Davis capitalized on system’s flaws
SOUTHAVEN MAYOR GREG Davis is a pimp.
Davis isn’t a pimp in the oldschool definition of the word. He’s been accused of and copped to some pretty crazy stuff, but no one has alleged (yet, anyway) that he had women out on the stroll, giving him the proceeds of their labor.
No, Davis is a newschool pimp, defined as anyone, male or female, who brazenly exploits the weaknesses of a system for personal gain.
The Southaven board of aldermen’s oversight of Davis’ use of city funds and a city credit card was as weak as single -ply toilet paper.
Davis took advantage of that over and over again. That’s what a pimp does.
A brief rundown of Davis’ impressive pimping would include the following:
The FBI is investigating Davis for abusing a city travel and entertainment account to the tune of more than $150,000 in personal expenses billed to the city. The expenses included the largesse of a $100 tip on a $36.52 beer tab and turning in a $67 receipt from a Canadian sex shop.
Inexplicably, anonymous donors put $96,000 in an “Operation Rescue” fund to repay part of what Davis owed. (Apologies to every English teacher I’ve ever had, but such giving begs the question: Where they do that at?)
In one year, Davis charged $48,000 to the city-funded Southaven Chamber of Commerce, ostensibly for promoting economic development. The chamber’s executive director has said she took Davis at his word that the expenses were legit .
Davis, who is on leave at an undisclosed health care facility, earns $145,000 per year. That’s $22,840 higher than the governor’s salary.
Davis’ pay was bolstered by a whopping $35,000 stipend for managing Southaven’s water and sewer operations. The HR director admitted last week that he added the payment to Davis’ check in 2010 — at Davis’ direction. Last week, the mayor pro tem cut off that spigot.
Davis’ behavior is indefensible. But his boldness? I must tip my hat. Well played, sir. That Davis could scam so many people for so long proves that his pimp game is tighter than Bishop Don Magic Juan’s. (Unfamiliar with the bishop? That’s what Youtube is for.)
There are pimps, such as Davis, and then you have those
being pimped.
Surely the Southaven aldermen must be kicking themselves now that so many of Davis’ suspect ways have been revealed.
Once the credit card confusion arose, you’d think the aldermen would have gone through the mayor’s public pay with a fine - toothed comb. But they didn’t. Mayor Pro Tem Greg Guy as much as admitted that the board didn’t understand the stipend payment. They got played. “The mayor told us it was legitimate and, once again, we trusted him,” Guy said last week.
In early January, Guy acknowledged that aldermen had been “too quiet for too long.”
“The reason you voted for him time and time again is because you trusted him and you thought he was doing the right thing,” Guy said at a special meeting Jan. 6 in which the board, which has no power to oust Davis, voted 5-1 to ask him to resign.
“We on this board are guilty of the very same thing. We trusted him, thinking he was doing the right thing.”
Yes, we are right to cast a side eye at Davis, who is only part of the problem.
The solution is for the board to develop and maintain strict oversight procedures that make such fraud nearly impossible.
As any pimp will tell you: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Contact Wendi C. Thomas at (901) 529-5896 or e-mail thomasw@commercialappeal.com.