Local TV is calling this one "news" because it's pretty easily repackaged.
Today the Jackson County Prosecutor PASSED THE BUCK to Exec Frank White and all of her predecessors for the FAIL of a very pricey anti-crime tax.
The highlights . . .
- Jackson County’s Finance Department regularly under-budgeted COMBAT revenues, creating reserve or surplus funds that were used by other county departments, rather than COMBAT. These surplus funds were expended often without approval from COMBAT administration or the County Legislature. Of $1.28 million in COMBAT reserves funds in 2017, only $131,946 was spent on COMBAT anti-drug and anti-violence programs.
- More than $2.2 million in other money was spent between 2016 and 2018 on county jail doors, even though no one in COMBAT management knew COMBAT funds were being used to pay for the doors. Those funds went to the county’s Corrections Department in addition to the department’s guaranteed allocation of COMBAT funds under a funding formula passed by the Legislature in 1995. Similar diversions were found with construction spending for Constructing Futures and renovations of county facilities. Auditors often found no evidence of approval by the County Legislature.
- While the COMBAT administration didn’t have enough staff to visit agencies it funded, many county employees were paid a portion of their salary or benefits, including car and phone allowances, from COMBAT funds. Their positions or duties appeared to have little to do with COMBAT. These employees included members of the County Executive’s Department and the Legislative Auditor office. BKD requested information on 60 county employees, but County finance officials would only supply BKD with information on 10 employees.
Accordingly . . .
WHAT DOES IT MEAN??? VOTERS HOPING FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS TO FIGHT RISING DEADLY CRIME WILL ONLY FIND HIGHER TAXES, POLITICAL POSTURING & MISSPENT FUNDS!!!
More to the point . . .
THIS IS JUST ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF JACKSON COUNTY EXECUTIVE FRANK WHITE'S POLITICAL CAREER!!!
Check the news lineup:
KMBC: Audit for Jackson County COMBAT program shows troubling use of funds under County Executive's office
KCTV5: Audit questions how anti-crime tax money was spent
KCUR: Audit Finds Jackson County Misspent Millions Of Dollars Meant To Fight Drugs And Violence
Developing . . .
If KCPD has anything to do with it it's a slush fund.
ReplyDelete#FireFrank
DeleteCounty you knuckle head !
DeleteYes but:
ReplyDeleteIt's important to document the horrible situation and the extremely suspect allocations. It will come up later TKC.
Believe it.
I think the more important question is: What is "mean jean" going to do about it?
DeleteBlaming the old guard is a classic political move but doesn't show any hope for the future.
Courthouse is KC's worst joke. Needs to be disassembled.
DeleteVote Democrat.
ReplyDeleteDamn, too bad the KC can't be a watchdog at city hall but can find the time to whine about josh hawley. It's going to be a glorious day when the go out of business.
ReplyDeleteLegit question, how are they making money? They have to have around 3,000 subscribers and no one advertises in them? Are they propped up by some outside entity?
What responsibility or accountability does the Combat Director Vincent Ortega have to see that these taxpayers dollars are used appropriately?
ReplyDelete^^^^ Well, Caleb, considering that he hasn't been on the job for even a year and racist Frank White blocked him for months. I don't think very much. Hope that answers your question.
ReplyDeleteshut down the county. It's a bad joke.
ReplyDeleteHey now, somebody mentioned Caleb.
ReplyDeleteWas his Chevy Colorado truck payment included in this report?
It sure was a nice ride signed off by Frank!
Frank White administration is rolling!
^^^^^ Don't be a hater. There's more than enough blame to to around on this one. Agree with TKC here, isn't this really just the prosecutor passing the buck?
ReplyDelete@ 6:17 Weak attempt there to deflect responsibility by Team Frank. The report mentions about four dozen times that nearly all this crap was being done by the county executive without the approval, input, or knowledge of the COMBAT management.
ReplyDeleteIf Frank and his crew had time to respond to this, how about they sit down for an interview with Channel 5 and try to explain those assessment emails. Hmmm?
