Gibson County Mayor Tom Witherspoon has defended “as very open and transparent” the process that culminated in a November 20, 2017 announcement that Tyson Foods would be building a new chicken processing plant in Humboldt, a small city with about 8,300 residents in Gibson County.
With regard to public meetings being held about the Tyson plant, Witherspoon, a Democrat who has endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, was asked in a Facebook exchange whether the “open meetings with the media were before or after the decision was made and was the public informed of the meetings ahead of time?”
Witherspoon responded:
Media was involved before, during and after. All public meetings were properly advertised, conducted and closed.
He also stated that:
I can assure you that many, many community leaders along with the media and public were involved in  multiple meetings. I don’t know anyone in Gibson County that wasn’t aware of Tysons coming weeks before the official announcement.
(Editors’s Note: The Tennessee Star has screenshots of these Facebook exchanges.)
On January 23, 2018, The Tennessee Star emailed the Gibson County Director of Economic Development asking for the specific dates of the public meetings, how they were advertised and where they were held. The list of media invited to these meetings was also requested.
No response has been received with any of the information about the meetings Witherspoon said were convened.
In another Facebook exchange Witherspoon stated:
For starters the Kansas project is still in Kansas just moving to another location. Our project is a completely different project and product line. Also, we held multiple open meetings involving the local media for months. We have been very open and transparent.
The same day Tennesseans found out about the new Tyson plant in Humboldt, The Topeka Capital Journal reported how much alike the Tyson Kansas plant proposal that had been rejected was to the plan for Humboldt Tennessee:
Both the Tennessee and Kansas business endeavors were marketed with the same features. Both would generate a minimum of 1,500 jobs, require investment of at least $300 million, open in 2019, process 1.25 million birds each week, produce pre-packaged trays of fresh chicken for retail grocery stores, depend on a network of local farmers to raise the chickens and benefit from government incentives.
Just as in Tonganoxie, Tyson said the company would operate a new processing plant, hatchery and feed mill. Another parallel: Tyson said Kansas and Tennessee projects would have an estimated $150 million economic impact on host states.
While Witherspoon seems positive that Tyson Foods is still going ahead with a project in Kansas, of the three other Kansas counties reported to be under consideration, Sedgwick County announced that it would not offer any incentives that might convince Tyson to build a plant in that location.
On top of that, not unlike the experience in Tonganoxie, citizen opposition became an issue in Sedgwick. A “No Tyson in Cloud County” Facebook page is also growing.
And, on December 7, 2017, Tyson released a statement confirming that they “are not currently considering any potential property in Kansas. That’s why we believe any speculation, conjecture or government action about a potential Tyson Foods facility in Kansas is premature.”
Earlier reports from Kansas about the Tyson proposal that was rejected in Tonganoxie raise a question about Witherspoon’s claim regarding the openness with which the Humboldt project was pursued. In Kansas, the project was shrouded in secrecy; County Commissioners used code name “Project Sunset” and the Kansas Secretary of Agriculture and other state officials were required at the outset by a consultant for an unnamed company, to sign non-disclosure agreements. According to the Kansas Secretary of Agriculture:
That consultant had us sign non-disclosure agreements and was not prepared to share the name of the company with us, McClaskey said. We probably worked not knowing it was Tyson for the first four to six weeks.
On January 22, 2018, The Star contacted State Senator John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) and State Rep. Curtis Halford (R-Dyer), who were pictured in the November 20, 2017 announcement about the Humboldt plant. Both legislators represent Gibson County.
Both legislators were asked whether they were involved in helping to bring Tyson to Gibson County and whether they were involved in any of the public meetings that were held with regard to this project. If so, were those meetings held prior to the announcement on November 20, 2017, or subsequent to the announcement?
While State Rep. Halford chose not to respond, State Sen. Stevens said that “before answering your questions” he wanted to know, “As to your question of whether I was involved in helping bring the company to Gibson County, what level of involvement are you looking for? Do you have a specific question? As to the second question, I did not attend any public meetings before the announcement. I was at the public announcement meeting.”
The following question clarification was sent on January 23, 2018, in response to State Sen. Stevens:
“level of involvement” could mean many things for sure but as an elected official in your position, it could mean meeting with ECD folks both at the state level to whom you might have easy access, as well as ECD folks at the county level.
“level of involvement” could mean supporting or otherwise endorsing the ECD fast track grants that were given to Tyson Foods.
These deals seem to have a certain pattern where decisions about terms, etc are made before any information is disclosed to the public. In fact, it seems as if the public is the last to know that terms of a deal have been secured and the plant is coming regardless of a community’s concerns.
So feel free to answer whether you had any involvement in areas I suggested – meaning helping to put any of the pieces in place to secure the plant in Humboldt.
Another specific question would be, what are the incentives that the state and county have offered or otherwise agreed to that helped Tyson make the decision to locate the plant in Humboldt?
To date, State Sen. Stevens has not responded.
Mayor Witherspoon is no longer county Mayor. He was defeated by Nelson Cunningham who is the current County Mayor . Mayor Witherspoon is in really bad health right now. There are currently migrants who will be working in Humboldt I heard but will be living in Jackson. So they will probably will not be spending tax dollars in Gibson County. I heard they would be transported daily from Jackson to work and then back to Jackson after work as Humboldt does not have facilities to house them . Free daycare , and it goes on and on with freebies .
Secrecy and subterfuge seem to be the favorites of politicians at every level. They believe that the pubic will never find out and many times we don’t. What chaps me is that even when they’re found out, they refuse to answer, as if their silence is an excuse for their behavior. Most of these politicians, local and state, have no idea what this decision will bring to Gibson County.
The Arkansas-based Tyson meat processing company has a record of being a bad employer that spans back into the 1990’s and early 2000’s when they were indicted for helping to smuggle illegal aliens into this country to work at their plants.
Now their MO is to hire refugees [not locals} at low wages and work them to death in hazardous conditions. (https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-05-15/meat-processing-across-midwest-largely-done-immigrants) Most of these refugees are not screened or tested and can come with health conditions like TB and HIV and cultural differences that cause both fiscal and social problems with the surrounding community.
Shelbyville is a good example of what unintended consequences can happen when a meat processing plant comes to a small Tennessee town. The mayor and State reps might want to reconsider their decision before they make a huge mistake in welcoming the likes of Tyson into their midst.
What a Tyson career fair looks like:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/laredo-sector-border-patrol-agents-rescue-76-illegal-aliens-tractor
Hmmmm. Is this another “follow the money” scam? Apparently Mayor Witherspoon has confused transparent with opaque.
“In another Facebook exchange Witherspoon stated:
For starters the Kansas project is still in Kansas just moving to another location.”
For starters, whatever Kansas is doing doesn’t mean a damn thing to your constituents in Tennessee. I am sick of this attitude in state and local government. When told they shouldn’t jump off the roof, the response is “all the other kids are jumping off the roof, why can’t I?” This logic is used A LOT to justify legislation and backroom secret corporate welfare. The actual resident taxpayers are not even a consideration.
Maybe Witherspoon should consult with Hamblen county and see what a 25% Hispanic population looks like for his public schools. Or how about the success they have enjoyed in Shelbyville thanks to Catholic Charities? He is about to import a bunch of culture from somewhere else with a company that has demonstrated multiple times they use illegal aliens and coyotes to get them.