CAO Richie McAlister accuses councilman of malicious activity

At the beginning of the city council’s budget meeting, CAO Richie McAlister accused Councilman Weston Lindemann of signing a city employee traveling receipt for a conference the council members had recently. McAlister went on to say that Lindemann spent $200 in room service and alcohol, which was spent out of the tax payers’ pockets. However, Lindemann claims he doesn’t recall signing this document and that his signature was forged.

Lindemann says, “this is an administration that has approved $7,000 paint jobs for vehicles that it wasn’t necessary. They’ve allowed for former employees to continue to use $70,000 vehicles even after their employment was over. They justify $12,000 pay increases by forging signatures. This is exactly what you’d expect from an administration that’s out of control at this point.”

Mayor Percy Bland and McAlister say this incident was malicious and intentional and that all he has to do is pay the $200 back and then they can move forward.

“It’s not a claim. This is very obvious that there was intent there to try and use a credit that the city had already paid for to basically go on a room service and drinking binge at our conference in Biloxi last month,” says Mayor Bland.

McAlister says that the Clerk of Council confirmed that Lindemann did indeed sign his travel receipt just as all of the other council members did. Lindemann claims he had his personal debit card on file with the hotel he stayed at.

“I never would intentionally attempt to defraud the tax payers, unlike this administration who continues to do that on a regular basis,” says Lindemann

City Council President Fannie Johnson said in an interview, “I’m going to believe that none of us do anything we should not do. All of us make mistakes and oversights. None of us are perfect, including me. He says he’s going to fix it, so I trust he’s going to fix it.”

Lindemann says he will look into the paperwork, and the mayor’s office says they will do what they can to get this resolved.