Mayor Laurence Leyens says he will boycott future meetings with the Warren County Board of Supervisors unless supervisors agree to have the meetings videotaped.

“I will not meet with them anymore until the camera is present,” Leyens said. “The meetings have been a waste of time. We’ve spent most of the time arguing about what they said at the last meeting.”

Vicksburg’s three elected officials and the five supervisors began informal monthly meetings more than a year ago to discuss topics such as animal control, funding for emergency agencies and downtown improvements.

The areas the two boards govern overlap as does their taxing authority. There are many shared services, such as ambulance and rescue services, emergency dispatching, tax assessing and collecting, and voter registration, but there are many areas, such as road and street projects, recreation and law enforcement, where talks stall.

The monthly meetings fell apart in December when Leyens stormed out, citing a “filibuster” and circular talks with county officials on adding animal control to shared services.

“They are good people individually, but we don’t agree politically on a lot of things,” Leyens said. It’s an election year for county officials, he said, and supervisors are backtracking on what he termed a pledge to address the proliferation of stray animals because it is a political hot potato.

Richard George, president of the Board of Supervisors, said that although the county board meetings are recorded and aired on the city’s cable channel, he would like to keep the meetings with city officials more informal.

“We thought that at some point there should be a feel of being totally at ease,” George said. “Some folks just don’t feel comfortable (in front of the camera.)”

The city-owned TV operation was started when former Mayor Robert Walker accepted free use of Vicksburg Video cable Channel 23 and purchased two small video recorders to tape and show city board meetings. Under Leyens, TV23 has grown to include four full-time employees and now records county board meetings, school board meetings and various committee meetings.

“I think the public has a right to know what is going on,” Leyens said. “We’re supposed to be public officials.”

When the city and county officials began meeting, bringing cameras in was discussed, but supervisors objected saying they wanted to be free to discuss ideas. Leyens has since said he would only record the meetings for record-keeping purposes.

But, George pointed out that because TV23 is a city-owned station, the tapes are public property and citizens could demand access to the recordings or that tapes be aired.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman and North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young said they agree with Leyens in principle, but will continue to attend the meetings because they had agreed with supervisors when the meeting began not to bring in the cameras.

“Anytime you’ve got a majority of either board there the public needs to be involved,” Young said.

The city-county meetings are public under the state’s open meetings law and that law allows for the use of electronic recording devices such as video cameras.

But the monthly meetings are voluntary and, unless the boards concur on the ground rules, might not even be held.

Public notice is not normally given of the dates and times for the meeting, but reporters have been present for some. The next is scheduled at 8 a.m. Jan. 14 at the Warren County Chamber of Commerce.