https://www.tiktok.com/@lauderdalemstransparency?_r=1&_t=ZT-94izks6bWjl

Citizens for Transparency in Lauderdale County MS, Meridian, MS (2026)

09/06/2026

Are Lauderdale County Supervisors Keeping Their Required Financial Disclosures Current?

Mississippi law requires elected officials to file a Statement of Economic Interest with the Mississippi Ethics Commission.

Under Mississippi Code § 25-4-25, elected county officials are among those required to file. Section 25-4-29 states that an incumbent public official must file a Statement of Economic Interest on or before May 1 of each year that the official holds office.

So I decided to look at the publicly available filing history for Lauderdale County officials.

What I found raises questions.

The Ethics Commission’s online records currently show:

* Kyle Rutledge — Supervisor: filings through 2022
* Josh Todd — Supervisor: filings through 2022
* Joe Norwood — Supervisor: filings through 2013
* JJ Anders — Supervisor: filings for 2022 and 2024
* Craig Houston — Supervisor: filings for 2014, 2018 and 2022

Meanwhile, the same system shows Lauderdale County Sheriff Ward Calhoun and Justice Court Judge Nicholas Lisi with filings for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. SEI.docx

That difference caught my attention.

These disclosures exist so the public can see financial interests and potential conflicts involving elected officials.

I have contacted the Mississippi Ethics Commission and asked them to confirm whether the online database represents the complete filing history for Lauderdale County’s supervisors, including whether any additional filings for 2023–2026 exist but are not currently displayed.

I am not claiming at this point that any supervisor failed to comply with the law. There could be an issue with the online database or another explanation.

But when the law requires these disclosures every year, gaps in the public record are worth asking about.

Once I receive a response from the Ethics Commission, I will share what they tell me.

Transparency should be simple. If public officials are required to file something for the public to see, the public should be able to see it.
Lauderdale County MS

09/05/2026

Kyle Rutledge: Public Job, County Duties, and Questions About Leave

In my previous post about Josh Todd, I explained that I had submitted information to the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor after public records raised questions about the overlap between county duties and another publicly funded position.

The second supervisor I reviewed is District 5 Supervisor Kyle Rutledge, who is also employed by the Lauderdale County School District as Assistant Director of Safety and Transportation.

This review started after I noticed Rutledge and another supervisor occasionally recusing themselves from Board matters because of their outside public employment. That led me to start asking questions and requesting records.

The School District confirmed in writing that Rutledge is a 235-day salaried employee and that his normal assigned work hours are:

6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The District also stated that employees in his position do not maintain timesheets, timecards, or electronic timekeeping records.

So I compared his stated School District work schedule with official Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors records.

I found numerous dates in 2026 when official county minutes document Rutledge attending and participating in Board meetings or work sessions beginning at 9:00 a.m., during his stated School District workday.

I then requested records showing the dates and amount of leave he used.

The School District initially declined to provide leave-request records because it considered them personnel records. I clarified that I was not asking for leave-request forms, explanations, medical information, or other protected personnel information. I requested only records sufficient to identify the dates and amount of leave used.

The District then agreed to review the request and later provided the leave-history reports directly to me.

After removing holidays, spring break, school-closed days, and summer dates where his exact duty calendar is less clear, I identified numerous normal District operating days between January and May when county records show Rutledge performing supervisor duties during his stated School District hours, but the leave records provided to me show no leave charged.

There may be a legitimate explanation for that.

There could be approved schedule adjustments, flexible scheduling, administrative authorization, or other internal records that I do not have access to.

I also want to clarify one point that came up after my original review. A personal day shown on May 14, 2026 was explained by Rutledge’s wife as being taken for a school field trip, not specifically for the county work session held that day. That is relevant context, and I am not treating May 14 as proof that leave was required for county meetings.

The broader question remains:

How does the School District account for time when official county duties occur during an employee’s stated 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. work schedule, and are those arrangements properly authorized and documented?

I am not claiming these records prove fraud, theft, or any other crime.

But we are talking about public employment, public salary, public leave, and an elected public office.

When the records raise legitimate questions, I believe the proper course is to document them and let an independent agency determine whether everything was handled correctly.

That is why I submitted the information to the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor.

I have copies of the School District’s written responses, Rutledge’s employment information, his leave history, and the corresponding Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors records supporting the dates I reviewed.

