If the City of Vicksburg is to progress and grow in the future, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. told the Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, its residents have challenges they will have to address.

“In the future, there’s going to be some things I think you’ll be challenged with, whether I’m the mayor, my son, or whoever’s going to be mayor,” he said. “Forget about George Flaggs. Forget about who’s in office. You have got to do two things.”

Flaggs said at some time the city is going to have to change its form of government.

“This form of government will not work in the future,” he said. “You cannot have three people being CEOs. You’ve got to change the form of government.”

Vicksburg went to its three-member Board of Mayor and Aldermen in 1913 and is one of the few of its kind in the state. Under the present form of government, the two aldermen are elected by wards — north and south — and the mayor is elected at large. All three board members have equal authority.

Flaggs has wanted to change the form of government since taking office in 2013. He said he has talked to South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson about changing items in the city’s charter “in-house” without going through a referendum.

“What I really want is accountability and more efficient government,” Flaggs said, adding, “Be prepared.”

“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Why do you operate the city like a business?’ It is a business,” he said.

He took another dig at the city’s form of government. “You would think I’m the CEO, but (not) in this form of government. I ask each one of you that’s in here, how many of you would want to work with three CEOs in the same company?”

Flaggs said he wants to reduce the city’s work force, which accounts for 64 percent of the city’s budget — most of that in benefits.

“If I could have my way, I could reduce it. (But) I have one vote,” he said. We have too many city employees.”

Looking at the first two years of his term, Flaggs said the city went from a $374,000 deficit to a $3.1 million surplus, adding the extra money has been placed in reserve fund.

“I’ve gone to a performance-based budget, which means all we do is measure the output of spending money, that’s all,” he said. “If you say you’re going to spend a dollar, I want to know where that dollar’s going.

He said he appointed a budget oversight committee to watch the budget and report to him every month.

Vicksburg has a $3 million surplus, an $18 million capital improvements project in the works, the city’s debt has been refinanced, and the city has a AA bond rating, a sports complex is nearing reality and the Legislature has approved $22 million for projects in the city.

Those items were among the issues Mayor George Flaggs Jr. set on his platform when he ran for mayor. A plan he thought might be completed by the end of his term in 2017.

“All these things that were done, I thought it was going to take me four years,” he said. “We’ve done it in two years.”

The completion of the sports complex is the second thing Flaggs said needs to be done.

“We owe it to these children of this community, a sports complex,” he said. “Let’s not spend all our time on trying to divert attention to a piece of property you may have interest in. We owe it to these children. I go to the YMCA at 5 o’clock in the morning and see kids swimming and then go get dressed for school, and then (I) go back in the evening and they’re still there.

“I don’t care what we do at city hall. If we don’t improve the quality of education for our children, you can forget about the future, because any barometer of success will tell you in a community it’s made by how you educate and train your children and how you protect and care for your elderly if you want a successful city or community.”

The Legislature passed a local and private bill authorizing the city to levy up to a 2 percent sales tax on hotel rooms and food and beverages sold in the city. Flaggs said Wednesday he wants to levy 1.5 percent. A citywide referendum on the tax is expected to be held in January.