Community service workers or privatization?

Complaints about litter and unsanitary restrooms at Catfish Row have city officials taking a serious look at Vicksburg’s community service program, where misdemeanor offenders are allowed to work off their fines by doing jobs for the city.

And the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday instituted a 30-day trial plan to try and do a better job keeping Catfish Row clean by rearranging the schedule of one community service crew.

“The community service workers will have to reschedule themselves to accommodate Catfish Row,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

The city operates four community service crews averaging from 10 to 20 workers per day working seven days a week. They are paid $7.25 an hour and supervised by city employees. Among their basic duties are picking up litter from the city streets and Catfish Row, cleaning the Catfish Row restrooms, and cleaning the River Stages parking lot and restrooms at corner of Crawford and Washington streets.

Under the trial plan, one supervisor will be on duty from noon to 8 p.m., and part of the work crew’s duty will be to concentrate on the Catfish Row area from 4 to 8 p.m., when the activity is greatest during the summer. Catfish Row is the home of the city’s splash pad and the Junior Auxiliary’s Art Park for children.

“Catfish Row is probably the second-most used park in the city next to Riverfront Park,” Flaggs said, adding if the community service workers can’t do the job, the city may privatize cleaning the park. The city already has a contractor hired to clean up Riverfront Park on weekends.

One problem with the community service program, Flaggs said, is it is not bringing sufficient revenue in terms of fines to justify its cost. The program’s budget is $294,783. As of June 10, the city has spent $182,747of its budget with $99,306 from workers credited toward fines.

“We’re losing money,” he said. “You don’t have the people utilizing the program. The supervision and administration have exceeded the workload.”

Municipal Judge Toni Walker Terrett said she refers offenders to community service on court trial days, which are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday. “Whether they show up is up to them,” she said, adding people who don’t show up for community service face a citation for contempt of court and possible jail time.

Flaggs said the city will have to take a closer look at the program and find a way to make it work better.

“We have to find a way top maximize the manpower we’ve got,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “We have to look at the cost and see what we can do to make the program better or cut it. They do a good job keeping the roadsides clean, and if we discontinued the program, we would lose that service and it would fall to another department.”

He suggested the board look at other activities such as cutting grass — “we always need help with that” — and debris collection, where community service workers could help out.

He said the 30-day trial period is a good opportunity to look at the community service program and provide extra service to the Catfish Row park area, which is where residents and tourist gather.

“We have crews working until 3:30, but then no one else until the morning,” he said. “Having the crew come in later is not duplicating effort, it’s providing more support.

“And we’ll have an opportunity to look at other areas where the community service workers can help the city.”

“We’re going to take a close look at the new schedule we’ve set,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “We’ll all meet back (at City Hall) July 13 and see how it’s working. If it doesn’t, we’ll privatize the service to Catfish Row, River Stages and the city park on Lee Street (now handled by parks and recreation). That’s one of the things were trying to figure out with this (community service) and how to get it working right.

“But we need to be very careful, especially when you’re talking about privatizing something. You have to make sure you’ve covered everything.”