If the records are properly explained, then that is the answer.

If they are not, taxpayers deserve to know that too.

Follow the records. Ask the questions. Let the facts determine the answer.
Lauderdale County MS WTOK-TV The Meridian Star Shad White

09/05/2026

PUBLIC RECORDS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT SUPERVISOR JOSH TODD’S TIME AND LEAVE

For the past several months, I’ve been looking into how elected county supervisors who also hold other government jobs account for their time.

One of those supervisors is District 3 Supervisor and current Board President Josh Todd, who is also a full-time employee of the Pat Harrison Waterway District, a public government entity serving southeast Mississippi.

I obtained Todd’s Pat Harrison Waterway District timesheets through public-records requests and compared them with official Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors minutes and other county records.

Pat Harrison told me Todd works a 40-hour week, has a flexible schedule, works mostly remotely, and generally works an eight-hour day with those hours normally falling between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

They also told me he does not clock in or out. His timesheets simply record a total number of hours worked or leave taken each day.

That flexibility is important.

Finding a Board meeting on a day Todd reported PHWD hours does not, by itself, prove those hours weren’t worked. A flexible schedule could allow him to perform PHWD work before or after county business.

But when I started putting the records side by side, I found enough overlaps that I believe somebody with access to the underlying records needs to determine when those PHWD hours were actually worked.

Here are some examples:

January 20 — 8 PHWD work hours

The Lauderdale County Board met at 9:00 a.m. The meeting was later recessed, and county records document Todd calling the meeting back to order at 3:00 p.m.

That raises a pretty straightforward question: When were the eight PHWD hours worked that day?

March 16 — 6 PHWD work hours

County business occurred during the morning, and the Board later reconvened at Meridian City Hall at 1:00 p.m., where Todd presided.

April 16 — 6 PHWD work hours

This one is useful because the county minutes actually give specific times.

Todd left the county work session at 11:00 a.m., returned at 11:35 a.m., and the work session ended at 11:55 a.m.

April 30 — 8 PHWD work hours

The Lauderdale County work session continued until 12:10 p.m., while Todd’s PHWD record reflects a full eight hours of work that day.

Then I got to the leave records.

MAY 14 — 8 HOURS SICK LEAVE

Todd’s PHWD record shows 8 hours of sick leave on May 14.

Official Lauderdale County records show Todd attending a Board of Supervisors work session from approximately 9:00–10:00 a.m. that morning.

Lauderdale County’s official page also documented Todd participating in public activities that day.

Then there was another date that caught my attention.

MAY 25 — 8 HOURS SICK LEAVE

Todd’s PHWD timesheet shows another 8 hours of sick leave.

Lauderdale County’s official page subsequently reported that Todd served as emcee for the Memorial Day program held that Monday.

Does attending a Board meeting or public event while on sick leave automatically mean the leave was improper?

No.

There could be circumstances or PHWD policies that explain it. That’s something that needs to be determined by someone with access to the underlying records.

There are also other regular-work days worth examining.

On May 6, Todd reported 9 hours of PHWD work, while Lauderdale County’s official page documented him participating in a National Travel & Tourism Week event at the Mississippi Welcome Center.

On May 20, he reported 8 PHWD work hours, while Lauderdale County’s official page specifically identified and quoted him participating in the Weems Community Mental Health ribbon cutting.

Again, because his PHWD schedule is flexible, those events don’t automatically mean his PHWD time was improperly reported.

The question remains:

When were the PHWD hours actually worked?

And I think it’s important to point out something I found that goes the other direction.

On May 28, Todd’s PHWD records show 8 hours of annual leave on a day involving outside public activity.

That’s what you would expect to see, and I think it’s important to acknowledge records that don’t raise the same questions.

I TURNED THE RECORDS OVER TO THE STATE AUDITOR

After reviewing all of this, I filed a complaint with the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor and asked them to independently review Todd’s PHWD time and leave records.

I have the actual PHWD timesheets, PHWD’s written responses concerning Todd’s work schedule and timekeeping, the Lauderdale County Board minutes, and the relevant records from Lauderdale County’s official page.

I didn’t file the complaint claiming that I had proven fraud.

Todd’s flexible and remote PHWD schedule could potentially explain some or all of the regular-hour overlaps. The records available to the public simply don’t contain enough start/stop information to answer that question.

