Civic Corner: Board of Aldermen Recap – February 7

By Ricki Garrett, PhD, Alderwoman at Large

The Board of Aldermen had a routine meeting on Tuesday, January 17. It began with a department head report from Tara Lytal, the Director of Main Street Clinton. Tara mentioned some recent awards won by Main Street Clinton and highlighted both past and upcoming events. They continue to work on the plan that was developed last year for the future of the Main Street and Clinton Boulevard areas.

In one of the first actions of the Board, Ward 6 Alderman James Lott presented a request to approve an ordinance amending the ordinance regulating the sale of beer and light wine within the municipal limits of the City of Clinton to allow for the sale and servicing of beer and/or light wine to certain businesses. This proposed ordinance would have allowed salons, barbershops and spas in the city to sell or provide beer or light wine to their clients. The motion failed on a five-to-two vote of the Board.

The Board approved the purchase of two additional Dodge Charger vehicles for the Police Department and a Bobcat Compact Excavator for the Public Works Department.

The Board also moved ahead with approval of documents needed to apply for the second round of American Rescue Plan (ARPA) matching funds from the State to get the full one-to-one match amount. In last year’s legislative session, the legislature provided for $450 million in matching funds to match one-to-one the amount the cities had received directly from the Federal ARPA funds. Smaller cities were to receive a two-to-one match. The approval process through the Department of Environmental Quality turned out to be more difficult and cumbersome than anticipated, and many cities did not receive the full match. Hopefully, this second round of applications will provide for the remainder of the match.

As the Legislative Chair of the Mississippi Municipal League, I also want to share with you the upcoming legislative agenda for the League, which will benefit all cities, including Clinton.

▪ Protection of municipal revenue streams – This priority refers to monitoring the effect that any reduction in taxes would have on City revenue streams. It also refers to addressing the problem created by a majority of the PERS Board when they voted to raise the employer contribution to PERS to 22.4%. The City of Clinton could potentially owe an additional $600,000 in employee contributions every year. The League is asking that the sales tax diversion that we receive from our City sales taxes be increased to 20% to help allay this cost if the Legislature does not overrule this vote.
▪ Funding of the Small Municipalities Grant Program
▪ Full funding of Homestead Exemption Reimbursement – Last year, this was fully funded, and we want to do the same this year.
▪ Grant or revolving loan fund to assist members with clean-up of abandoned property.
▪ Working to get municipalities included in the appropriation of remaining ARPA funds – There is over $300 million left in the State coffers that could be used to provide more infrastructure funding for the municipalities.
▪ At least $100 million for the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Fund – Last year, only about a third of this funding went to cities. The remainder went to the counties.
▪ Authority for joint or multi-jurisdictional debris removal contracts — The League will work with the Mississippi Association of Supervisors on this issue.
▪ Code Violations to be treated as Civil or Administrative, rather than Criminal.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Space will be provided in each issue of The Clinton Courier to the Board of Aldermen for a recap of each meeting. Aldermen are asked to volunteer to provide this recap for the Courier.