Economic development in Vicksburg and Warren County needs to be streamlined — so says the results of an Oct. 22 planning forum, in which dozens of local civic and business leaders spoke their minds about priorities for Vicksburg over the next five years.

But Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the forum results point to a problem he believes is holding the city back from what it can be.

“I looked at it (the forum results) this weekend, and one of the things I came away with is how fragmented our economic development is here in this community, when you look at the port, you look at the board of supervisors, you look at the city,” Flaggs said Monday.

Flaggs’ comments came at a work session on the results with Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson.

“This is my first opportunity to focus on local government and economic development,” Flaggs said, adding he believes Vicksburg and Warren County hasn’t been successful competing for new industires with other areas of the state because city and county officials have been divided over the subject of economic development.

According to the forum results, a majority of participants rated the current practice of the Warren County Port Commission, Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Foundation working independently on economic development issues either fair or poor. They supported consolidating the three organizations under one director.

“We (the city) don’t have an economic development position, we don’t have an economic development office, we don’t have an economic development person, we don’t have nothing,” Flaggs said. “What we do is wrap our arms around some philosophical difference of what we think (is the) economic direction of the city.”

Flaggs said copies of the forum results have been emailed to the forum participants and other business civic leaders. He said the Board of Mayor and Aldermen will hold another work session in six months to discuss creating an economic development office and director for the city.

“You’ve got to have somebody at the table looking at economic development and funding,” he said.

Thompson agreed with Flaggs about the area’s economic development situation.

“We all have an interest in economic development, from the city, the county, even the schools, but like you said, there’s no focus just on economic development,” he said. “In the past, we had a planning department that took care of some of that.”

Community Development Director Victor Gray-Lewis said directions on economic development were clearer when he first came to the city in 2000, when former Port of Pascagoula executive director Jimmy Heidel was executive director of the Port Commission.

“There were differences between the city and the county, but everyone agreed on economic development,” he said.

“That’s because, the way it was structured, everybody had a buy-in to it. At that time, the city paid a portion of his salary, the county paid a portion of his salary and the port paid a portion of his salary, and they all came together with this position,” Flaggs said.

Since then, he said, several people and groups have been involved in economic development.

Establishing an economic development plan, he said “is something we’re going to have to look at going forward if you’re going to realize any comprehensive growth in five years.

“I think the city should always be the leader in economic development when you talk about small business and retail, because that’s where our tax base comes from, sales and retail,” he said.

The forum was designed to get local input into the city’s updated comprehensive plan and to use as a planning tool for the programs over the next five years.

The questions dealt with a variety of topics that included making the city more attractive to tourists, improving the riverfront area, improving government and the quality of life in the city and attracting more business and industry.