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Meet Jennifer Polk, Plan Reviewer for the City of Biloxi Building Department.
Her job is to review construction plans and ensure they comply with building codes. Her qualifications? Public records demonstrate Polk possesses no formal engineering training or credentials—only short-term courses on how to be an inspector. Days-long seminars. Not months. Not years. Days.
No engineering degree. No Professional Engineer license. No structural analysis certification. Just a few days of training and the authority to shut down your construction project on a whim.
And shut them down she does. Stop Work Orders flow from Jennifer Polk's desk like drink specials at happy hour—happy hour with a bartender who pours twice as much liquor as allowed, except instead of getting you drunk, she gets you evicted. No reasons stated. No violations cited. No conditions for resumption. Just a piece of paper that halts your project, bleeds your financing, and leaves you with no idea what you did wrong or how to fix it.
Welcome to the "Advantageous Department."
The Biloxi Building Department takes "limitations are only in the mind" and "it's only a crime if you get caught" to the extreme. Credentials? Optional. Legal authority? Suggestions. State licensing laws? Obstacles for lesser municipalities. Here in Biloxi, a plan reviewer with days-long training overrules licensed Professional Engineers, and nobody stops her—because the people who should stop her are too busy billing $150/hour to defend her.
They welcome trouble. They seek it. They profit from it. Every baseless Stop Work Order Jennifer Polk issues is a future billing opportunity for Peter Abide. Why would they stop her? She's the goose laying golden eggs.
For Jennifer Polk, "due process" has a different meaning: Stop Work Orders are "due," and good luck surviving her "process."
Arbitrary. Capricious. Those aren't insults—they're legal terms describing government action that fails constitutional scrutiny. They also happen to describe Jennifer Polk perfectly. But she's more than just incompetent. Jennifer Polk is a member of a criminal organization. She conspires with Jerry Creel and Peter Abide to inflate billables, terrorize citizens, and fulfill personal agendas. When Creel needs a paper trail to justify criminal charges, Polk creates it. When Abide needs enforcement actions to defend at $150/hour, Polk manufactures them. When someone files a federal lawsuit or a public records request, Polk's Stop Work Orders mysteriously appear.
This isn't random bureaucratic dysfunction. This is coordinated. This is intentional. This is racketeering.
What the IRC Actually Is
Before we discuss what Jennifer Polk does wrong, let's understand what she's supposed to be checking.
The International Residential Code—the IRC—is essentially a cookbook for building houses. Think of it like a recipe: if you follow the ingredients and instructions exactly, you'll get a safe, structurally sound home. The IRC tells you: use this size lumber, space it this far apart, nail it this many times, and you're good.
The IRC is published by the International Code Council—the ICC—a nonprofit organization that develops model building codes through a rigorous process involving engineers, architects, builders, and fire safety experts. They test. They study. They analyze failures. Then they publish standards that represent the consensus minimum for a safe home.
The key word is minimum. The IRC itself acknowledges it represents the floor, not the ceiling. If you follow the prescriptive tables and guidelines—the "recipe"—you meet code. You're safe. You're legal. End of analysis.
This is what a Plan Reviewer is supposed to do: check if your plans follow the recipe.
Does your joist spacing match the IRC table for your span? Check. Does your footing depth meet the frost line requirement? Check. Does your stair rise and run fall within IRC parameters? Check.
That's it. That's the job. Compare the plans to the cookbook. If it matches, approve it.
What Happens When You Hire an Engineer
But here's where it gets interesting—and where Jennifer Polk goes off the rails.
The IRC provides two paths to compliance. The first is prescriptive: follow the recipe exactly. The second is engineered: hire a Professional Engineer to design something that meets or exceeds the code's intent, even if it doesn't match the recipe line-by-line.
When you submit PE-stamped plans, something important happens: the engineer assumes legal responsibility for the structural adequacy of the design. The PE has done the calculations. The PE has applied engineering judgment. The PE has staked their professional license—their entire career—on the assertion that this design is safe and code-compliant.
At that point, the Plan Reviewer's job changes. With PE-stamped plans, the reviewer doesn't evaluate structural adequacy. The reviewer doesn't second-guess the engineer's calculations. The reviewer doesn't apply prescriptive tables to an engineered design.
The reviewer checks one thing: is it stamped by a licensed PE?
If yes, the reviewer's engineering analysis is done. The only remaining question is whether the structure, once built, matches the stamped plans. That's it. That's the legal limit of a Plan Reviewer's authority when confronting PE-stamped engineered drawings.
Jennifer Polk doesn't stop there. Jennifer Polk is just getting started.
