Despite a veto by Port Gibson’s mayor, city officials there attempted to borrow $500,000 Wednesday without holding a legal meeting to override the veto, documents show.

The Port Gibson board of aldermen voted 4-2 at a special meeting May 9 to borrow the money and repay it with tax revenues expected next March, Port Gibson Mayor Fred Reeves said.

Reeves vetoed the resolution May 19, the final day he was legally allowed to do so. In his veto letter sent to board members, Reeves cited “a vicious cycle of borrowing for our day to day operations.”

The city’s aldermen can vote to override the veto, but have not done so, city clerk Vanessa Shaifer said.

A copy of the tax anticipation note shows Shaifer and mayor pro-tem Kenneth Davis, however, executed it Wednesday despite Reeves’ veto.

Shaifer said she had no comment when asked why she signed and affixed the city’s seal. Three calls to Davis were unsuccessful in reaching him.

Reeves said he was informed Wednesday morning that Shaifer was going to Jackson to bring the executed note to Trustmark Bank to get the funds.

When he protested, Reeves said Shaifer called the aldermen and they attempted to hold a meeting Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. without proper public notice.

It was later set for 3 p.m., but just four aldermen were present, including Davis, said Shaifer. Reeves did not attend, so Davis had to act as mayor pro-tem, which meant he lost his vote and the board lost its quorum.

Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield, who also is city attorney for Port Gibson, said he did not attend the May 9 special meeting.

“I knew the board was interested in doing it,” Winfield said of the loan, which represents about 25 percent of the city’s annual budget. Winfield said it’s not uncommon for aldermen to override the mayor’s veto, but officials often complete paperwork days before it is filed and, in this case, no loan was closed.

Reeves repeatedly has opposed the board’s practice of borrowing money, he said, which has happened every year since he took office in January 2008 and for several years before that.

“They put it in the general fund, and spend it any way they want to spend it,” he said. “It’s time for us to stop going into the hole. We need to make some cuts, but they say they don’t want to make cuts.”

Port Gibson’s annual budget is about $1.9 million, Reeves said. The city receives between $610,000 and $650,000 a year in taxes from Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, and it’s this revenue, anticipated to come in March, that the aldermen attempted to borrow against.

“All the (other) industry that used to be here is gone,” Reeves said. “Our revenue has dropped, and our spending has got to drop, too.”

In June 2010, the city borrowed $250,000 in tax anticipation funds to stay afloat, and past-due utility bills caused Reeves to have street lights turned off around town, angering some residents. In 2008, Port Gibson borrowed $300,000.

Reeves said he has asked the board to institute pay cuts, freeze all but mandatory travel by aldermen and city employees and cancel cell phones. Aldermen eliminated their own cell phone coverage, he said, but have made no other cuts.

They also voted themselves a 41 percent pay raise, from $700 to $1,200 a month, which Reeves opposed, he said, as well as giving city employees a 3 percent pay increase, which Reeves said he supported.

Aldermen also want to continue attending four-day Mississippi Municipal League meetings in Biloxi, he said. They also committed the city to 20-year lease-purchase agreements totalling $15,000 per month, which include police cars and pickups which depreciate long before the financial obligation is retired, he said.

When he campaigned for office in the fall of 2007, Reeves said the biggest problem the city faced was financial instability, a claim he reiterated in his veto letter to the board.

“Unless we come together to address the necessary steps to end this practice, we will continue to live on the edge of financial insolvency. We don’t have reserve funds for any unexpected emergency.”