Mayor releases statement following BOMA vote

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — The City of Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to amend the city’s special charter concerning the appointment of corporate officers at the regular meeting held Monday, July 20.

Vicksburg Mayor Willis Thompson explained he wanted to amend the charter prior to the vote.

“I put this on the agenda to go back to our original format of having the original five corporate officers: police, fire, city clerk, city attorney, and the city judge. Under the last administration it was changed to every division head had to be a corporate officer of the city, and I just don’t think that’s necessary,” said Mayor Thompson.

The Mayor said the change would open possibilities concerning recruitment for job positions.

“I think we need to be more open to being able to recruit staff. It kind of limits us with them being a corporate officer which held a residence requirement, which again, I just don’t think is necessary,” he said.

Later in the day, Mayor Thompson made a statement regarding the vote on his social media page.

“The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Monday unanimously moved to amend the city’s special charter to take most department leadership positions out of the political process, reversing a 2017 change that made nearly every city division head a political appointment subject to reappointment every four years,” he explained.

In the social media release he said the structure ties the city’s administrative jobs to the election calendar, when those roles should be judged on performance and on how well they serve residents. Under the 2017 amendment, department directors across city government were classified as corporate officers, a designation the board must renew every four years, leaving experienced staff subject to the outcome of each political cycle.

“We’re putting people over politics and building a team to best serve the people of Vicksburg, exactly as I promised. These are major decisions that impact city operations and public trust for decades, well beyond our years of service. We want the best people for these jobs,” said Mayor Thompson.

His post also explained the Board’s vote was a resolution of intent, which opens the formal process for changing Section 20. That part of the charter sets out the city’s corporate officers and the way its division heads are chosen.

The amendment would keep corporate officer status for the mayor and aldermen, the city clerk, the police and fire chiefs, the city attorney, the municipal judge and the director of economic development. It would remove that status from the directors of several other city departments. Thompson said the change also helps the city recruit for key leadership positions, since corporate officers must meet a residency requirement that narrows the pool of candidates for those director positions.

“The best person for a job might live just over the county line, and that alone shouldn’t take them out of the running, let alone tie the position to a political appointment on top of it,” Thompson said. “I want to give ourselves every tool to hire the best people for these jobs,” he concluded.