Anyone making statements and distributing materials that imply that funds used for police upgrade funding were not properly dedicated town funds simply didn’t understand that the META Traffic funds that the Town of Mangham had on hand and those forthcoming were already dedicated for the public safety priorities of police funding.
None of the equipment purchases were frivolous or unnecessary and the salary amounts were spelled out in the META ticketing contract. And all invoices for police upgrade funding have been paid from META ticketing created funds.
Unfortunately, this misunderstanding of the dedicated use of META ticketing system funds has created a negative and unnecessary political issue. I don’t think anyone was being malicious or intending to put out disinformation. It was a matter of misunderstanding or maybe bad political advice based on misunderstanding.
The current political issue has occurred due to lack of communication and understanding during the transition following former Mayor Anthony Killian leaving office and Interim Mayor Boone’s appointment.
Per the agreement of former Mayor Anthony Killian and Police Chief Perry Fleming the META ticketing system funds were to be used for funding the upgrades of the Mangham Police Department. And that agreement is legally consistent with the Town of Mangham contract with the METATraffic system company, which states the traffic ticketing funds are to be used for public safety priorities like police funding. Assistant Chief Dakota McKinney said part of the issue was caused by the bureaucratic time lag of government agencies.
There was never any misuse of funds, since the META funds were always dedicated to be used for public safety police funding.
