Mayor Laurence Leyens proposed Wednesday that the board of the city-county emergency-communications center take responsibility for emergency planning and that the board’s composition be changed.

The members of the seven-member board serve by virtue of the jobs they hold with the city and county. Leyens proposed that one of those positions, now designated for the director of the county emergency-management agency, be changed to an at-large position. He further proposed that the commission take the lead in developing a more-comprehensive disaster plan than was in place when Katrina struck, on Aug. 29.

&#8220We are going to have a more-thought-out outcome,” Leyens said of any future emergency on the scale of Katrina.

The storm has been called the worst natural disaster on record in the United States. It struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, causing power outages here and bringing hundreds if not thousands of evacuees to Vicksburg.

At Wednesday’s regular commission meeting, nearly two months later, Leyens introduced Mike Waring, the Vicksburg volunteer selected to lead the joint command center established along with consolidated shelter operations at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

The command center was established at Leyens’ behest after what he called again Wednesday inadequate planning, communication and coordination by the emergency-management director, L.W. &#8220Bump” Callaway III. He cited in particular confusion in efforts to keep citizens supplied with electricity and water, which he said were potentially life-threatening but were fortunately successful before such a point was reached.

Leyens said that if a coordinated disaster plan existed neither he nor the chiefs of the city’s police and fire departments had been made aware that it did and no rehearsal exercise with city participation had been held.

&#8220None that exists,” Leyens said. &#8220If it does exist, then shame on the county for not making sure it was communicated.”

Callaway replied that a plan exists that was approved under his predecessor, whom he succeeded about five or six years ago.

&#8220Since I came on we have made several attempts to rewrite the plan,” Callaway said, adding that each time those attempts were put on hold because of rewrites of plans at the state or federal levels. &#8220Katrina’s impact and effects pointed up areas in federal, state and local plans – everybody’s – where there were obviously some shortcomings.”

The emergency-management director’s functions are spelled out in state law and the director of the county’s emergency-management agency is the designated contact person of his counterparts at higher levels of government.

&#8220In all due respect, Bump, what I just heard was a very bureaucratic response,” Leyens told Callaway.

After the meeting, Callaway said reorganization and reaction at higher levels of government had contributed to delays in the rewriting of master plans at those levels and, in turn, delays in rewriting the local plan.

&#8220We live in a bureaucratic world,” Callaway said. &#8220If you’re going to participate in those fundings, you’ve got to be part of the bureaucracy.”

Leyens said Waring handled afternoon briefings at the command center for about a month following Katrina and that he deserved the city’s thanks for doing so. Waring’s presentation included an assessment of what he thought were the positive and negative aspects of the arrangement and what lessons he thought could be learned from the experience. He said that he later learned resources, such as generators of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center, could have been made available if arrangements had been in place beforehand.

&#8220Before we get into another disaster we need a list of key resources and backups,” Waring said, adding that such a list should be revisited at least once a year. &#8220We just have to work out the details ahead of time.”

Commissioners took no action on Leyens’ proposal.

Callaway said after that he would welcome any expertise of others.

&#8220You can’t micromanage through the department level with a county plan,” Callaway said, adding that such plans must be basic and allow for flexibility.

Waring said the plan could address such areas as keeping citizens and first responders supplied with fuel, water, ice and electricity and ways of communicating information to those who may need it. Such planning may go beyond what the state requires but Leyens said it was necessary that it be done.

Leyens suggested that the duties of the emergency-management director could be consolidated with those of the E-911 director and that the E-911 director, Geoffrey Greetham, had said he could ensure the integrity of an emergency plan.

In addition to the Vicksburg mayor and the director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency the E-911 board is comprised of the Vicksburg police and fire chiefs, the president of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, the Warren County Sheriff and the Warren County Volunteer Fire Coordinator. That composition favors county officials 4-3, Leyens noted, adding that his proposal would further the goal of making it the best place for community disaster-planning by making it a more &#8220non-political, neutral” commission.

&#8220I just need to have some dialogue with the rest of my board members because I’m only one vote,” board of supervisors president David McDonald said.

In other matters Wednesday, commissioners: