By Robbie Ward
Daily Journal
TUPELO – City leaders will gather with pencils and erasers Wednesday to revisit their ambitious 53-item to-do list, almost certain to include a renewed sense of urgency and accountability.
Plenty of goals remain unresolved or even untouched since the seven newly elected City Council members and Mayor Jason Shelton gathered just more than a year ago to plan priorities for the four-year term. A shift in focus to tornado recovery has been a major reason why.
First-time elected official Shelton and City Council members Lynn Bryan and Buddy Palmer had yet to experience the annual budget process when they joined the five other council members to set their vision and agenda.
Between the mayor, council and department heads, goals piled high, each varying in degrees of difficulty. Those same goals will reappear inside thick white binders for each council member and Shelton at the day-long meeting inside the BancorpSouth Conference Center.
Discussions this week will involve elected officials better equipped for the conversations from experience and knowledge gained since taking office – at least for most.
Ward 3 Councilman Travis Beard has served for less than a month, chosen in a special election after Jim Newell moved out of the city and resigned. Beard, a retired Tupelo Public School District educator, plans to use the goal-setting meeting as a chance to learn more about each city department. Experienced with school districts and using public money for education, Beard continues to do his homework as a political leader.
“It’s still a learning process for me,” he said last week. “Of course, the big issues are still the big issues.”
The recent Ward 3 election raised concerns about residential and commercial code enforcement and vacant properties and encouraged revitalization in parts of Tupelo in need of a makeover.
Many city department heads will have their first experience discussing priorities for the city.
Eight of 13 city leadership positions have new faces since the August 2013 retreat: chief operations officer, chief financial officer, development services director, public works director, police chief, parks and recreation director, city attorney, and municipal court administrator.
No matter the experience level in city government, an increased sense of urgency will resonate for elected officials. Two years and eight months remain until voters again cast ballots.
Councilman Palmer reviewed current goals last week while drinking coffee inside Johnnie’s Drive-In. He felt good about promised communication with residents in areas annexed by the city in 2012 and the overlay assessment of streets. However, he acknowledged the majority of the council’s goals remained incomplete. Despite this assessment, Palmer is upbeat.
“I think we’ve done very well, all things considered,” he said.
Tornado recovery
A major distraction from many goals was the April 28 tornado that caused millions of dollars in residential, business and government property damage.
Instead of focusing on a marketing campaign to showcase Tupelo’s livability or creating a “best practices” team to share information and advice among departments, much more discussion has centered around debris removal, assisting businesses with rebuilding along North Gloster Street and reaching out to neighborhoods hit hard by Mother Nature.
Most city officials agree, however, that recovery efforts in those neighborhoods can fit into overall plans to improve Tupelo.
“The silver lining is the opportunity to come back bigger and better,” Shelton said. “They’ll certainly have a different look and feel when it comes back.”
The mayor says tornado recovery remains his top priority, but materials for the goal-setting meeting show he also wants progress on the T.U.P.E.L.O. P.L.A.N., his campaign platform of three pages of 10 areas such as low taxes and limited spending, economic development, transportation and urban renewal. Another focus in the plan included accountability.
The mayor created an accountability task force a few months after taking office; however, some members of the group say they’ve had little direction from City Hall. The citizen volunteers could seek more clarity about their role when they meet with the council and mayor during lunch.
Thick binders of goal-setting materials will include Shelton’s campaign platform and spreadsheets of associated projects. For example, the transportation section has 12 different goals, such as review of synchronization of city traffic lights, continuing to pursue “quiet zones” along city railroad crossings and a study of the Tupelo Regional Airport to determine the best use of assets for future growth.
Also on the spreadsheet is continued exploration of “fiscally responsible ways to develop a system of public transportation.” Councilwoman Nettie Davis of Ward 4 has pushed for years for Tupelo to create a public transportation system. She rates it among her top priorities and has two solid council supporters, Palmer and Willie Jennings of Ward 7, ready to pursue a pilot program. Advancing public transit requires that Davis find support from at least one more council member.
Mississippi Department of Transportation and AARP officials have made multiple presentations to the city to encourage efforts.
Federal grants exist to pay different amounts toward public transportation, with some covering 80 percent of startup costs and half of operational costs. Discussions to move forward with public transit seem to have stalled after the April tornado.
“I don’t know where we are with it,” Davis said. “But as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the most important issues in the city.”
Consensus among the mayor and council will provide a greater chance of advancing goals. Councilman Markel Whittington of Ward 1 supports breaking larger projects into smaller, more manageable parts. He continues to support evaluations of city departments and job descriptions to find ways to improve efficiency, along with town hall meetings in each city ward.
“We can take government to the people and let them feel confident that we’re listening to them,” he said.
Council President Mike Bryan said meeting as a group should help city decision makers refocus priorities. He said the meeting could include tweaking or eliminating existing plans and even considering some not yet mentioned.
Tornado destruction and recovery may have caused other priorities to slip a few notches, but efforts to help encourage more jobs in the city and retain and recruit more residents remain.
“It’s not always a straight line but you’ve got to keep the focus on the goals,” Bryan said.
robbie.ward@journalinc.com