Jackson Free Press

Information from Mayor Harvey Johnson's transition team meetings is slowly trickling in, and Johnson said preliminary reviews are showing the city suffers from a broken chain of command.

"Controls need to be put in place," Johnson told reporters today. "We have no director in the Department of Planning and Development. We need some leadership there, but we've also discovered that there are some managers who are not aware of their budget. They don't know how many vacancies there are, they don't know how much money or resources they have to work with. We've found there is not enough communication, or a level of checks and balances that should be in place."

Johnson went on to say that some issues are coming before him prematurely, and that he has to turn away some matters because of their apparent lack of preparedness. Johnson stepped into a council planning committee meeting as late as yesterday to pull a zoning item before that he felt needed more research.

"As mayor of the City of Jackson, I'm being asked to sign off on matters and documents that should have gone through two or three levels of supervision before they got to me, but those levels aren't there," Johnson said. "Those are the kinds of things we need to correct."

Johnson explained that too many vacancies were upsetting the traditional vetting process, but added that the city also had a problem with "a number of people reporting around ... supervisor positions."

"We have to try to correct that, because the mayor should be able to sign off on a document that has been signed off on by two or three people in the chain of command," Johnson said.

In possible connection to yesterday's zoning matter, Johnson announced his appointment of former planning department employee Corinne Fox as interim head of the Department of Planning and Economic Development. Fox said she would be taking the reins of the department temporarily, and hopes to address developmental issues facing the city and streamline the permitting process, among other goals.

"The most critical area is planning and development," Johnson said. "We just had our last public meeting last night and we'll come out with a report in mid to late August, but we felt it was critical to move forward with a director. We've got projects that are materializing right now, like the two-waying of Capitol Street and the development of the Capital Green Project, yet we don't have a planning and development director. We thought it was critical to move at this time with planning, as we got the information from the transition team."

To help with economic issues, Johnson appointed his former chief administrative officer and Jackson State University policy professor Otha Burton as a senior adviser to help the city overcome budget bumps until the mayor can find a permanent director.

"We anticipate that Dr. Burton will be filling this role for about four weeks until the middle of August, which will get us through a critical period or providing leadership and advice to leaders and making sure that our budgetary needs are properly met," Johnson said.

Burton, whose position as advisor is not intended to be a permanent position with the city, told the Jackson Free Press that he was unwilling to enter city administration on a more permanent basis just yet, but added that he was content to volunteer his services and advice to the fledgling administration.