That’s exactly why I sent it to the Auditor.

They can determine what I can’t from a public-records request: when the PHWD work was actually performed, what work was performed, whether the leave was properly used and approved, and whether public compensation accurately reflects the work performed.

This isn’t about someone simply having two jobs.

It’s about two publicly compensated positions and whether there is sufficient documentation to account for the time being paid by each government entity.

When a public employee reports working 6, 7, 8 or 9 hours for one government entity while official records document him performing duties for another government entity during that same day, I think taxpayers are entitled to ask:

When were those hours worked?

That’s why I requested the records.

That’s why I compared them.

And that’s why I turned what I found over to the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor for independent review.

I’ll let the records — and the Auditor — determine the rest.
Lauderrdaledale County MS WTOK-TV The Meridian Star Shad White

09/04/2026

Two supervisors. Two other publicly funded jobs. And a pattern of recusals that made me start asking questions.

This did not start with me trying to investigate Josh Todd or Kyle Rutledge.

It started because I kept noticing both of them recusing themselves from certain Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors matters because of their outside employment.

That made me curious.

So I started asking basic questions about where they worked, what their public jobs were, and how those jobs fit with their responsibilities as county supervisors.

The more I looked, the more questions came up.

Josh Todd works for the Pat Harrison Waterway District.

Kyle Rutledge works for the Lauderdale County School District.

Both positions are publicly funded.

From there, I began comparing publicly available employment records, leave records, timesheets where available, and official Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors minutes.

In both cases, I found records that raised legitimate questions about whether time associated with their other public jobs overlapped with official county duties.

The circumstances are not identical, which is why I am treating them separately.

I am not accusing either supervisor of theft, fraud, or any other crime. There may be legitimate explanations for what the records show.

But once the records raised questions involving public compensation and public duties, I believed the proper thing to do was refer the information to the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor for independent review.

I have now done that.

Over the next few posts, I’ll lay out the Josh Todd records and the Kyle Rutledge records separately so people can see exactly what I found and why I thought it deserved a closer look.

This is what transparency is supposed to look like: ask the question, get the records, follow the documents, and let the proper agency determine whether anything was handled improperly.

Lauderdale County MS WTOK-TV The Meridian Star Shad White

09/02/2026

LAUDERDALE COUNTY ALREADY HAS THE EQUIPMENT — SO WHY AREN’T MEETINGS BEING BROADCAST?

I’ve raised the issue of broadcasting Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors meetings before.

And there is an important detail people may not know:

The equipment is already in the board room.

In a May 30, 2026 email, County Administrator Chris Lafferty explained that the board room has two cameras and AV equipment capable of recording what happens in the room.

He also said the room has the ability to record audio, although the audio is not currently connected into the microphones.

So this is not really a question of whether Lauderdale County has the basic technology.

It does.

The county’s explanation was that livestreaming would require someone to monitor the cameras, along with procedures to make sure executive sessions were not accidentally recorded.

Chris also stated that because recording and retaining Board meetings is not required by law, the county considers the additional expense unwarranted at this time.

There is another important part of that email:

Lauderdale County used to broadcast and post Board meetings when they were held in the Annex.

MCC provided the support at that time, but eventually stopped assisting with the broadcasts.

So this is not something Lauderdale County has never done.

It has been done before.

Now compare that with the City of Meridian.

The City recently reminded citizens that City Council meetings can be watched live on YouTube.

That creates a pretty simple question:

If the City of Meridian can livestream its public meetings, and Lauderdale County already has cameras and AV equipment in its board room, why can’t the county find a practical way to do the same?

This matters because the official minutes are not transcripts.

They generally tell us what motion was made, who seconded it, and whether it passed.

They do not necessarily preserve the actual discussion.

Take the recent Government Center parking expansion.

The minutes show that the Board voted to advertise for additional parking and later awarded a contract for $341,781.90.

But the minutes do not explain why the additional parking was needed, what alternatives were considered, or why approximately $72,000 in ornamental fencing and gates was included.

Maybe those questions were thoroughly discussed during a work session.

Maybe there was a very good explanation.

But if you were not physically sitting in the room that morning, how would you know?

That is the problem.

Transparency should not depend on whether someone can take off work and sit in a government meeting at 9:00 on a weekday morning.

And the standard should not simply be:

“The law doesn’t require us to record it.”

The law establishes a minimum requirement.