The Credentials She Doesn't Have
Mississippi Code § 73-13-1 is explicit: engineering work in Mississippi requires a Professional Engineer license. This includes making determinations about structural adequacy, load calculations, and design compliance.
Jennifer Polk is not a Professional Engineer. She has never been a Professional Engineer. She possesses no engineering credentials whatsoever.
Yet Jennifer Polk routinely rejects PE-stamped plans based on her own structural opinions. She makes demands for additional engineering analysis—as if her days-long inspector courses qualify her to evaluate an engineer's work. She issues conclusions about load calculations, questions design compliance, and renders judgments on structural adequacy—functions that Mississippi law reserves exclusively for licensed Professional Engineers.
A Professional Engineer spends four years earning an engineering degree, passes the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, works under a licensed PE for four more years, then passes the Professional Engineering exam. Eight years minimum. Thousands of hours of study and supervised practice.
Jennifer Polk took a few days-long courses.
When a citizen submits plans stamped by a licensed PE—an engineer who has staked their professional license on the structural adequacy of the design—Jennifer Polk's job is to verify the stamp exists and check if construction matches the stamped plans. That's it.
Instead, Jennifer Polk overrules licensed engineers. She questions designs she lacks the credentials to evaluate. She demands changes to PE-stamped plans based on her own opinions—opinions she has no legal authority to impose.
Her job is to check if it's stamped. She does everything but.
This isn't plan review. This is unauthorized practice of engineering dressed up in a City badge.
The IRC R114.2 Problem
The International Residential Code isn't optional. It's the law. And IRC Section R114.2 specifies exactly what a Stop Work Order must contain:
A Stop Work Order must state the reasons for issuance. It must state the conditions under which work is authorized to resume. It must cite specific violations.
Jennifer Polk's Stop Work Orders contain none of these things.
Order after order, the pattern repeats: no reasons stated, no violations cited, no conditions for resumption. When confronted, Polk shifts explanations like a poker player shuffling tells. She claims "permit language not clear"—without citing which language or what violation. She demands engineering—when engineering is already engaged. She invokes the "50% rule"—using incorrect calculation methods. She threatens county assessment—without legal basis.
Never once does she provide what IRC R114.2 mandates. Never once does she explain how to resume work. Never once does she cite an actual code violation.
When asked about the appeal process, she provides none—even though City Code requires appeal procedures be made available before any enforcement action.
This isn't code enforcement. This is administrative terrorism.
The Lost Plans Confession
On June 27, 2025, a citizen's wife and a licensed insurance underwriter named Joevy visited the Biloxi Building Department. They met with Jennifer Polk and Jerry Creel.
During that meeting, Polk made an admission that would later prove devastating: she had lost the December stamped engineering plans. Could not locate them. Gone.
These were plans that had been delivered to the Building Department three separate times—rejected first for missing page stamps, rejected second for insufficient copies, accepted the third time. Plans delivered by a licensed professional. Plans the City demanded and received.
Lost.
When shown the plans on the citizen's wife's phone, Polk confirmed: "That's what she needs." The plans demonstrating compliance—the plans Polk claimed she couldn't find—existed. The City had them. The City lost them.
Three days later, on June 30, 2025, armed tactical police officers delivered a Stop Work Order to the same property. The stated reason? "No plans submitted."
Yes, dear reader, you read that correctly.
Jerry Creel and Peter Abide sent Tara Busby—herself a fraudulently appointed Deputy Clerk of Court—and Kyle Illing, accompanied by two police officers in a recorded "tactical position," to deliver... a Stop Work Order.
A piece of paper.
Not an arrest warrant. Not a search warrant. Not a hostage situation. A Stop Work Order—the kind of administrative notice the IRC says can be delivered by email, certified mail, or simply posted on the property.
Instead: tactical police positioning. Armed officers. A show of force designed to intimidate a family, including a disabled veteran, over a piece of paper that Polk's own admission proves was based on a lie.
Jennifer Polk lost the plans. Jerry Creel claimed no plans were submitted. Armed police delivered the lie to your doorstep.
This is what "advantageous" looks like in practice.
When definitively proven that plans had been submitted multiple times, Creel pivoted to claiming the structure was "not built as per the plans"—plans that Polk just admitted she'd lost and couldn't review.
How do you determine a structure wasn't built to plans you can't find?
The DRC Gatekeeper
Jennifer Polk doesn't just review plans. She sits on the Design Review Committee—the body that approves or denies construction in Biloxi's Historic District.
The Historic District that Jerry Creel admits on national television exists solely for "aesthetic" purposes—to "censure property owners." The district whose boundaries were fraudulently expanded to capture more properties, generate more violations, feed more prosecutions into the billing machine.
