Columbus City Council voted Tuesday night to tap the brakes on its code enforcement remediation efforts while it sorts out which properties might fall under the auspices of its federally funded blight elimination program.
Interim City Planner George Irby and Code Enforcement Officer Sasha James told the council they have so far identified about 155 blighted properties across Wards 1 through 5, with assessment of Ward 6 not yet complete.
A good many of those properties have also run afoul of code enforcement and are at various points in the city’s enforcement and remediation process, Irby said.
“There are some that have been cited by (James), and if the normal process had gone on, they would have come to the council at a hearing,” Irby said. “Part of the issue is they were waiting to do something with those properties because they may qualify for the federal blight program.”
The city has received $3 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its blight program, as well as putting aside $500,000 from its American Rescue Plan Act allotment.
The program will acquire blighted property, demolish any existing structures on it, and then attempt to market the cleared lots to redevelopers who will put in affordable housing. Vacant and overgrown lots also qualify, according to the guidelines.
Irby asked the council for permission to approach the owners of the properties on the list to see if they were interested in selling, and he asked that the code enforcement process be paused while that determination is made.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones was skeptical.
“Why would we wait and not just continue to do our job?” Jones asked. “If we wait on somebody, it may be a year from now that they decide they don’t want to sell, and then we’ve just wasted a whole year.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene took the opposite tack.
“If we move forward, we’re spending our money (remediating) something that the $3 million (in federal grant money) is for,” Greene said. “Why spend our money when we could wait and let (the blight program) spend it?”
Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens asked for a recommendation one way or the other.
“As far as code enforcement, I think we should pause those on this list,” Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett said. “If they are not going to sell, (Irby) hands the property back over to code enforcement and (James) continues on.”
On the subject of whether a property owner wanted to sell, City Attorney Jeff Turnage advised Irby to take anything other than a “yes” as a “no” answer.
“If you get a response that is anything other than affirmative, we should assume that’s a no,” Turnage said. “I face this all the time with the (Columbus) Redevelopment Authority. We get a non-answer, and then it’s months and months.”
Turnage is the attorney for the CRA, which started in 2017 trying to acquire blighted properties in Burns Bottom for redevelopment.
Engineering proposals
The council voted 4-2 to request engineering proposals for its American Rescue Plan Act wastewater projects.
The council hired Waggoner Engineering in December 2021 as its ARPA consultant but eventually fired the firm in January 2023 after becoming dissatisfied with the pace of its work. Gaskin vetoed the decision, but the council overrode his veto.
Since then the city has been approved for $3 million in dollar-for-dollar matching funds for proposed watershed projects from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, making $6 million the total available for the work. However, regulations require the city to designate an engineering firm to handle the work once it gets underway.
The city applied for funding for two projects: the first on Northside, surrounding Columbus Brick, and the second on Southside, surrounding Mississippi University for Women.
Greene moved, with a second from Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco, to advertise for engineering proposals. The motion passed, with Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard and Jones voting no.
Divide and travel
The council voted 5-1 to approve travel for Police Chief Joseph Daughtry and one assistant chief to travel to Oxford for the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police 2023 Winter Conference.
Daughtry originally asked for himself and Assistant Chiefs Garland Ward and Doran Johnson to all go, at a cost of $1,045 apiece.
Jones asked why all three chiefs needed to go, and Daughtry said they were required by state law to have a certain amount of continuing education each year, and this trip would satisfy that requirement.
Gaskin questioned the necessity of having all three chiefs out of town at the same time.
“We’re at 44 officers now,” Gaskin said. “That’s my only concern. I think it would be better to space it out.”
Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart moved, with a second from Greene, to approve Daughtry and one assistant chief to go now, with the other chief to go to the summer conference instead.
Beard made a substitute motion to honor the original request for all three to travel, but his motion died for lack of a second.
Stewart’s original motion passed 5-1, with Beard voting no.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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