Jackson Free Press

JACKSON — The Jackson City Council and Mayor Tony Yarber sparred last week over the newest revelations about the small amount of reserve funds that remain in City coffers and the potential cuts that this could bring. The debate occurred against the backdrop of discussions between state and local Republicans indicating they were considering a conservatorship bill next legislative session.

The tense situation even led one councilman to criticize public transparency. "That's why I believe that we should be having these meetings behind closed doors," Ward 4 Councilman De'Keither Stamps said during the May 12 special meeting of the Council. "Transparency is wonderful, but a display like this ... we need to sit down and go through these things."

"Our internal differences are not greater than our external threats," Stamps said during the meeting. "We have some external threats that are feeding off all this information and using it against us, to take over our city, to take over our resources."

"We are at war, people," Stamps said. "And when you are at war, you go behind closed doors and hash this stuff out. We can't be in this internal strife mode."

Despite Stamps' frustration, though, the state open-records law clearly states that any open meetings where the public body would make decisions about policy must be public. Any attempt to hide deliberations about budget issues could be a breach of the state's ethics laws.

How Deep the Cut Goes

During a May 12 special meeting of the council to discuss the dwindling reserve fund, the administration laid out numbers that confirmed the council's concerns, showing the City has only $1.3 million left of its emergency reserve fund, an ordinance-mandated cushion.

The revelation came after days of back-and-forth between the mayor's office and the city council, including discussions of methods to stave off worse economic conditions, including cutting funding to "outside agencies," as the administration called it.

Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote asked Director of Administration Michelle Battee-Day if she could identify some of those "outside agencies."

"When I think about it, I think about the zoo and our libraries," Battee-Day said. "We kind of tossed up the idea of condensing the number of libraries we have."

Battee-Day said any cuts to departments would "have to be agreed to from all parties."

"If they aren't used to their capacity, maybe we could look at condensing them because we do give a general-fund appropriation to their operation," she said.

Mayor Yarber said that his administration would look at each department before bringing more specifics before the council.

The mayor's plan of action at the meeting included an immediate stop to the youth employment and summer enrichment programs "until the City's reserve has been restored"—although he said at the May 17 council meeting that the youth jobs would remain, but enrichment programs would be cut if they could not meet their cost.

Some members of the council, including Council President Melvin Priester Jr., are now asking if the $1.3 million left is the end of the revelations of the budget.

"No, no, that's terrible for a city of our size to have an amount unspent of $1.3 million. We have just shown that we are capable of budget swings."

"It's never been discussed," Priester said. "It did just come out of the blue."

Priester said he is concerned with just how little the council was told about the expenditures over the last several months.

"It looks as though money has been spent left and right that wasn't budgeted for properly," Priester said. "And now we find ourselves on May 12 looking down the barrel of having to cancel our summer youth program."

Without prior warning, the City could find itself in a last-minute situation with few options. "If there is something wrong, I would rather talk about it now than talk about it later," Priester said. "I like to be ahead of the ballgame."

'Tongue-in-cheek'

In light of the recent budget revelations, not to mention the airport "takeover" bill, Republican comments drew media attention for their mention of taking over Jackson. In particular, Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, floated a conservatorship bill on the Facebook wall of Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood. Harkins authored the successful airport bill last session.

"Pete: if you think what we do with the airport is so bad, you're going to really hate it when we pass a conservator law for municipalities like we have for school districts," Baker posted. "Fair warning, they get it together or we will."

"I'm going to start drafting something this summer," Baker followed up some lines later. "I'll send you a draft for review."

Baker has not denied the comments, and told WLBT last week that "I'm working on it. This is something I'm looking at."

Although Baker did not respond to inquiries about the source of the comments, Gov. Phil Bryant said he wasn't aware of it, telling WLBT, "I don't see any universe in which I would take over responsibility for the City of Jackson." On the Facebook page, Hinds County Republican Chairman Pete Perry responded to Baker, saying that "if the legislature were to bring up such a bill I would help lead the parade."

Perry is also a member of the 1-percent sales-tax commission and recently publicly disagreed with the mayor over whether or not the City can use funds from the commission to address loan payments for the Mississippi Department of Health-mandated corrosion-control compliance plan to deal with water contamination.

Harkins, whose father Gary Harkins is the Rankin County Republican chairman, later said it was ribbing between members of the local Republican contingent.

"It was kind of tongue-in-cheek," Harkins told the Jackson Free Press. "It was just kind of a light-hearted, joking banter."

Harkins said the situation in Jackson would have to change significantly before any sort of conservatorship would be viable. "I think it would have to be a lot different situation for that to be a relevant conversation," Harkins said. "I don't think that is the point where we are now."

Perry, who participated in the "banter" with the other Republicans, said he couldn't tell whether Baker was serious.

"Do you I think he was serious about looking at it or thinking about it? I don't know," Perry told the Jackson Free Press. "I think he is like a lot of people saying something has got to be done, but nobody really knowing what needs to be done."

However, Perry added that something has to be done about the way the City is being run, and that others have shared the same concerns with him.

"I have had plenty of serious discussions about how the city somehow has to run better," Perry said.

"We obviously can't get the finances straight. Something needs to change, but I am not sure what that is."

The City administration responded to the Republican takeover threat with a simple statement.

"Although we have not seen any documents, the governor's position is clear," city spokeswoman Shelia Byrd said.

Email city reporter Tim Summers, Jr. at [email protected]. Read more about the budget debate at jfp.ms/citybudget.