The city of Vicksburg is making changes in its legal and human resources departments to meet changes Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said are coming as the city moves forward.

Under the changes, human resources director Walterine Langford moves to the legal department and Antoinette Bradley, a lawyer and reservist with the 412th Engineer Theater Command, was hired as human resources director.

Bradley was sworn in Monday.

Flaggs said Langford, who is a lawyer and had served as associate city attorney from 1997 to 2010, will fill the position left by former assistant city attorney Bobby Robertson, who retired in 2016. “Walterine is needed in the legal department,” he said.

Bradley, he said, served as a lawyer in the Judge Advocate General branch of the 412th, and has background in personnel matters.

Flaggs said she is “the person who will take the city employees and the policies of the city and the human resources to another level.”

He said the decision to make the changes was the result of conversations with Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Alex Monsour.

Flaggs said the move will help city attorney Nancy Thomas deal with the projected increased workload, “Especially with all the major projects we’ve got coming and how much legal research is going to be required to meet those obligations.”

Besides dealing with contract issues involving the proposed construction and operation of the sports complex and the proposed bypass road from U.S. 61 South to Halls Ferry Road, Flaggs said the city is looking at changes in policies and its employee manual.

“We’ve got to update our policies,” he said. “We’ve got to update our personnel policy, our employee manual; we’ve got to update our evaluation policy.”

Langford, Flaggs said, “Has enormous experience about city government. She’s been a prosecutor, she’s been a judge and she’s been in HR and she’s done a lot of research. Walterine is the person who does a lot of the workman’s compensation cases and all those cases. She knows a lot about the policies. She’s going to be a tremendous help to Nancy.”

He said she will work with Bradley to develop upgraded policies and update the employee manual.

“I think it’s a perfect fit for the city going forward,” he said. “We’ve just got to enhance our policies. The other thing is we’ve got to expertise in the area of insurance.

“We have missed opportunities on reducing the health care costs to the city by not having someone with that expertise that Ms. Bradley brings to the table to help us secure good contracts related to insurance.”