Jennifer Polk is the gatekeeper. Your plans go through her. Your aesthetic compliance goes through her. Your permission to build on your own property goes through her.
And if she's having a bad day? Stop Work Order.
If she disagrees with your engineer? Stop Work Order.
If she can't find your plans because she lost them? Stop Work Order—and claim you never submitted them.
Moody. Arbitrary. Capricious. Those aren't insults. Those are legal terms of art describing government action that fails constitutional scrutiny. And they describe Jennifer Polk's administration of the Biloxi Building Department with precision.
The "Application Not Required" Denial
When citizens attempt to comply, Jennifer Polk blocks them.
On June 27, 2025—the same day Polk admitted losing the engineering plans—a citizen's wife attempted to submit a completed Certificate of Occupancy application. The form exists on the City's website. The form is the official mechanism for requesting a CO.
Both Polk and Creel denied her. Their reason? "An application is not required."
Think about that. The City has an official CO application form. A citizen completes that form. A citizen attempts to submit that form. And the City refuses to accept it—claiming the official application is "not required."
This isn't bureaucratic confusion. This is deliberate obstruction. You cannot comply with a system designed to reject your compliance.
The Pattern
Jennifer Polk issued stop work orders on multiple properties. Always the same pattern:
- No stated reasons
- No cited violations
- No resumption conditions
- Shifting explanations when confronted
- Obstruction of appeals
- Denial of applications
- Lost documentation blamed on applicants
At 929 Division Street—a property with a valid, approved permit—a Stop Work Order from Polk remains in place to this day. No violation. Just an order. Just paralysis. Just a $1.2 million property rendered unusable by a woman with no engineering credentials and no accountability.
This is the "Advantageous Department" in action. Advantageous for Jerry Creel, who uses Polk's orders to manufacture criminal charges. Advantageous for Peter Abide, who bills $150/hour to prosecute and defend the chaos. Advantageous for a system that profits from your suffering.
Not advantageous for you.
The Racketeering Planner
In the federal RICO complaint filed against Biloxi officials, Jennifer Polk is identified as part of the enterprise structure. Her role? She manufactures the predicate.
Creel can't file criminal charges without violations. Polk creates the violations—or at least the paperwork claiming violations exist. Stop Work Orders that cite nothing. Denials that explain nothing. Obstructions that document nothing.
When the citizen sues, there's a paper trail of enforcement actions. When the defense needs to justify armed police, there's a Stop Work Order on file. When the prosecution needs probable cause, there's Polk's signature on a document.
The document might be baseless. The violations might be imaginary. The plans might be "lost." But the signature is real, and the signature is enough to feed the machine.
Jerry Creel is the hydra. Peter Abide is the billing engine. Jennifer Polk is the assembly line—manufacturing defective product after defective product, knowing the product doesn't need to be real. It just needs to exist.
What This Means
If you submit plans to the City of Biloxi, they may be reviewed by Jennifer Polk—a woman with no engineering credentials making engineering determinations prohibited by Mississippi law.
If you receive a Stop Work Order, it may contain no reasons, no violations, and no path to resumption—in violation of IRC R114.2.
If you ask about appeals, you may be told nothing—in violation of City Code requiring appeal procedures be provided.
If you submit an application, it may be rejected as "not required"—even when it's the City's own official form.
If your plans are lost, you may be blamed for never submitting them—even when you submitted them three times.
And if you complain? Armed police. Criminal charges. Perjured affidavits. Federal litigation.
Jennifer Polk is currently a defendant in three federal civil rights lawsuits: Case No. 1:25-cv-00178-LG-RPM, Case No. 1:25-cv-00233-LG-RPM, and Case No. 1:25-cv-00254-LG-RPM. She is represented by the same law firm—Currie Johnson & Myers—that employs Peter Abide, who bills the City to defend the violations Polk helps create.
The same firm defends Polk that profits from Polk's misconduct. The circle is complete.
The Flyer Girl keeps handing out Stop Work Orders.
And Biloxi taxpayers keep paying for them.
A Note on Transparency
Before publication, an email was sent to Jennifer Polk and her attorneys inviting them to rebut any fact contained in this article.
Unlike Ms. Polk—who issues Stop Work Orders without reasons, denies applications without explanation, and loses plans without consequence—we believe in due process. We believe people should have the opportunity to respond before accusations become official.
If they reply, their response will be posted in full, unedited.
As of publication, we have received no response.
Documents Referenced
- Mississippi Code § 73-13-1 (Engineering Practice Act)
- International Residential Code Section R114.2
- June 27, 2025 Building Department Meeting
- June 30, 2025 Stop Work Order
- December 2024 Stamped Engineering Plans
- Certificate of Occupancy Application (denied)
- Federal RICO Complaint
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