Nothing prevents local government from providing more access than the minimum.

The cameras are there.

The AV equipment is there.

The county has broadcast meetings before.

And the City of Meridian is doing it right now.

At this point, the question is not whether it can be done.

The question is whether Lauderdale County considers making its public meetings accessible enough of a priority to do it.
Lauderdale County MS City of Meridian-Government

09/01/2026

GOVERNMENT CENTER COSTS

$341,781.90 Parking Expansion

On February 17, 2026, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to advertise for bids for additional parking at the Government Center.

The official minutes tell us that the vote happened.

What they do not tell us is why the additional parking was needed, how many additional spaces were necessary, what problem the project was intended to solve, or whether less expensive options were considered.

On April 20, the Board unanimously awarded the project to H.E. Mosley for $341,781.90.

The bid breakdown raises additional questions.

H.E. Mosley’s base bid was $269,780. Another $72,001.90 was an additive alternate consisting of:

* 445 feet of 7-foot ornamental fencing — $30,001.90
* Two powered sliding gates — $40,000
* One ornamental access gate — $2,000

Maybe all of this was necessary.

Maybe parking at the Government Center had become a legitimate problem. Maybe the fencing and powered gates were required for security or some other operational reason.

But here is the bigger issue:

How would the public know?

Lauderdale County does not routinely broadcast Board meetings or provide transcripts of the discussions. The official minutes generally record motions and votes, but not the full discussion and reasoning behind them.

This project may have been thoroughly discussed during a work session or another meeting.

But if you weren’t sitting in the room that day, how would you ever hear that discussion now?

That is one of the reasons I have continued pushing for Board meetings to be broadcast and preserved for the public.

Transparency should be more than knowing that five supervisors voted “yes.”

When more than $340,000 in public money is being committed, taxpayers should be able to go back and understand:

Why was the project needed?
Why was this particular design chosen?
Why were the fencing and powered gates necessary?
What alternatives were considered?

The minutes tell us what they voted for.

They don’t always tell us why.

And when meetings aren’t broadcast or transcribed, much of that public discussion disappears as soon as the meeting ends.
Lauderdale County MS Frankie Hilburn

09/01/2026

I’ve been digging back through the public records surrounding Project Thor, now known as the Compass Datacenters project in Lauderdale County.

A few things are starting to stand out.

Project Thor was already being negotiated by May 2024. By August 2024, Lauderdale County had retained outside counsel specifically to help develop incentive agreements for the project.

Then, on October 21, 2024, the Board of Supervisors approved moving forward with up to $9 million in financing through the Mississippi Development Authority.

According to the county’s own minutes, that money could be used for things including:

• Water and sewer infrastructure
• Roads and site preparation
• Fire protection
• Natural gas infrastructure
• Electric transmission systems to the project site

MDA later reported a $9 million commitment to Lauderdale County “for the benefit of Compass Datacenters JAN I, LLC.”

Now fast-forward to 2026.

Mississippi passed a new law creating an Energy Infrastructure Fund administered by MDA. The law specifically allows public funding to be used for things like transmission lines, substations, transformers, breakers and other energy infrastructure associated with major economic-development projects — including data centers.

I want to be clear about what I am NOT saying.

I have not found evidence that Compass has received money from this new Energy Infrastructure Fund.

I also have not found evidence that the law was created specifically for Compass.

What I am trying to determine is much simpler:

We have repeatedly been told that Compass would pay for the utility infrastructure required by its project.

The public record also shows millions of dollars in economic-development financing connected to the project, with electric transmission infrastructure specifically listed as an allowable expense.

So the question is:

What exactly did the existing $9 million financing pay for, and will any portion of the new Energy Infrastructure Fund eventually be used for infrastructure benefiting the Compass project?

Those are fair questions, and I’m working on getting the actual agreements and project scope so we can answer them with documents instead of speculation.

If everything lines up with what the public was told, that’s good.

If it doesn’t, the public deserves to know.
Lauderdale County MS East Mississippi Business Development Corporation

08/19/2026

THE COST OF PAYING LATE: $2,074 IN 7 MONTHS

Late fees may look small on a claims docket — $5 here, $10 there, $35 on a credit card — but they add up. And taxpayers are the ones paying them.

I went back through Lauderdale County’s claims dockets and compared the same periods year over year.

