Vicksburg’s form of government is outdated and needs to change, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said Thursday, but it should be up to the voters to determine its new form.

Flaggs discussed the city’s form of government and other topics, including police and fire department finances and the sports complex during an hour-long program called “Live with George Flaggs” Thursday night at the City Hall Annex. About 26 people attended the program, which was broadcast live over TV23, the city’s cable television channel. Flaggs said there would be no rebroadcast of the program.

The city’s form of government was a major topic during Flaggs’ first few months in office after his attempts to get his candidates for police and fire chief appointed. Since that time, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen have resolved their differences.

“We haven’t had a dissenting vote since then,” he said. “Rather than upset the unanimity that we’ve got going now, I would probably wait until I decide to run again to discuss it (the form of government) in a campaign.

“The current form of government is working now with me.”

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems.

“Nobody’s in charge,” he said. “Everybody calls me when there’s a problem, but it takes two votes for me to do anything. That’s not the way to operate a $30 million business. Somebody has to be in charge.

“You’ve actually got three CEOs when you only need one. The buck ought to stop with the mayor. That’s something the voters need to decide in 2017.”

On a follow-up question on city government from resident Glen Thomas, Flaggs agreed with him that the city has outgrown its present form of government, but again said it would be up to the voters to decide.

“Since annexation, we need more representation (on the board),” Thomas said.

Flaggs said he will continue working to reduce costs in the police and fire departments, and achieve the goal he set back during the development of the fiscal 2015 budget. Earlier in his term, Flaggs worked with Fire Chief Charles Atkins and Police Chief Walter Armstrong to reduce overtime costs in the fire and police departments.

He said Atkins will present a five-year plan March 12 for the fire department that will include plans to further reduce overtime and retain firefighters and train and improve the department.

The city’s proposed capital fund budget, he said, includes $1.6 million for fire department improvements.  He said the city needs to look at concentrating efforts toward better emergency medical coverage of the Clay Street and East Clay Street areas, including Interstate 20, because of an increase in traffic accident medical calls on I-20.

He said the city’s public safety budget takes up half of the city’s general fund.

“I believe the fire department can reduce its budget by $1.5 million and the police department can reduce its budget by $500,000 and not interfere with the quality of service we provide,” he said.

The sports complex, which was recommended in a report prepared by the city’s ad hoc committee on recreation presented in December, included a drawing of a complex on 270 acres of land costing about $20 million.

Flaggs said the board met with the supervisors about the complex “and I opened up by asking what role they wanted to play, because I think it’s so important that if we’re going to have a sports complex we have a sports complex with two stakeholders, the city and the county.”

“If you look at the numbers, 65 percent of the youth that participate in the City of Vicksburg’s recreational programs are from the county and 55 percent of the adults are from the county,” he said.

Flaggs suggested a bed and beverage tax to support funding a sports complex with a repealer that the tax would go off the books once the facility is paid off.

“I don’t see any need to keep collecting money on something once it’s paid for,” he said.

“I personally think that if you’re going to have a sports complex and most of it benefits those people come from in and out of town to participate — we’re not talking about league play with everyday usage, we’re talking about tournaments, that type thing — then it ought to be tied to tourism,” he said.

He said he visited New Orleans and Houston, Texas, and paid from 17 to 19 cents in extra hotel tax. “It’s not unusual to pay a high tax at the hotel and restaurant for the purpose of enhancing your tourism,” he said.

Borrowing $20 million over 20 years, he said, would cost the city $1.3 million a year to pay it off. He said state law sets the city’s debt limit at 46 percent. “You can’t fund a $17.5 million capital improvements program and a $20 million sports complex,” he said.

Participation by the county would mean a joint capital improvements program that could include a new county jail and a sports complex funded by ad valorem and a hotel and food and beverage tax.

“I don’t think the city ought to go alone and just fund a sports complex off ad valorem tax,” Flaggs said. “If 65 percent of the youth are from the county and 55 percent of the adults are from the county, why should we (pay for it).”

Other topics discussed during the program included:

• Flaggs said work on closing the Speed Street Crossing at its intersection with Pearl Street is on schedule, adding the project could be completed possibly before next year. He said Kansas City Southern Railroad is overseeing the project and the city is having to work under the railroad’s schedule. The project includes extending Klein Street to Depot Street to give residents and emergency vehicles and alternate emergency road.

• He said the $400,000 he is requesting from the Legislature for a tourism study for the city involves a series of projects to tie the city closer to the Vicksburg National Military Park, which he said attracts 600,000 to 700,000 people a year. The goal, he said, is to get people to stay in
Vicksburg longer.

• He said the city has applied for a Brownfields Cleanup Grant to clean asbestos from the abandoned Kuhn Memorial Hospital, with the possible intent of razing the building and developing low to moderate income housing on the site.

Celia Warfield, a resident from the area, suggested the city build a park on the site; an idea Flaggs agreed with.

• Flaggs also said the city has let contracts for utilities removal and designs for the South Frontage Road extension. The Legislature has approved $4 million for the project, and Flaggs said he is hoping for some federal highway dollars.

• Flaggs briefly discussed the resort revocations, saying a hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 22 in Hinds County Chancery Court on a lawsuit challenging the revocations. He repeated a comment he made at Monday’s board meeting that the resolution seeking the resort status revocations for four businesses was done at the request of Armstrong.

When asked by resident Keith Browning to comment on a letter supporting the businesses by Warren Count NAACP President John Shorter that claimed casino 911 calls were greater than the other businesses, Flaggs said no one from the local NAACP talked to him about the decision. He said he spoke to the state NAACP president who he said agreed with him.