Butch Brown needs to go

Bobby Harrison writes more about the Rutland controversy.

Probably no better example of that feud can be found than a March 2007 decision where the state Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling reinstating Shirley Rutland as an employee of the Department of Transportation.

According to the Court of Appeals decision, Rutland got caught up in the feud between Hall and Brown. Brown instructed Rutland not to identify Hall as the chairman of the commission in press releases.

Hall told Rutland she worked for him and to continue to identify him as the commission's chairman, as had been the practice of past chairmen.

According to the Court of Appeals opinion, Brown brought her in and asked for whom she worked.

"When Rutland stated that she works for Hall, Brown became enraged and according to Rutland stated, the Bible says that you can only serve one master, and around here I'm the (expletive) master. That (expletive) Hall does not run this agency. Rutland testified that Brown then informed her that he had hired her and that he alone could fire her."

Harrison looks at how Senators are leaning.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who led the charge to ensure that Brown went through the confirmation process, said he had not made up his mind how he will vote.

He said he wants to listen to all the information, but added he would give deference to the fact that Brown is the person a majority of the elected Transportation Commission wants in the job.

While not saying how he would vote on Brown's confirmation, Sen. Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said Transportation officials "don't like accountability. In government we have a system of checks and balances. Everyone needs to be accountable to someone.

"Under Mr. Brown's leadership, they have tended to resist that accountability."

And the Greenwood Commonwealth makes their opinion very clear.

Brown’s eight-year tenure has been marked by repeated controversy. Questions have been raised about the Department of Transportation’s expenditures, including the frivolous purchase of a half-million-dollar helicopter, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lobbying in the state Capitol, and the pricey renovation of the agency’s headquarters. Most recently have come revelations that Brown and Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown (no relation) have become quite the world travelers on the taxpayers’ nickel — spending between them almost $150,000 over a four-year period on junkets out of the country.

The one person who seems trustworthy when it comes to the operation of the Transportation Department is Central District Commissioner Dick Hall. It’s enlightening that Hall has been a constant critic of Butch Brown’s, even getting Brown fired temporarily a few years ago — a move that has left Hall as the odd man out ever since.

The Transportation Department is a nest of intrigue. Senators should take the opportunity of their confirmation hearings to get to the bottom of it.

If they do that probing with diligence, they will conclude that Butch Brown needs to go.