ReplyDelete6:24
ReplyDeleteYes it was! I downloaded the report off the COMBAT website. The way that truck got bought has to be criminal.
Between this and the assessment email scandal, is that enough for someone, anyone on the county legislature to grow a pair and start DEMANDING resignations, up to and including Frank White's? At the very least, Caleb and Gail got to go.
ReplyDelete^^^^ Good call.
ReplyDelete6:52 I'd pay to watch Frank White, without his many handlers, do an interview with Angie Ricono on 5 about this assessment mess and now the combat controversy.
ReplyDeleteTell us, again, Frank, what EMERGENCY required misappropriating funds to buy Caleb Clifford a pickup truck?
ReplyDeleteCOMBAT has been a joke almost from the day it was passed.
ReplyDeleteIt generates $20 million/year.
$20 million tax dollars year after year.
And the money has been spent on "drug resistance and treatment", $15,000 picnics, yard signs, and anything else the usual grifters can come up with.
In all these years COMBAT has had ZERO impact on reducing crime and violence.
This latest scandal is just the latest waste of this money and may very well be the most egregious.
But it shouldn't be a revelation or surprise to anyone who had any contact with the "program" at all.
The shock and surprise expressed by the county legislature is C-list acting at its worst.
That's nickel and dime stuff. There was 600 million dollars collected in tax revenue from the Anti Drug Tax over 30 years. There's no Statute Of Limitations on this amount of Larceny. Thousands have been murdered, tens of thousands have been raped and brutalized. People being murdered in the jail and the County calling it suicide? This is the kind of corruption we'll find in The Panama Papers?
ReplyDeleteFrank needs to answer questions from somebody besides his friends. He has been negligent in his responsibilities as Executive and should be held accountable by voters. Not even all of that racial posturing is going to help at this point. Freedom, Inc. can't save him by just calling everyone else racist. Especially when so many East side houses are getting hit with higher taxes too.
ReplyDeleteI miss them old days when all it took was one bad act, getting caught in one lie was about all it took to get a politician road out on a rail. They've done a good job of getting us to accept that, oh well, that's just the way it goes, so we will tolerate so much corruption and unethical behavior. Frank White is a liar and he's corrupt. I've had enough. I'll be telling my county legislator she needs to do something to get him out of there.
ReplyDeleteAll taxes go into the general trough to feed the hog whose tits so many people suckle on..sly tried to warn y'all about it running low with the pre K push.. It failed.. So along comes the county executive and his gang of bandits to to "STEAL"the funds needed to keep this ponzi scheme going through the illegal process called property evaluations.. The only way our is to keep feeding the hog or let the hog be slaughtered...
ReplyDeleteThis is why the crime rate in JACo is so high. The prosecution and everyone in pvolved is corrupt.
ReplyDelete"The reason we're against this is simple: It doesn't work," said Robert Gough, director of Jackson County Taxpayers. "We're the only county in the United States with a drug tax and we've spent a quarter-billion dollars in 14 years. You would think Jackson County would shine, but it's not particularly drug free," he told DRCNet. "Law enforcement loves it, of course; they say 'hallelujah, it's working,' but all this lock-'em-up stuff isn't working. It also funds D.A.R.E., and many people think of it as the D.A.R.E. tax, but D.A.R.E. doesn't work either. There isn't a single study that shows D.A.R.E. grads were any more drug free than other kids. D.A.R.E. is nothing more than police officers doing behavior modification therapy on our children."
ReplyDeleteVoters initially approved the tax in 1989 and renewed it in 1995. The quarter-cent tax funds some 80 programs, with 28.5% of revenues this year going to police, 28.5% going to drug treatment and prevention (i.e., the DARE program), 33% going to drug courts, and 10% going to raise more money for anti-drug programs.
ReplyDeleteI agree we need to think about the COMBAT tax overall but what really stands out here is Frank White's incompetence and obstruction. That's the REAL story.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad but useless taxes are a way of life in Kansas City.
They keep extending COMBAT and there is no campaign to remind voters they don't have to support this meal ticket. It's like it's owed to the county, which should not be the case.
ReplyDeleteClean house at the county, starting with the executive's office.
ReplyDeleteFECKC Said:
ReplyDeleteThe Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax (COMBAT) program provides long-term career planning and placement assistance to juveniles in treatment and rehabilitation, and those at-risk, whose primary offenses are drug-related. The program serves ex-offenders ages 18-24 who are:
unemployed
re-entering the population
on probation
have long-term unemployment prospects
The primary focus is to provide training and employment opportunities to this population through recruitment, job skills and employment assessment, training through career clinics, basic computer operation and on line job searches, and ultimately, full time employment.
COMBAT is funded by the Jackson County Anti-Drug Sales Tax.
Truman Hospital Said:
ReplyDeleteTo qualify for COMBAT-funded treatment You must meet the following criteria:
• Citizen of Jackson County •
Used illegal drugs or abused prescription drugs Note: individuals age 18-21 are also eligible for treatment for the use of alcohol due to use under 21 being illegal.
• Cannot afford to pay for treatment
• Have no health insurance • Have a reliable source of transportation • Motivated to recover and remain drug free
The COMBAT tax generates about $20 million a year. A little more than half of that money helps pay for local narcotics enforcement.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Jean Petersucker Baker doesn’t prosecute criminal hood rats as aggressively as she drove the bus over Frank. Sure, Frank is corrupt and incompetent. Jean Petersucker Baker is unskilled, weak and incompetent. Both of them need to go.
ReplyDelete10 Million Dollars Said:
ReplyDeleteCOMBAT pays for 24 officers' salaries in this unit, and about 25 more in Eastern Jackson County. It also pays for two entire floors of the county jail, and 1/3 of the positions in the prosecutor's office.
Gough thinks that after 20 years, COMBAT should be able to prove it's had a big impact on drug use in the area. But County officials say it's hard to prove a negative: all the people who aren't using or dealing narcotics because of COMBAT. Although the crack epidemic subsided in the 1990s, County Executive Mike Sanders says that because of the sales tax, law enforcement was equipped when Eastern Jackson County was named the meth capital of the world.
ReplyDeleteSince Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, effectively declared war on the drug cartels in 2006, more than 30,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteCountries are encouraged to provide training on money laundering techniques to the staff of trade authorities, investigative authorities, customs agencies, tax authorities, the financial intelligence unit, prosecutorial authorities, banking supervisors and any other authorities that the country identifies as being relevant to the fight against money laundering (e.g. specialised units such as Trade Transparency Units).
ReplyDeleteMoney laundering is the process of making illegally-gained proceeds (i.e. "dirty money") appear legal (i.e. "clean"). Typically, it involves three steps: placement, layering and integration. First, the illegitimate funds are furtively introduced into the legitimate financial system. Then, the money is moved around to create confusion, sometimes by wiring or transferring through numerous accounts. Finally, it is integrated into the financial system through additional transactions until the "dirty money" appears "clean." Money laundering can facilitate crimes such as drug trafficking and terrorism, and can adversely impact the global economy
ReplyDeleteSo who is responsible for more deaths?
ReplyDeleteA) Frank, for misspending millions of dollars that should have been used to fight crime?
or
B) Jean Petersucker Baker for letting so many hoodrat criminals go free, only to rob and kill more people?
Frank needs to go to prison. Jean Petersucker Baker needs to go bake cookies or something.
COMBAT (2013) has been known to pay for drug raids, similar to the raid that the No Violence Alliance conducted last week to go after violent criminals.
ReplyDeleteSupporters said using the anti-drug sales tax program brings in a known commodity.
COMBAT generates about $19 million per year, more than half of which goes into prosecuting crimes. The new alliance will not shift any money away from existing COMBAT programs.
"Because COMBAT does fund a portion of the Prosecutor's office, and the neighborhood prosecution team, that's part of NOVA, so there is a big element to it," said COMBAT Director Stacey Daniels Young.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said there will be a COMBAT door hanger going out to neighborhoods soon to encourage people to report crimes.
"This is about saying, 'Don't look the other way. Don't tolerate violence in your community,' Because we are not going to," she said.
The Jackson County anti-drug sales tax dates back to 1989. Since then, other communities have used the Kansas City COMBAT model to set up anti-drug programs of their own.
Despite the legal and ethical question, McCaffrey and his supporters were able to proceed with the anti drug propaganda campaign. The project, which began in fiscal 1998, partnered with schools, television, radio, Internet sites, print media and others to promote the campaign’s anti-drug messages. Congress financed the initial effort with $1 billion in taxpayer funds. The money was to be spent on anti-drug advertising, with the stipulation that “for every ad the government bought, it demanded another of equal value for free.”7 ONDCP conducted nearly a year of research and consulted with experts in the fields of “behavior change, drug prevention, teen marketing, advertising, and communications”8 to design a campaign “developed from a solid scientific base.”9 The result was a targeted campaign created to reach America’s youth, their parents, and “adult influencers.”
ReplyDeleteErosion of the Posse Comitatus Act, the 1868 law that forbids federal troops from engaging in domestic law enforcement activities. It was the erosion of Posse Comitatus that led to the killing of US citizen Esequiel Hernandez by US Marines outside Redford, Texas, and the use of military equipment and personnel against the Branch Davidians in Waco in 1993 (under the pretext that they were cooking meth).
ReplyDeleteZero-tolerance "Just Say No" as a public policy approach to drug use. "Not long ago in Oakland, California, I was asked by a group of children what to do if they were offered drugs," explained Nancy Reagan in 1986. "And I answered, 'Just Say No.' Soon after that those children in Oakland formed a Just Say No Club and now there are over 10,000 such clubs all over the country."
Passage of the 1986 crime bill, notable for the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences for the first time since 1970. This act also created the federal Sentencing Commission and the current system of federal sentencing guidelines, which did away with parole in the federal system, ensuring that prisoners would serve at least 85% of their sentences. And it included asset forfeiture.
Passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which established a federal death penalty for "drug kingpins." Reagan signed that bill in his wife's honor.
Ortega should answer some questions as well as Frank White and Beaty.
ReplyDeleteOrtega..is busy driving his Bentley or his house boat to listen...of the details of a couple million.
DeleteYes.. Vincent Ortega is the current Director of Combat and is in the position to oversee the expenditures (taxpayers money).
ReplyDeleteYet, his own son Vincent Jr admits to drug dealing in this video he posted on his Facebook timeline:
https://www.facebook.com/ortegajr/videos/2565196336825272/?epa=SEARCH_BOX
Caleb Clifford is working for the wrong people. The former director of the Jazz Museum got a Cadillac Escalade, while Clifford only scored a lousy pickup truck.
ReplyDeleteTime to call in the FBI and haul Frank White off in handcuffs like they did with Mike Sanders.
ReplyDeleteIn this instance spending the money on something tangible like jail doors is way more reasonable than usual combat tax nonsense. There’s toomuch sales taxes. End combat.
ReplyDelete-Radish
@7:05 Prosecute the man who cut Ortega's son's hair!
ReplyDeleteFrank White just has to go. The man is way over his head. Should have stuck to baseball.
ReplyDelete12:17 LOL Vince Jr. is a real piece of work and he wears it on top of his head.
ReplyDeletewith Ortega Jr, it's drugs, low education and lack of parenting
ReplyDeleteHey, it is Jackson County! Surely this is no big surprise.
ReplyDelete”Because our tough AML laws in the United States have made it hard for drug cartels to find a U.S. bank willing to accept huge unexplained deposits of cash, they now smuggle U.S. dollars across the border into Mexico and look for a Mexican bank or casa de cambio willing to take the cash. Some of those casas de cambios had accounts at HBMX. HBMX, in turn, took all the physical dollars it got and transported them by armored car or aircraft back across the border to HBUS for deposit into its U.S. banknotes account, completing the laundering cycle.”
ReplyDelete