Mayor George Flaggs Jr. is giving the city’s two aldermen a choice, amend the city charter and change his and the aldermen’s responsibilities, or let the voters change Vicksburg’s 103-year-old form of government.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson, Flaggs said the city needs to either allow the voters to change the city government from its three-member commission style of government to a seven-member mayor-council form, or the board should amend the city charter to give him more responsibility to appoint the city’s major department heads.

“No one can figure where this is coming from,” Mayfield said. “I find it very disheartening to me and Alderman Thompson, who are elected officials. When he ran for office, he knew full well what the form of government was, and before he was elected, he said he was 100 percent for this form of government. If he’s not happy with the form of government, he should resign and go look somewhere else.

“I’ve been through this two times before. If the citizens want a change in government, then it has to be citizen-driven. The citizens need to push this,” he said. “George seems obsessed with power. This is a power grab.”

“I think either way you go, you’re changing the government,” Thompson said. “I’m not saying I’m not opposed to doing things differently, but I think one thing the mayor has to realize is we’re all elected officials and we all need to operate in the (current) form (of government) to represent the people who elected us.”

Flaggs announced his intentions earlier Tuesday at a department heads meeting.

“I promised everybody who voted for me I was going to leave the city better than I found it,” he said. “I’ve come to the conclusion that this form of government is outdated, it’s obsolete and inefficient, and does not provide enough accountability for a city for this size.”

Since it was approved by the voters in 1912, Vicksburg has operated under what is called a commission form of government, with three commissioners elected at large, one being the mayor, and all with equal authority. The city’s previous form of government was a mayor-council form with nine part-time councilmen.

Initially, the aldermen were part-time. The charter was amended in 1977 to make the aldermen full-time with a salary of $20,500 and set the mayor’s at $27,500. The mayor’s salary is now $93,450, and the aldermen’s pay is $74,550.

The commission form was approved by the Legislature in 1908, and was popular with many major cities, including Biloxi and Jackson, until the 1980s, but the problems caused by growth made the system ineffective, and its at-large elections did not meet the one-man, one-vote rule under federal elections.

Two other cities, Clarksdale and Charleston, have commission forms of government, but they have five-member boards and the commissioners are elected by district. Vicksburg managed to comply with federal voting laws by establishing north and south wards.

Flaggs has been critical of the city’s form of government since the new board’s first meetings in July 2013, when he was unable to get his nominees for police and fire chief and city judge approved by the board.

After those first tumultuous meetings, he managed to adjust to the system and has gotten along well with Mayfield and Thompson. Since July 2013, the board has operated in harmony and managed to get the city’s bond rating back. In July it will begin the first phase of an $18 million capital improvements program.

Flaggs resumed his push for a change in government in April in a speech to the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce, when he said the city’s present form was unable to meet the demands of a changing city.

While he puts a referendum to change the city’s form of government to a mayor-council format with seven part-time councilmen as his first option, Flaggs favors amending the charter to give him and each alderman appointment power over certain city departments.

The second option gives Flaggs authority to appoint the city attorney, municipal judge and court clerk, city clerks finance and administration heads, the police and fire chiefs, grants coordinator and a head of economic development and tourism. He was unable to appoint his nominees for police and fire chief and judge after he was elected. He would also present his own budget for approval by the board. Currently the board develops the budget.

Under the same option, the North Ward alderman appoints the public works and community development directors, and the South Ward alderman the parks and recreation, human resources, information technology and public transportation directors.

A third option changes the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to a board of commissioners, each with equal authority, redistrict the city into three equal districts, and the board would elect its own chairman.

Thompson opposes letting the mayor be solely responsible for the budget.

“By being out in the ward and working closely with the citizens and the employees, the alderman knows what’s needed, and to tell an alderman he can’t have any input in the budget I think that’s not rational at all. It’s not fair to the citizens we represent. I feel I’d be doing the people an injustice by going along with something like that,” he said.

He was also concerned about the mayor’s appointments proposal.

“Being accountable to one person may not be a good idea,” he said. “I think certain positions need to report to the board instead of on individual.”

Flaggs said his moves to change government are not personal, adding he wants to improve efficiency and provide accountability.

“When you look at my title, you’d think I’m the chief executive, but I have no more responsibility than one of the aldermen. I’ve got a title but no authority,” he said.

“I am the only mayor in the state who is unable to select his own department heads,” he said.

“I don’t think you need three CEOs to run a company. It’s like three police officers driving the same car in the same front seat,” he said.

Mayfield believes the current system is working well.

“In my opinion, we have done a very good job so far,” he said. “We have reduced the number of employees by 50, we have reinstated our bond rating, we’re going to float a bond issue for capital improvements that includes paving.

“I think our form of government works very well, and I’ve talked to other officials and they say we have a good form of government. They’ve told me they wish they only had to deal with three people.”

He said he has talked with residents who were satisfied with the city’s form of government.

“This should be an easy form of government to work in, because you can get things done a whole lot faster with one person, one vote, instead of five people or nine people and have to get four votes,” Thomson said. “It just all depends on the people you have working there, in my opinion. Most of things voted 3-0. I don’t think you have to agree on everything to get things done, you’re going to have different interests on the board — needs.

“It’s not just one person having their way on everything and then when you refuse, we’re just going to blow everything up and change the government.”