It was with a great deal of concern that I emerged from reading Adam Lynch’s story on the city’s budget woes in last week’s Jackson Free Press (“Bleak House,” 4/10/06), because it confirmed for me a fear that I have about Mayor Frank Melton’s administration. Right now, the city appears to lack serious fiscal leadership at the top.
Melton himself has told Donna Ladd, in the series of interviews that she’s done over the past month (Part Four of that series begins on page 14 of this issue) that he’s much more enamored with his particular brand of crime fighting than he is with the day-to-day of his mayoral responsibilities. He’s told Donna that the job of mayor of the city of Jackson is a “half-time” job, and that he spends most of his time signing documents or sitting in economic-development meetings.
Melton’s solution to his lack of interest in his mayoral responsibilities is to surround himself with “good people.” Nothing wrong with that, except that the evidence presented in the problems with the budget is that either Melton hasn’t got those good people around him yet, or there’s still some solid management that’s missing from the top.
Some of the disturbing numbers include a doubling of the Jackson Redevelopment Authority budget for maintaining buildings such as Union Station and the $500,000 that has been spent on city golf courses when the budget item for those courses was “nothing,” according to Adam’s story.
One particular anomaly I noticed was the fact that the city appears to have collected zero revenue in sign fees—a small part of the overall revenue picture, but still a concern. Are the people in that department paid to collect those fees?
Yes, we were hit pretty hard by Katrina, and the year that follows an event such as that hurricane will certainly affect the city’s budget—there’s infrastructure to rebuild and emergency services to pay for and maintain.
At the same time, though, the city has not met its numbers in terms of putting more police officers on the streets, and the mayor’s plan for the budget crunch is to cut even more people from the payroll. There may be some fat to trim, but with many departments already understaffed and underperforming, harsh cuts may lead to a downward spiral in terms of the city’s ability to offer services, enforce codes and to generate revenue.
Again, I think it’s time to call on Mayor Melton to spend less of his working time on the police beat and more time empowering his police chiefs and others to fight crime. Then, he needs to get behind his desk to work on maintaining a number of priorities and advantages that the city is poised to lose without some sound management in place.
Perhaps the most ludicrous example of wrongheaded thinking in terms of how the city should be managed was offered last week by Wyatt Emmerich, publisher of the Northside Sun, in an editorial he wrote to defend—apparently—his personal support for Mayor Frank Melton. “What did we have to lose?” wrote Emmerich.
Is he kidding? I know a few things Jackson has to lose through mismanagement:
• A budget surplus. In about nine months, our surplus in city revenues is gone—and then some. Some of that was inevitable given the challenges, such as Katrina, that we’ve faced. But Melton needs to manage us out of the crisis.
• Our city’s bond rating and good credit. From local vendors not being paid to the very real possibility that it will be difficult for the city to issue bonds to finance capital projects, bad fiscal leadership could make economic development difficult in the future.
• State and federal funding. From the mishandling of applications for federal money to the disbanding of our Washington lobbying efforts, the mayor has put us in a precarious position to receive grants and loans that could help us get right-footed with business development and neighborhood improvements.
• Housing enforcement. As noted in Adam’s story, the city seems woefully understaffed in the Department of Code Enforcement, an arm of city government Melton could use to address problems we have with dilapidated housing and bad landlords in this city.
• Honorifics like “Most Livable Community” and “Most Affordable City for Doing Business” that we’ve heard about Jackson of late. (Not to mention that huge drop in the Morgan-Quitno “dangerous” ratings that The Clarion-Ledger won’t talk about.) Sound management from the top is part of what helps us get more of these honorifics, which can be used to entice new business—and to keep our best and brightest entrepreneurs in Jackson.
• Economic development. There’s a solid plan on the table for the King Edward. The mayor should be behind it 100 percent, making it happen as much as he can from his office, not by jetting off to Dallas to meet with another group of un-vetted financiers.
• Quality of life. Making Jackson a better place to live and work is about more than just driving around in the Mobile Command Center all night. It requires offering efficient city services, enforcing codes and citing violations, and collecting revenue when it’s due.
Mayor Melton might find the solution to many of the problems he’s outlined for Jackson—housing, urban blight, quality of life, crime—if he’d do a little more work during the daytime in his role as the city’s CEO and general manager, pulling together a team of folks who can tackle those problems the way good, efficient city government should.
How about getting the books in order and those great managers in place, Mr. Mayor, so that we can keep all that stuff we have to lose—and then we build on it.
Previous Comments
Good points Todds! We are losing daily. Those who got the money to hide behind gates and security patrols will be alright in Jackson. But, right now the city has little to offer the middle-class.
#72157 | Author: pikersam | Date: Apr 26 2006
Excellent synopsis of what this CSI wannabe has been doing and what he is costing the citizens. If he dosen’t think any more of the mayor’s job than being a “halftime” job, then he has answered the question on my mind of What the hell is he doing”? He lied to us in the interview with Donna about how he borrowed money and how quickly he paid it back. He has no concept of what this city needs. He dosen’t have a clue as to the real condition of the city of Jackson. I just hope that he will either resign or let someone step in before it’s too late.
#72158 | Author: lance | Date: Apr 26 2006
The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.