City Board Advances Thompson’s Plan to Depoliticize City Jobs

VICKSBURG, Miss. – 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.

Mayor Willis Thompson said the current 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.

“The 2017 changes add a layer of politics that simply doesn’t need to be there,” Thompson said. “It also creates unnecessary stress and uncertainty for our hardworking and dedicated city Employees.”

“We’re putting people over politics and building a team to best serve the people of Vicksburg, exactly as I promised,” Thompson said. “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.”

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.”