Mayor George Flaggs Jr. presented his plan to change the city’s charter, including either amending or repealing 14 provisions in the document, and setting out which department head appointments the mayor and the city’s two aldermen will be responsible for.

Copies of Flaggs’ proposed changes were distributed near the close of a Thursday evening public meeting attended by more than 40 people to discuss his plans to amend the charter. Flaggs was asked to clarify the appointments proposal, while some residents asked for a copy of the city charter, which is on the city’s website at vicksburg.org., and a copy of the city’s organizational chart.

“People think I’m doing this to get re-elected, Flaggs said. “If what I do for Vicksburg has anything to do with me getting re-elected, don’t vote for me.

I have methodically thought out everything I’m doing,” he said. “I want to give you a government that works.”

Vicksburg is the only city in Mississippi that uses the commission form of government where three commissioners are elected to run the city, each having equal power. There are eight cities in the state of comparable size to Vicksburg in population, and all but one use a mayor-council/alderman form of government with six or seven councilmen/aldermen. The exception is Pascagoula, which has a manager-council form of government where a city manager handles the daily duties of running the city.

Flaggs outlined the history of the city’s commission form of government from when it was approved in 1912 to the present, including the reason why it was changed from three members elected at large to the present ward system, which was developed in the 1980s to meet the one man, one vote, rule. He also discussed changing the city’s organization chart from one with 22 different departments to a system with 11 division heads, each overseeing a series of departments.

Harry Sharp, who in 1996 tried to get the city’s form of government changed, commended Flaggs for “trying to reorganize a system that doesn’t work.”

He asked Flaggs why he wanted to keep the commission form of government “that still fragments the legislative and executive authority among the three of you.

“In other words, it still takes two to get anything really done,” he said. “Why not change the form of government to a strong mayor, then charter would explain it, and it would work more like a corporation which we want for efficiency.”

Flaggs said he chose to keep the commission form “because I’ve got Michael’s vote with me. I’m a compromising guy.”

He said he talked with North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield, who agreed to look at amending the city charter with the provision that the changes do not go into effect until the next administration takes office in 2017.

“I want to clean it up, the charter,” he said. “Some things you can do immediately, just come in here and vote. Those things that can immediately be done, without affecting anything, we’ll do.”

Flaggs plans to amend the appointment of department heads, which according to his proposal will provide more efficiency and accountability, provide daily oversight and supervision and more fiscal responsibility.

Under his proposal, the mayor will appoint the city attorney, city clerk, accounting director and the police and fire chiefs. The North Ward alderman would appoint the public works director and the community development director, and the South Ward alderman the parks and recreation director, human resources director and an information technology director.

He said the plan matched the interests and backgrounds of Mayfield and Thompson.

Flaggs has been critical of the city’s form of government after he was unsuccessful in getting his nominees for police chief and fire chief approved by Thompson and Mayfield.

“I hope another mayor never gets humiliated like I did that first day (of office),” he said. “They pulled my appointments and tabled them and turned around and voted their people back in, right in my face. They killed them right in front of my face. The law says you stay in our place until they have two votes to remove you.

“I don’t want that to happen any more. I want the mayor to have the right to appoint his people,” he said.

Besides setting responsibilities for appointing department heads, Flaggs’ proposal would bring charter provisions in line with current state and federal laws, and repeal some that no longer apply, such as funding a public hospital and having a port and harbor commission. He did not indicate the changes for the provisions.

John Bullard asked Flaggs to clarify the division of department head appointments, citing the mayor’s comments that he set the division in part based in the aldermen’s interests.

“What if the personalities change?” he asked, “is it going to be automatic that the alderman from the South Ward would control these appointments and the alderman from the North Ward would control those departments or would there be some flexibility involved?”

Flaggs said the division of appointments would be permanent under the revised charter. “That way, you the people would know (who is responsible for supervision) and be able to question and be able to get some idea who you’re voting for,” he said.

Bullard later sought further clarification on the appointments, pointing out that the process could give each ward a different advantage. “If the North Ward Alderman is in charge of the streets, and the people elect him, that means the North Ward will have the best streets in the city,” he said.

Flaggs said any appointment would still be subject to the two-vote rule, meaning either the mayor and an alderman or two aldermen would still have to approve an appointment. In his case, if his nominee is not approved, “I will keep on making nominations.”

Sharp later asked the mayor why he would not move forward with all the changes immediately instead of making them effective with the next administration. “Because I gave my word to Michael and I’m not going back on my word,” he said. “My word is my bond.”

Flaggs called the public meeting last week after presenting Mayfield and South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson with three options for city government: change the form of government to a mayor-council system, amend the charter or eliminate the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and have three commissioners elected from three wards with the three naming a chairman.

He said he included changing the form of government to a mayor and seven part-time councilmen because that is required under state law for cities with a population of more than 25,000 people.

 

Proposed Charter Provision Amendments

• Change the city boundaries to include the right of way on Fort Hill Drive. The city took over maintenance of Fort Hill Drive from Warren County in 2014 in preparation for the installation of the city’s auxiliary water line. The street had been a county road since 1936, when it was given to the county from the National Parks Service.
• Clean up the inspection of city books to comply with the state’s Public Records Act.
• Delete provisions requiring candidates for city offices to live in the city for 180 days. The provision was changed by the federal courts in 1997 to 30 days.
• Amend the provisions concerning the jurisdiction of the municipal court to comply with state law.
• Amend provisions concerning the assessor and tax collector.
• Amend the provisions involving the city sexton.
• Amend provisions concerning the meetings of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
• Amend provisions concerning the city jail and city prisoners. The city has not municipal jail. People arrested in the city are held at the Issaquena Regional Detention Center until their initial appearance in municipal court.
• Amend provisions regarding building and repairing sidewalks.
• Amend the provision regarding the speed of horses.
• Repeal the provision authorizing appropriating funds to a public hospital.
• Repeal the establishment, jurisdiction and regulations concerning the Vicksburg Harbor and Port Commission.
Flaggs also presented a plan to change the appointment of department heads:
• Mayor: city attorney, city clerk, accounting director and the police and fire chiefs.
• North Ward alderman would appoint the public works director and the community development director.
• South Ward alderman the parks and recreation director, human resources director and an information technology director.

“I don’t have the votes (to change the form of government), and I don’t think quite frankly the people would vote for it,” he said. “I went out and talked to people (about changing government), and frankly, I like to have got my head cut off. They said don’t change the form of government.”