NATCHEZ — Adams County Board of Supervisors were not exactly supportive of a proposal brought to the board by the City of Natchez during Monday’s meeting asking for help funding a series of educational meetings to explore consolidation of Natchez and Adams County services.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell sent the Adams County Board of Supervisors a letter dated Nov. 9 that proposed hiring professionals from the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University to head a series of forums on the topic of consolidation.

The intent of the forums, the letter states, is to inform citizens and officials of what consolidation means and help them decide whether it is the best choice for the Natchez and Adams County communities.

Natchez aldermen, Grennell said, unanimously agreed the city should seek help in hiring the consultants at a cost of approximately $12,000 for travel and accommodation expenses for the Stennis experts to come to Natchez.

“The city has raised $4,000, and we were hoping that the county would contribute another $4,000 and we’d find a way to raise the rest,” Grennell said. “Regardless, we’ll find a way to raise the money to get them here.”

Ward 3 Natchez Alderwoman, Sarah Carter Smith, presented the city’s recommendation to supervisors during Monday’s meeting.

District 2 Supervisor, David Carter said if any one of the governing bodies or its citizens does not agree with the consolidation, then money spent on it would be wasted.

“If the public wants something … but the political body does not, then it doesn’t happen,” Carter said. “We’ve done this study in the ’70s. We’ve done it in the ’90s and were trying to do it now, but if your government is not willing to consolidate or if the people don’t want to consolidate or if no one wants to then we’re kind of off spinning our wheels.”

Smith said the city believes no one can make an informed decision about consolidation without help.

“How do we know what we want, and how do the people know what they want, unless we’re educated?” Smith said.

District 3 Supervisor Angela Hutchins said she believes the boards should not hire someone to tell them about something that would not work and that the two boards would never agree on.

“We have been to conferences and talked about consolidation,” Hutchins said. “In our conference, we found out a lot of consolidation does not work. … Consolidation has been talked about for years. People who’ve previously sat on (the Board of Aldermen) were not in favor of it. … Why should we pay someone to come and tell us that it does not work?”

Smith said the city’s position is to assure its citizens that their governments are trying to do the best thing for them.

“Our board is in favor of education to the different forms of government and our options,” Smith said. “It may be that we find out we’re running our city and county in the best way possible, but — with the shrinking population — the thought that maybe there’s more we can do to save our taxpayers’ money is something that is important to every one of our citizens, and should be to us as well. … We need to find out what our options are.”

District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazarus said he wanted to be shown where it would save money to consolidate.
“There are some who believe it is going to save money,” Lazarus said. “If it is going to save money, I need to know that. If it isn’t going to save money we need to know so we can put that thought to bed or dissolve it.”

Lazarus said he believes such forums would allow the public to express their opinions on the issues, “but I need some definitive answers,” he said.

“Where does it work and how does it work? … It takes a certain amount of money to run things. We talked about combining law enforcement. At this point, we’re paying our deputies more than the city. … If you consolidate our law enforcement, the first thing we’d have to do is give all the policemen who come in a raise. … There’s no instant savings.”

District 5 Supervisor, Calvin Butler, said the city and county should host a joint meeting to discuss the topic first.

“The two boards of our elected officials and our taxpayers should meet and talk about this instead of us rushing into something,” Butler said to Smith. “We don’t know what direction (the city) wants to go in and you don’t know what we want to do. We need to come together so when the professionals do come in, we all can have some input.”

Smith agreed with Butler about hosting a joint meeting before District 4 Supervisor, James Ricky Gray, said again that the county should not pay for something that wouldn’t work.

“We’re already working diligently with the city,” Gray said. “You can change the form of city government. You can change the form of county government. But if you elect the wrong people, you’re going to get the same results.”

Gray said he agreed that the two boards should meet and discuss the matter and said he was offended when he heard Smith say during the last Board of Aldermen meeting that the county wasn’t working collaboratively with the city on garbage disposal contracts.

“I didn’t say that,” Smith said.

“Well this right here says that you did,” Gray said, before pulling out his cell phone and playing a recording of the meeting.

“I said ‘Waste Pro wouldn’t work with us,’” Smith said, in a tone of exasperation. “Ricky, You totally misconstrued that. … For the record, I said Waste Pro would not work with us … It’s offensive the way that you handled that.”

Smith said officials tried to renegotiate the city’s contract with Waste Pro before it expired.

The city is now under a garbage collection contract with Arrow Waste.

“We felt like you were dipping into county business,” Hutchins said.

“No, I felt bad for you … Play (the video) again in your office and see if you understand then what I said,” Smith said before leaving the meeting.

Later Monday, Smith issued the following statement: “I very much regret that Supervisor Gray misconstrued what I said on the trash collection contract … which was foreign to the current government consolidation subject on the county’s agenda. It is unfortunate that he used this as an opportunity to create unnecessary tension between me and his fellow supervisors.”

When contacted for a response to Smith’s statement later Monday, Gray said he only played back what Smith said in a meeting.

“If she’s saying she didn’t mean it that way, I respect that,” Gray said, “but that’s what I heard her say. … I’m not trying to start anything with the city because I was on that board. … I just asked her the question. She says she didn’t say it. I played her back what she said. She said she didn’t mean it, and (the argument) is over as far as the Board of Supervisors is concerned.”

In other matters during Monday’s meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors, the board unanimously:

• Approved moving $2,250 from the general fund to the Adams County Safe Room fund for repairs to a water pump at the Safe Room.
• Approved travel requests for county employees.
• