During Wednesday’s Pearl River County Board of Supervisors meeting, District II Supervisor Malcolm Perry and District III Supervisor Hudson Holliday did not see eye-to-eye about the reinstallation of a GPS tracking device on County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin’s county vehicle.
Perry said there’s been no effort to install GPS on some of the newer vehicles. He made a motion to have those installed, which included Lumpkin’s vehicle. That motion died for lack of a second.
Holliday said he would like to exclude Lumpkin’s vehicle from GPS tracking because he is in an administrative position.
“I think he needs to be accountable just like anybody else,” Perry said. “It’s amazing to me that you don’t want to hold employees accountable, because that’s what I ran on, accountability.”
Holliday said he is for accountability, but the location of Lumpkin’s truck has nothing to do with what he does for the county. Holliday also added that Perry has spoken to him about three times about the fact that Lumpkin’s county truck had not moved for about five weeks.
“You brought that up to me to criticize Adrain Lumpkin. His job is dependent on him getting this job done,” Holliday said. “He works seven days a week.”
Perry asked Holliday how he knows how often Lumpkin works and Holliday responded with ‘the job is done.’ Perry said he disagreed with him in that regard.
Perry asked for a good reason why the GPS shouldn’t be on Lumpkin’s truck.
“It’s simple, you want to tie his performance to his job as to how much he drives that truck,” Holliday said.
Perry said he was speaking as a taxpayer, and not a board member, he would like to see county employees at least half the time on their jobs. He also spoke of calls he receives regarding why county trucks are parked in various places in the county.
Holliday made a motion that all GPS devices be transferred back to where they were before except Lumpkin’s. The motion passed 3 to 1, with Perry voting against. District V Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith was not in attendance.

In other action:
• County Engineer Les Dungan updated the board on several ongoing projects. The bridge repair on Gumpond Beall Road is complete and awaiting final inspection. The projected start date for the George Ford Road bridge replacement is April 4. The road will be closed and a detour will be posted, Dungan said. Construction should take about eight weeks, he added.
The contractor of the Richardson Ozona Road project had gotten behind schedule due to inclement weather, but is increasing his efforts to get back on schedule, Dungan said. The resurfacing of several county roads is scheduled to begin any day and will start on Sycamore Road.
Dungan said they have received money from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries boat ramp program. The funds will pay for the extension of the boat ramp, a light activated with a timer and protection to keep erosion or silt from depositing at the end of the boat ramp.
• The board approved a motion to buy and install cameras on properties where people dump their trash. The cameras will feed to the supervisors’ phones.
• Thursday, the Item contacted the Mississippi State Auditor’s regarding the allegations made by Chancery Clerk Melinda Bowman against former Chancery Clerk David Earl Johnson, Marie Burge and Michael Gervais. Press contact Kelly Ryan said the auditor’s office could not verify an investigation, one way or the other.
The next board meeting will be held on April 4 at 9 a.m.