Mayor George Flaggs Jr. looked at the 5-foot deep hole in Polk Street and watched as sewer department worker Corie Hall removed mud from a damaged sewer line.

“You don’t think I can clear that?” Flaggs asked.

“C’mon in,” Hall responded.

Climbing out of the hole, Hall told the mayor “here, use my shovel,” and stepped back and watched Flaggs attack the muck. When Flaggs’ pace began to slow, he said, “You need a rest? Here, I’ll take over.”

For eight hours Friday, Vicksburg’s mayor traded the three-piece-suit he usually wears to work for a sewer department uniform and a shovel and celebrated his 62nd birthday by joining a sewer department crew as a laborer fixing leaks and handling other chores. And in the end he learned a lot about the people who work under him and their role in keeping the city operating.

The role change was in response to a challenge by Hall, who claimed Flaggs knew nothing about manual labor.

Hall said later he issued the challenge to the mayor and the city’s two aldermen “because I feel the city of Vicksburg’s employees are under paid. I wanted the mayor and the aldermen to get a feel of what we go through and see what we do.

“We’re the people who make the city look good, and at the end of the day, we feel like we’re shut out,” he said, adding he did it for all city employees. “There is no ‘I’ in team. We’re all together as one. I felt it was time for someone to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. It’s time to take a stand.”

Hall said he was surprised when Flaggs showed up for work, but after watching him all day, called Flaggs “a good worker, I’ll give him that. He will work. I think he learned a lot, I can say that. I’m challenging both the aldermen to come out and work with us and see what we do.”

Sewer Department supervisor Willie McCroy believed the workers were surprised that Flaggs was able to keep up with them.

“It was good,” he said. “He got a chance to get out and work on the lines and walk the woods searching for breaks in the lines like we do. It was something different for him. He got out there and worked. He’s in pretty good shape for his age.”

Flaggs called his experience informative and educational, and agreed with the workers that the board needs to take another look at raising the minimum wage in the future.

“What they need is the opportunity to provide for their families and be justly compensated,” he said.

“I’m glad I was able to do it.” he said as he sat in his City Hall office Friday afternoon still attired in the sewer department uniform. “The job was never an issue. I was particularly amazed at the attitude and the pride those young men had for their job and the level of supervision. They were very knowledgeable about what they were doing — very well-trained for their jobs. They do a valuable service for the city.

“They like what they do, and that is particularly important to me, because the city of Vicksburg and it’s employees are family,” he said. “I noticed in conversation they said ‘we’ a lot. That let me know they speak for all the city employees, not just their department. I was extremely pleased with what I saw.”

“The whole idea is for all of us, and particularly me, to know that there’s no job too small. There’s no job that’s not important to the city,” he said. “I have a greater level of appreciation for them particularly because of their pride and their attitude toward their work. It was a learning experience for me more than a challenge, and I walked away being very informed and educated on labor in the Vicksburg sewer department.”