Last week, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. issued public statements making clear his feelings about a proposed change to Vicksburg’s form of government. This week, both Flaggs and Ward 2 Alderman Alex Monsour spoke in more detail about why each city leader is opposed to changing the River City’s long-standing government structure.
During a town hall meeting held Tuesday at the Robert M. Walker Building, Flaggs told the audience he doesn’t see a need to shake up a system that is working as it is currently structured.
“It makes no sense to me,” Flaggs said Tuesday night. “As I have stated before, I am not interested in changing our form of government. It has been said that I am an advocate of one specific form of government, which is the mayor-council form of government, also known as the strong-mayor form, which is not true. I am not for changing the government in any form, especially the council form, where you have a manager and are represented by five people and a mayor.”
Flaggs came out in strong opposition to the idea of change last week after support for a petition currently circulating in town was brought to his attention following a meeting with Vicksburg resident Marilyn Terry. Terry is among the leaders of a group advocating for a change to the River City’s government structure. The petition, which is aimed at garnering enough support to justify a ballot initiative, is pushing for a change to a specific form of municipal governance.
“The petition calls for a change to a council-manager form where voters would elect a five-person city council, which includes a mayor and five council members,” Terry said. “The council would then exercise the legislative power of the city and hire a city manager, who would be the chief administrative officer of the city. While the council would be the policy-making body for the city, the city manager would handle the day-to-day operations, including the management of city employees, budget preparation, and fiscal management.”
Flaggs said on Tuesday he is specifically opposed to a change that would confuse leadership and call for unneeded city positions, adding power in the mayor’s office doesn’t fit into the equation.
“It makes absolutely no sense. You elected a mayor to lead or not citywide and then turn around and let a manager run it,” he said. “It had nothing to do with power. Our current form of government allows myself and the other aldermen to have equal votes. No vote carries more weight than the other. If power and full authority were my goals, then I wouldn’t be advocating for a form of government that allows that.”
During public comments, Flaggs also pointed to how Vicksburg’s current form of government allows the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to work efficiently and streamline municipal processes.
“Our current government structure ensures efficient decision making, unlike cities with larger boards,” he said. “Myself and the aldermen have been able to work together to quickly get things done without drawing discussion and argument or stalemate.”
Monsour last week also spoke in greater detail about why he feels a new form of city government would be a step in the wrong direction for Vicksburg.
“The process that (this group) is doing it by, I fully agree with, because it should be left up to the people to vote,” Monsour said. “It’s the right way. Put it on a referendum. They’re doing it the proper way.”
Where the disagreements arise, he said, is with the notion that a new form of government would fix issues that simply don’t exist. By contrast, he said, adding more players into the mix in the form of three extra council members could have the unintended effect of bogging down progress.
“I think about the makeup (of city government) now, versus what would be the makeup later,” he said. “If they’re successful, number one: I have ten years of experience in the state legislature. We do a lot of local and private legislation through the legislature that allows the city to move forward on projects; to spend money on projects. We get money from the state to fund these projects. The chairman of local and private has got a rule: If you’re not unanimous, they will not take it up. If you’ve got six or seven people (on a board), you’re going to be like Jackson. You’re going to be like the other cities, where you cannot get that many people to agree on anything.”
Monsour reiterated Flaggs’ concerns over voting on a board made up of that many council members, a total of five that would be required to represent a redrawn map of wards in Vicksburg.
“My understanding is that they want a city manager to recommend to us what he wants done,” he said. “And then we vote up or down. The problem with that is, if you’ve got five people sitting on a board, and I’ve got to go ask a city manager after I get a complaint from a citizen that pays taxes to get a result, then I’ve got a person out there I can’t fix it for. It’s incumbent on us to go out and be with the public and come back with a recommendation.”
Monsour said Vicksburg’s current form of government is tailored to address citizens’ concerns, one reason he says it has survived as long as it has.
“The way we’ve got it set up is Ward 1, Ward 2, then you’ve got a mayor that oversees all of it,” he said. “We bring him the problem. It’s equal votes. (Ward 1 Alderman) T.J. (Mayfield) and myself could actually approve something.”
Monsour said he is also unsure of how the proposed form of government would impact Vicksburg financially.
“They’re talking about cutting our salaries in half and making us part time, and I can tell you this: In everything that I’ve ever known, if you do something part time, you’re going to get a part-time result. This is full time for us. I may get a phone call on Sunday morning and it may be a question or say, ‘Hey. A tree is down.’ So, really. Are you going to be part time, or are you going to have to be full time anyway? You take it and put six or seven people on there, are you going to offer health insurance? Are you going to offer PERS (Public Employees’ Retirement System)? And you are going from three to six, plus a city manager. And I’ve got news for you: If a city manager is going to do what they are wanting him to do, he might as well be mayor, and you’re going to have to pay him accordingly.
“I’m not saying it would work; I’m not saying it wouldn’t work, but people need to realize what they could lose when you don’t have a full-time representative that is at your beck and call, because that’s his position.”
Monsour said there are good and bad aspects of any form of government, adding he believes what Vicksburg has by virtue of its special charter has outlasted competing forms of municipal structuring because it works.
“At the end of the day, if the voting public says yes, I’m going to do what the voting public says, because I’m a Constitutionalist when it comes down to it,” Monsour said. “I’m going to do exactly what they want to do. If it benefits the city, let’s do it. We’ve been really lucky with what we have now. One thing we’ve been consistent on with this way of doing things is, we might not agree on everything, but we agree with what’s right for Vicksburg.”
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