The city council approved Tuesday donating $5,000 of public funds to help Columbus Municipal School District host a parade Oct. 17 celebrating its first-ever B accountability rating from the Mississippi Department of Education.
That amount was only half of what event organizer Chynee Bailey, with the Columbus Middle School Parent-Teacher Organization, requested.
The money will help decorate parade floats and downtown medians, as well as hire a DJ to work a stage that will be set up at Main and Fifth streets, Bailey told council members.
It was the fourth time since April the city approved direct donations to groups that simply appeared before council and asked for money.
Those donations total $9,000 – including the school parade funds, $1,500 each for a travel baseball and travel basketball team and $1,000 for a Golden Triangle Tennis event.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who represents Ward 2 on the council, said the city needs to “get a grip” on walkup funding requests. If he has his way, Tuesday’s approval will be the last of its kind until that happens.
“No more until we can come up with some type of policy where we can be consistent,” Mickens said. “I hate doing things one time and doing it a different way the next time.”
Legally, the city can contribute to events and groups that “bring about good favor” to the city, Mayor Keith Gaskin said during his regular press conference Wednesday at City Hall. Just because it’s legal, he said, doesn’t always make it a good idea.
“I don’t think it’s the wisest use of city resources,” Gaskin said. “Events like that should be sponsored privately. … I don’t like city resources investing in parades or things like that.”
Mickens first raised the alarm on the issue in July, when coach Shelly McElveen asked for $10,000 for the FLY Girls travel basketball team.
The council only funded 15% of that, but Mickens pressed for future requests to all be considered as part of the annual budget process in August and September. That is consistent with the more than $800,000 in appropriations it approves annually for outside agencies like the library, United Way and humane society, among others, and wouldn’t stick the council fielding unbudgeted requests throughout the year.
Since some organizations don’t know what they’ll need by then, Gaskin said the city instead set up a $20,000 marketing account to deal with those special requests.
Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham told The Dispatch the city funded CMSD’s parade through hotel sales tax revenue, which is “really meant for keeping up Trotter (Convention Center)” but can be used for “any kind of tourism and promotion” effort.
Whatever the policy ends up being, Mickens believes it should set a standard donation amount.
“Let’s get a price. If we’re going to do it, let’s be consistent,” Mickens said. “If we’re not going to do it, tell (everybody) we ain’t doing it.”
Mickens did vote along with a 5-1 majority to approve CMSD’s parade request. Even with his reservations about the process, he said he wanted to show his appreciation for the students’ and educators’ accomplishments.
“It’s a tough call to be truthful with you,” he said. “We’ve been hurting with our school district for years. … It’s a one-time event. It’s not like we’ll be doing it every year. That’s what had me in favor of doing this.”
Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene was the lone no vote. He did not return calls or messages from The Dispatch by press time.
Policy possibilities
Gaskin believes funding requests should start at City Hall and work their way through a process that ends with council consideration.
He said Wednesday he was “surprised and concerned” by the PTO’s request, especially the $10,000 amount, and was glad to see the council only approve half of it. He said he didn’t know about it at all until it was added to Tuesday’s agenda under citizen input.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones agrees the city “definitely” needs a policy to deal with special requests, as well as more time to consider them. The process should vet the organizations, what they represent and how the city funds will make a difference.
“That part last night didn’t concern me (since it was the school district), but once you open that door, you’re going to have more people coming up, so we do probably need to set a policy,” he said. “… If it can help one child stay off the streets with all the violence that we have, we want to try and help them.”
Jacqueline DiCicco, councilwoman for Ward 6, said requests should come with an outlined budget for the event or program. Though she voted for the parade funding, she openly chastised Bailey on Tuesday for not providing one.
“If we’re going to teach our students, we need to teach them how to make a budget when we go somewhere and ask someone for donations. It’s good to know exactly how your money is being spent,” she said.
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard, in Bailey’s defense, said no organization that received special funding had provided a budget.
“And I think that’s on us,” DiCicco responded.
‘A bad precedent’
Starkville includes all of its outside contributions in its annual budget, Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch. It doesn’t entertain midyear requests for donations.
“It sets a bad precedent,” Spruill said. “Who do you turn down? Once you’ve done that, you’ve said, ‘We’re going to help you.’ So what’s your criteria?”
For permitted events, the city will offer in-kind sanitation and police services upon request.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
