dough

Apparently the politicians that run the City of West Memphis haven’t gotten the message from state auditors about following governmental protocol, because for the second time in as many months, there is talk of bypassing the rules of soliciting competitive bids and spending as much as $20,000 on cameras to hang from light poles.

Despite the questioning of such action by Councilman Wayne Croom, his fellow counterparts didn’t seem to hesitate in waving competitive bids to decorate the old and abandoned water tower on East Broadway with strings of lights, at a cost of a quarter-of-a-million dollars, to an out-of-state company no one knew much about.

This latest expenditure for a “couple” of surveillance cameras is being pushed through by Councilman Marco McClendon who says they are needed in areas where there is high crime.

Once again, Councilman Croom cautioned fellow aldermen about bypassing a competitive bid process and asked if McClendon’s $20,000 request is the actual cost or just his “guestimation.”

Bear in mind folks, the cameras in question aren’t the “Sky Cop” camera systems that Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen has or the sophisticated system that the Marion Police Department uses.

What McClendon wants are a couple of cameras that can be hung on street poles for vandals, drug peddlers and gang members to shoot down.

It would seem to us that before these politicians and custodians of their constituents tax dollars hand over a blank check they would want to hear what Police Chief Donald Oakes has to say about these cameras.

Furthermore, there needs to be an explanation as to the maintenance cost of these cameras, just exactly who will be monitoring them and who will be responsible for crawling up these light poles and installing them as well as moving them from one pole to another.

Don’t get us wrong, any tool in the law enforcement arsenal that can catch the bad guy or prevent a crime is worthy of consideration but, what we have hear is a politician who knows very little about how law enforcement works, wanting to spend tax dollars on cameras he has no idea on how effective they will be or whether or not this is a good investment.

Let’s also bring up the fact brought out by Councilman Randy Catt that the most recent state legislative audit had flagged the city over budget amendment procedures and his urging that the council “go by the book”.

Catt also let it be known that city sales tax revenue has been tight this year and said while the city finished last year in the black that is not the case so far this year.

The bottom line is that before these elected officials jump to conclusions they do their due diligence.

Another suggestion would be to ask Sheriff Allen and Marion Police Chief Gary Kelley just how effective their “Sky Cop” systems are, including data on the number of crimes they captured as well as the number of suspects arrested. Even though they are different from what McClendon wants, the information would be helpful in making such a purchase.