Editor’s note: A previous version of this article reported the city and county had missed the deadline for the wrong conference. This article has been updated for accuracy.
City officials approved travel requests this week for upcoming conferences, but the decision sparked pushback about missed deadlines and increased costs.
During its Tuesday meeting, the city council approved two separate travel requests: one for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Conference in Point Clear, Alabama, with an estimated cost of $1,568.36 per person, and the Mississippi Policy Conference in Tunica, with an estimated cost of $1,511.86 per person.
Both conferences are in August.
Outgoing Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco pushed back on approving the requests given that the new mayor and next five council members, with a term beginning July 1, will be the ones attending.
“My concern is … we’re voting on spending money that the new council will be taking this opportunity,” DiCicco said. “… I think that should be their decision for voting on that and not ours.”
DiCicco moved to table the issue until the new administration takes office July 1, leading Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene to second and ask if the matter is time sensitive.
DiCicco noted the city had already missed a June 8 early registration deadline for the Policy conference that could have cut the costs per person by roughly $100, and with no second deadline looming to trigger another increase, she advocated for the council to wait on approval.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens proposed another substitute motion to approve the requests, which passed in a 4-1 vote with DiCicco voting against. Ward 5 Councilman and Mayor-elect Stephen Jones was not at the meeting.
Chief Operating Officer Jammie Garrett told The Dispatch booking the rooms quickly for the conferences is essential because if the city waits too long, rooms might not be available. Garrett said it will be up to the new mayor and council members to determine whether they want to attend one or both of the conferences.
“Yes, they would have to express interest in it,” she said. “I’ll send them an email letting them know what the vote was and that it was on there and to ask if anyone is interested, and if they are, they’ll reach out to the mayor’s office.”
If each member of the council and the mayor choose to attend both conferences, it would cost the city nearly $11,000 for each. That cost would be even higher if other city officials, such as Garrett, also attend.
Mickens, who also won’t be on the council after June 30, admonished incoming council members on Tuesday to choose one or the other.
“We would choose which one we’ll go to,” Mickens said to incoming council members in the audience. “If we go to Point Clear, then we don’t go to Tunica. Y’all can do what you want to do when you come on the council, but that’s the way we did it in the past.”
Networking opportunities
Jones, who has served on the council since 2016, plans to attend the Waterway convention after being asked by Lowndes County Port Director Will Sanders, who chairs the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Council.
“I went ahead and put that one on (the agenda) to support him and our city,” he said. “Hopefully as a city, we can get some stuff out to the port.”
He said he has attended the policy conference in Tunica, as well, but typically not both in the same year.
The biggest benefit for the city in attending these conferences, Jones said, is the chance it gives city officials to network, especially with people who could help secure funding for the city down the line.
“The (Mississippi Policy Conference), they do have some classes, and it’s networking also,” he told The Dispatch on Thursday. “When we go to Washington, some of those people (you see there) are actually at that conference (in Tunica). Once they get to know you and see you, it’s a lot easier for them to give you money.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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