Jeff Peck: The Sheriff of Crazy Town

Did you know that the City Portsmouth now has a Sheriff? It's true.

Mayor Murray has already gotten rid of four department heads: the Directors of Wastewater, Service, Community Development, and Water Works (who she had to "grudgingly" take back). Next maybe she'll get rid of the Police Chief. After all, why pay Horner when Jeff Peck, Commissioner of Engineering, Public Services, Outhouse Inspection, and Dental Hygiene (his title just keeps getting longer), is now Sheriff of Crazy Town? Peck can do Horner's job, too.

From yesterday's Portsmouth Daily Times:

Mayor Picks ‘Official Presenter’: Police Chief Ordered To Deny Any Other Presentations

Portsmouth Mayor Jane Murray has ordered Police Chief Charles Horner, chairman of the City Traffic Committee, not to allow any other presenters at today’s Traffic Committee meeting, except Jeff Peck, her service director, who continues to go by the title of Commissioner of Engineering and Public Service, despite having that title rejected by Portsmouth City Council.

In a directive to Horner, Murray wrote: “In that this is an engineering matter, I am ordering that the only ‘official presenter’ at the Traffic Committee meeting on Thursday, Feb. 25 will be Mr. Jeff Peck... Furthermore, no member of the Kalb or previous administrations shall make a presentation at this or future meetings until I have given my express authorization.”

That was in direct reference to a planned appearance by former Portsmouth City Services Director Chris Murphy, who had planned to speak, since he was over the Service Department when the decision was made to accept many of the recommendations by the Ohio Department of Transportation, and remove several stop/go traffic signals. One line at the bottom of the directive summed up the tone of the order — “In total, this is a direct order.”

Yes. Peck, the magic engineer, who can do all things (except maybe pay his bill at the Ramada Inn) is now the Sheriff of Crazy Town. Below we have an actual photograph of Peck investigating the latest crime in Portsmouth.

"All right. Which one of you all took that picture of the Mayor's bathroom?"

Readers. What do you think Peck is saying in the picture above?

Quotes from the Mayor of Crazy Town

Mayor Says Council May Ask Her To Pay For Renovations, or Resign (click here for original article) by Frank Lewis (Portsmouth Daily Times, 2/19/2010) Portsmouth Mayor Jane Murray is not just upset. She is downright angry at what she perceives as an attempt by members of Portsmouth City Council to have her removed from office. Portsmouth Mayor Jane Murray sits at a table in her office at the Portsmouth Municipal Building. She has to work off tables, due to the renovation of her office not being completed.

(That's odd. Didn't the former mayor have a desk? Wasn't it the same desk the previous mayor and the mayor before him used? Where could the old desk be? Did Jane use it for firewood to heat her office? Did Mr. Peck sit on it by accident? Did her former "Chief of Staff" take it to Detroit with him when he really realized he wasn't going to get paid? The people would like to know. Maybe, the old desk just wasn't good enough for our new mayor. Maybe she ordered a new one to match her new bathroom.) Murray said all that had been done in her office was to return to the original internal structure, uncovering the windows and going back to the original ceiling.

(That does not look like the "original internal structure" of the mayor's office to us. It looks like a new toilet and lady's vanity. Anyway, Mayor, who told you to "return to the original internal structure, uncovering the windows and going back to the original ceiling"? Doing that takes a lot of money, and it's council's job to appropriate funds. That's in the charter. You should read it sometime.) “By darn I’m going to work with the public so that this will not happen,” Murray said, standing in her office Thursday morning. “The public needs to know what this is all about.” Murray said she has become frustrated in recent days while attempting to work on the city’s financial issues, and yet having to deal with what she believes is going to be a request by Council for her to pay for the renovation of her office or resign. She also believes that if she does not resign, members of Council are going to actively work to have her recalled. ("Actively work to have you recalled??" Oh, no! That's pretty despicable, isn't it? How could they do something so terrible? You and your CAVE people cronies would never try to have someone recalled, would you? No, not you, by darn!) Jane, have you ever heard the phrase, "What goes around, comes around"? How about, "Live by the recall, die by the recall."?

Every Queen Needs a Throne!!

