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Parks Commission revamp OK’d |
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
By KELLY DANIELS
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Starkville’s once autonomous Parks and Recreation Commission is now an advisory board following a split vote by the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night..
In the face of a large crowd outspoken in its opposition to the proposed change, the aldermen made the power switch in a 4-3 vote. Ward 1 Alderman Sumner Davis, Ward 5 Alderman Matt Cox and Ward 2 Alderman Rodney Lincoln voted against the measure.
Mayor-elect Parker Wiseman said there is a strong possibility he will veto Tuesday’s action upon formally taking office next week.
Aldermen-elect Jeremiah Dumas, Sandra Sistrunk and Eric Parker said they do not yet know how they will approach the matter.
Henry Vaughn, who was elected to replace Ward 7 Alderwoman Janette Self, spoke in favor of the action, stating that the parks in his ward, such as J.L. King Park were not equally represented by the commission.
As an advisory board, the organization will continue management over the city’s parks system, but will hand over fiscal power to the Board of Aldermen.
Like the Planning and Zoning Commission, recommendations over the budget, hiring, firing and raising salaries of employees will be handled by the aldermen
The current members of the commission were voted in Tuesday as members of the advisory board.
Davis argued that the keeping the Parks Commission autonomous made sense practically and called it “foolish” to do otherwise.
“They’ve done a good job on insulating the board from the public’s many, many calls and the many decisions that need to be made on a regular basis,” Davis said.
Tuesday’s discussion marked the third time Parks Commission’s autonomy came into question within a four-year period.
“I thought it was a bad idea the first time,” Davis added.
Ward 3 Alderman P.C. “Mac” McLaurin defended the advisory board idea, stating that he wrote the ordinance creating the Parks Commission during a time when the city’s budget was so small it had to raise property taxes by 2 mills to finance the commission’s operations.
“The Parks Commission is now responsible for $1 million,” he said, explaining his difficulty in giving a volunteer board authority over such a large budget.
McLaurin also said that the Parks Commission can continue insulating the Board of Aldermen as an advisory board. Davis, however, contended that the aldermen are not insulated from the decisions of the Planning and Zoning Commission, who only recommend decisions.
Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy Á. Perkins, who asked that the proposal to revamp the commission be placed on the agenda, sat silent during the entire discussion.
Public opposition
Current Parks Commission chair Dan Moreland handed a copied letter to each alderman signed by the commission’s attorney Dolton McAlpin.
In distributing the letter, Moreland skipped over Mayor Dan Camp, with whom he is known to have personal differences. “This says if you do away with the Parks Commission, you do away with the 2 percent taxes,” he said, explaining how the parks receive some $600,000 of that 2 percent sales tax.
McAlpin’s letter stated that a local and private bill would have to be amended to authorize the use of 40 percent of the sales tax for general support of the parks, and was written based on the interpretation of House Bill 1833.
“Who’s going to pay for the Sportsplex?” Moreland continued. “I started this thing 30 years ago when we had nothing ... Look at what we’ve done since then.”
City Attorney Rodney Faver, whose term as attorney expired at midnight Tuesday, said he could not ensure that the city could not utilize the parks’ sales tax portion if the commission becomes an advisory board. For the board to be sure, the Attorney General’s Office would have to render an opinion to confirm or invalidate that statement.
Before the board abolished the Parks Commission, Lincoln made a failed motion to table the matter for the next administration.
Members of the commission and the public spoke in agreement with Moreland.
Andrew Mackin presented the argument that this administration’s last meeting was the wrong time to make a decision. “It just looks bad for the legacy,” he said. “Please delay this decision.”
Bill Little, who lives in Columbus, said he and his son drive 52 miles round trip for 3 or 4 days of the week over a period of 10 months just to play ball in Starkville.
“Other people who come here look at your program,” he said. “It’s not broke, so why are we fixing it?”
Commission member Dorothy Isaac said there may be improvements that the commission could make, but it operates nicely.
“I don’t get paid for doing this,” she said. “I represent the children of Starkville.”
Barry Sullivan stood up add sad he has travelled all over the world and had not found a sportsplex as great as the one in Starkville.
“I’m a little disturbed as to no one can tell us what it is we’re trying,” he said. “I believe if you follow the money, you can find a reason.”
Steve Phillips, who couldn’t decide whether he was for against the proposal on the table, said that it was important that the board and the park management have a working relationship.
Tuesday’s meeting was the last meeting for the current city administration.
Lynn Lane project shift given the go-ahead
In other business Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen approved the new change in scope for the Lynn Lane Bike Path’s new layout as a community park connector.
Consulting engineer Kevin Stafford, of the Neel-Schaffer firm, warned the board that if the new project was not approved Tuesday, the city may lose its $1.2 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which will not extend its Sept. 30 deadline.
The bike path, which once had a more direct route the Mississippi State University, now is a Phase 1 with 9,000 feet from McKee Park to the SportsPlex and around.
While his vote supported the bike path’s revamp, McLaurin said that this project was the most troublesome of this term. The presentation of the project began with a promise from MDOT, McLaurin explained, that it the city did not have to match the grant with cash but with in-kind services.
Later, it was announced that the city had to give up $300,000 cash for the grant, and then “out of the blue,” he said, the entire scope of the plan had to be changed. “As it has progressed from then to now, I cannot help but think there was nobody in the city keeping close tabs on what was going on,” McLaurin said.
Davis expressed hesitation in taking $300,000 out of the streets and drainage budgets to pay for what has now become a path around the Sportsplex.
Self nodded her head in agreement. “We will spend $1.5 million to go from Point A to Point A,” Self said.
The recent change of the path was due to announcements from MDOT that extensive environmental studies had to be done in order to obtain right-of-way easements before building the paths.
With the new route, the firm can simply design and send the plans off to MDOT.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 July 2009 )
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