On Thursday evening, a diverse group of over 100 Vicksburg residents gathered at the Warren County Court House for nearly two hours to discuss challenges that the City of Vicksburg faces. Among the topics covered were effectiveness of our city government, public safety, and more. Questions were asked, opinions were shared and, most importantly, the voters made their voices heard.
I’m a Vicksburg resident, and a native of this community, and I am deeply concerned with the current condition of the City of Vicksburg — as were many others who spent their time Thursday night discussing potential solutions to these problems. Many came to the meeting unaware of how severe Vicksburg’s challenges are but left with a much different reality. I believe many of our community’s problems are largely due to our current form of government that we’ve had in place since the 1880s. It’s holding us back in more ways than it’s pushing us forward. And at the very least, we’re at the critical point where citizens must have a conversation about why we should either keep this form of government or change it.
I want to make everyone aware – there was a shocking amount of pushback by some in power against Thursday night’s meeting simply taking place. Pushback against having an honest, fact-based discussion surrounding how Vicksburg’s city government is currently operated. One person in particular drew a clear line in the sand saying this meeting was not affiliated with the City of Vicksburg in any way. In my opinion, that sentiment is absolutely alarming and extremely shortsighted. This town is bigger than one person’s opinion or their personal political career.
For someone to say we’re going to keep doing things a certain way because it’s the way we’ve always done them can mean only one thing — it means we’ve ceased to think. And everyone in Vicksburg can most certainly think for themselves and can play a key role shaping the future of this community. The people must have a voice.
In every corner of our city — no matter where you live — whether you’re black or white, rich or poor, young or old, our city is struggling. Our city is struggling to provide basic city services, struggling to pay our city employees competitive wages, struggling to keep citizens and their property safe, struggling to keep struggling to keep right-of-way clean of litter and overgrown weeds, struggling to attract new investment, struggling to combat blight, struggling to have constructive dialogue about our problems, and really just struggling to stay out of the news for all the wrong reasons.
We’re at the point where much of the good going on in this community is being overshadowed by the bad. All of these reasons are major factors in our consistent population decline inside our city limits. Just in the last 10 years, Vicksburg has lost thousands of residents. Yes, thousands.
Many of us have asked ourselves why would a city with so many advantages continue to lose population? We have geographical advantages, tourism and historic advantages, a melting pot of cultural advantages, a massive federal government presence, and so on.
That’s not for me to decide, but I will say this: For many years now, I along with many others, have investigated how Vicksburg’s current form of government works and have compared it to cities that aren’t losing population. I have lived in Colorado and worked with local and state governments through my staffing agency. I managed million-dollar contracts and understand the operations of local governments from top to bottom. I’ve compared Vicksburg’s form of government to cities that are succeeding and attracting new investment along with increased population. I’ve objectively watched the City of Vicksburg’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings and studied their policies. And my conclusion is simple: This form of government is no longer serving the interests of the people. But if you’re a politician, it’s the best possible scenario for which you could ever ask – high salaries paired with a city charter that says one alderman is responsible for this specific department and the mayor is responsible for this other specific department and so on. As a result, all we’re seeing is people playing the blame game for why certain basic city services aren’t getting done in Vicksburg. One will tell you it’s the other’s fault and the cycle continues. The citizens are the ones suffering, not the politicians.
It’s time for accountability and professionalism in Vicksburg’s city government. Think of what’s at stake. In one four-year elected term, this board of mayor and aldermen decides how to spend roughly $136 million of your tax dollars. When retail businesses or families decide to locate in a town, we all know that they look at the basics — safety, beautification, quality of life, whether the local government is generally business friendly, and overall value for their hard-earned tax dollars.
I think many of us can agree that our local chamber of commerce and economic development foundation are doing a great job of working to attract major commercial industry and setting us up for a chance at long-term success. Pablo Diaz is a world-class player in economic development and we’re lucky to have him in Vicksburg. But we need success in the interim. And that starts with the city creating an environment where businesses want to locate. At the city government level, we’re failing to attract and retain everyday retail businesses. Just look at Clay Street for example. It’s one of our town’s busiest main thoroughfares from the interstate to the River and is the first thing people see when they come to Vicksburg. All you see is overgrown grass and weeds all over the sidewalks and nearly 30 vacant or abandoned buildings just on this one main corridor.
Folks, the blight is out of control. The litter is out of control. And the crime is out of control. And we must find a way to fix it. Our politicians need to understand that Vicksburg’s record-high crime rate has made the cost of insurance go sky high. This includes increased insurance premiums for renters, homeowners, and business owners. Crime has consequences for everyone. And we’re seeing that in Vicksburg today. The politicians may not understand it, but the people do.
For our politicians to tell us, “Well, it’s a lot worse in other towns” is just plain ridiculous. This is a sign that they aren’t interested in solving problems. We need solutions to problems, not excuses for why our problems aren’t so bad compared to other places.
I believe the way to fix issues like these is through a change of our form of city government. Changing this government to allow a professional to run the city would effectively create accountability for these basic community needs including the finances of the city, better management and fair pay to our city employees, and would ensure government continuity. The community would also be well represented through a large council that sets the policies while one person – a professional – executes those policies.
But whether the people decide to change our form of government or not, something must change in Vicksburg’s city government, and it better change fast. The people have spoken, and they’re not happy with today’s status quo.
On Thursday night, former City of Vicksburg Alderman Willis Thomoson said it best,:“Can things improve? Can things be better? One of the things we’re looking at is efficiency, management, and accountability. If we always do what we’ve always done, we’re going to have what we already got. If we want something different, we’ve got to do something different – things that we haven’t done before. Having a diverse group that cares enough about this city to represent and say no, this is not right. No, we’re not going to have any backdoor conversations. We’re going to talk in front of the public. We’re going to get things done. Everyone in here is a taxpayer, and you should have expectations of the people who make decisions on your behalf. So I would encourage everyone to get all the information you can.”
Marilyn Terry
Vicksburg, Miss.
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