From January through July 2025, the county paid at least $581.04 in identifiable late fees and late charges.

During January through July 2026, that number jumped to $2,074.61.

That’s $1,493.57 more in just seven months, or roughly a 257% increase.

For perspective, the county paid $1,023.43 in identifiable late fees during all of 2025. In just the first seven months of 2026, that total had already reached $2,074.61.

Some of these are small recurring charges — utility bills, telephone bills, Waste Pro accounts, credit cards and other routine expenses. But that is exactly the point. These are ordinary bills that government handles every month. When they are repeatedly paid late, taxpayers end up paying more for the exact same services.

And then sometimes the “small fees” aren’t small at all.

In June 2026, three late fees paid to G & O Supply totaled $1,251.37 by themselves.

Even if you remove those three unusually large charges, the county still paid about $823 in late fees from January through July 2026 — roughly 42% more than during the same period in 2025.

This isn’t about claiming every late fee is evidence of wrongdoing. There can be legitimate disputes, billing problems or invoices that arrive late. But when late charges appear month after month, across multiple departments and accounts, taxpayers deserve to know what controls are in place to prevent unnecessary penalties.

A $5 late fee may not sound like much.

Neither does $10.

Neither does $35.

But when nobody is watching them, “small” fees become thousands of dollars of public money spent on absolutely nothing.

Taxpayers should be paying for county services — not the cost of paying the bills late.

Lauderdale County MS Jamie Parttridge Frankie Hilburn WTOK-TV

08/17/2026

Closing Comments from the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors

At the end of today’s meeting, each member of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors gave closing comments.

I’m posting the full section because I think these comments are worth hearing in context, especially after a meeting that included several issues affecting people across the county.

The speakers, in order, are:

J.J. Anders
Craig Houston
Joe Norwood
Kyle Rutledge
Josh Todd

There are comments here about county spending, priorities, public concerns, decisions made by the Board, and the responsibility that comes with representing Lauderdale County.

Some of the supervisors explained their positions on issues discussed during the meeting. Others spoke more broadly about the county and the decisions they are being asked to make.

Rather than pulling out a few seconds of one person’s remarks, I wanted to share the entire closing-comment portion so everyone can hear what each supervisor chose to say, how they explained themselves, and what they considered important enough to address publicly.

I encourage people to watch all the way through.

You may agree with some of them and disagree with others, but these are our elected representatives speaking directly to the public at the conclusion of a Board meeting.

Listen to all five and draw your own conclusions.

Lauderdale County MS

08/17/2026

Volunteer Firefighters Made Their Position Clear Today

At today’s Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors meeting, volunteer firefighters showed up to make their voices heard on the county’s insurance decision.

The two proposals before the county were:

Amynta through Meyer & Rosenbaum — $99,761
VFIS — $125,230

The difference is $25,469.

The volunteer firefighters have repeatedly made it clear that VFIS is the coverage they want.

When the Board voted today, Supervisors Josh Todd and J.J. Anders voted against VFIS, favoring the less expensive option.

That vote deserves some context.

Lauderdale County paid $138,175 for VFD auto insurance alone in 2025. May 2025 Claims Docket(5).pdf

This year, that auto policy increased to $146,914, followed by another $7,172.88 auto audit.

So even the more expensive $125,230 VFIS proposal costs $21,684 less than what the county paid this year for auto insurance alone.

And this comes after the county’s Accident & Sickness coverage for the volunteer firefighters lapsed and later had to be reinstated.

I have also been told that volunteers have been seeking liability protection for years. I have not yet obtained the complete policies to independently compare every coverage limit, deductible and exclusion, so I’m not going to claim the two proposals are identical.

But one thing was very clear today:

The firefighters wanted VFIS.

Cost matters when spending taxpayer money. But when the people actually responding to fires, wrecks, medical emergencies and other dangerous calls are asking the Board for a specific insurance provider, their concerns deserve serious consideration.

Especially when the policy they are asking for is still cheaper than what the county was already paying for auto insurance alone.

These volunteers give their time to protect Lauderdale County. Making sure they are properly protected while doing it should be a priority.

Watch the clip and decide for yourself.

Citizens for Transparency in Lauderdale County MS

09/06/2026

09/05/2026

09/05/2026

09/04/2026

09/02/2026

09/01/2026

09/01/2026

08/19/2026

08/17/2026

08/17/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request