(We wonder why the mayor wouldn't let the Portsmouth Times show this picture...) The City Building is crumbling. The roof leaks. The upstairs offices are health hazard zones. The city has no budget. The water is brown. The potholes are growing. The new "Commissioner of Engineering" is not an actual engineer, but the "Assistant Commissioner" is. The City has no Wastewater Director or Community Development Director. The City's website still lists a fired employees as a department head (and calls the mayor "him.") http://www.portsmouthoh.org/ The City's insurance is still a screwed up mess. She is trying to give all city contracts to out-of-town or out-of-state businesses. The City is out of salt. Volunteers in the mayor's office are handling sensitive information, like personnel files (social security numbers, disciplinary actions, medical records). But the mayor has a new bathroom. Nice to know she has her priorities straight. We are still wondering who is going to pay for her grand "powder room." (By the way, that's tile, not linoleum.) Someday (sooner or later) we will have a male mayor. We hope he appreciates the mayor's decorating style. The mayor's motto: "If it ain't broke, fix it anyway. It's only money."

Scioto Voice

We owe the Scioto Voice Newspaper an apology. In order to try to counteract a ridiculous boycott by the hateful CAVE people, we have been encouraging area residents to support the struggling Portsmouth Daily Times newspaper with ads, subscriptions, encouraging letters to the editor, and any other way they can. (For example, click here.)

But we forgot to mention another important local paper, The Scioto Voice. It is a weekly favorite for many residents, especially in the Sciotoville and Wheelersburg area. For that, we apologize. Especially after this gem of a headline in the most recent issue.

The Scioto Voice also deserves and needs the community's support. The front page of the latest issue of the Scioto Voice can always be found at this link: www.thesciotovoice.com/news/news1.pdf.

An on-line subscription for out-of-town friends or relatives with roots in our area is always a great gift idea. Both the Portsmouth Daily Times and the Scioto Voice offer on-line subscriptions.

Mayor Jane Murray's Latest Embarrassment

The sad, strange, embarrassing story of our new mayor continues to get more and more bizarre. She is by far the most incompetent mayor that we have had since the charter was changed in the late 1980s to return the city to a mayoral form of government. She is even worse than we expected...and that is saying a lot! She continues to rampage through our beloved city like a cow in a china shop! But Her Highness's latest fiasco amazes even us at P-Town Underground. Sources who claim to be connected with the City started emailing us, beginning about a week ago, that Mayor Murray was trying to hire YET ANOTHER felon to be in charge of an important position with the City of Portsmouth. But that seemed unbelievable, even for this mayor! However, we can now verify that Murray is trying to hire a man who was charged in a Toledo Courtroom, in September of 2009 with attempted murder. JAMES P. SCISSON: Class III Wastewater Operator Our sources told us that two weeks ago, Murray and Jeff Peck interviewed a Class III Operator named Jim Scisson from Toledo, Ohio to replace fired Wastewater Director, Rick Duncan. Scisson was given a tour of the Wastewater Plant and introduced to several City employees.

Based on a story in yesterday's Portsmouth Daily Times (2/3/2010), we can now say that our sources are right. The paper reported that in Murray's disastrous meeting with the Ohio EPA, Peck and Murray revealed that they have been trying to recruit Scisson (who the Times refers to as "Sisson.") to run the city’s Wastewater Plant.

From the Portsmouth Daily Times:

Peck talked about hiring James Sisson as an operator for the city’s Wastewater Plant.

Peck said... “We’ve actually got someone who is willing to come on board right this minute for the salary that the city has allotted. This guy is actually a class III, (referring to Scisson) and it is my understanding that he has just submitted the paperwork to get his class IV.”

“That would be news to me that he (Scisson) applied for his class IV. As of yesterday, we had not received the application,” Barienbrock said.

Peck is obviously lying (as he and Murray did throughout the Times story), and Mr. Barienbrock, an official with the Ohio EPA, calls him on it.

Also, it is obvious that, once again, the Mayor and her staff have not done their homework. Surely they would not have knowingly offered a job to a man who just recently plead guilty to a reduced charge after being prosecuted in the Lucas County Courthouse with ATTEMPTED MURDER!! (But with these people you never know!)

According to court records, Scisson pled "not guilty by reason of insanity" of the charges and was placed on "electronic monitoring." In December, Scisson pled guilty to a charge of "aggrevated menacing" and was placed on 2 years probation.

If you want to check it out for yourself, go to http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/index.aspx?nid=99, and type in Scisson James.

Mayor Murray continues to blow us away. What is it with Murray's attraction to felons and lunatics? Murray is supposed to get the criminal element out of our City, not import them from Toledo!

God help our city!