What was announced as a sure thing by Mayor Paul Winfield — a 5 percent rate reduction for Vicksburg natural gas customers — apparently is far from it.

On Wednesday, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen said it was not ready to make a decision on lowering natural gas rates for customers in the city even though eight days earlier in an email on official city letterhead, Mayor Paul Winfield announced the reductions as fact.

It’s another example of the brazen disregard for protocol Winfield has shown when he announced the change nearly a week before the first board meeting in which it could be passed.

In an email received Oct. 2 at 3:16 p.m., Winfield announced the city’s gas customers would see gas rates go down. The email reads, in part, “Mayor Paul Winfield announces a five percent reduction in the base Natural Gas cost for all rate payers effective November 1, 2012.” Further in the email, Winfield is quoted as saying, “My administration is happy to pass our natural gas savings on to our constituents.”

Seems definitive enough.

But wait, it was not.

The mayor has a tendency to put the cart before the horse in announcing news that makes him and his administration look good. Three weeks ago, South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman stormed from a meeting after an amendment was placed on the city’s agenda announcing a grant the city had received for a school reading program. Again, great news, but the grant had been applied for and OK’d before the board knew about it.

The mayor also was way ahead of himself on the proposed sports complex, announcing sites and grand plans without knowing if funding would be OK’d, or even if the residents of the city and county would go along with the plan. The proposed sports complex is back to square one.

As for the gas reductions, customers are long overdue for a rate reduction.

The prospect of passing on savings is a positive move and should be greeted — at the appropriate time — with applause. Any savings is good savings.

Unless the board is considered a rubber stamp for the mayor — which it showed Wednesday it is not — an announcement should not have been made. Rules are rules and if board approval was needed for this reduction to take effect, then the board’s vote should have been taken before an announcement was made.

Sending out emails announcing as fact news, only to walk those statements back later because the proper protocol was not followed is no way to run a city.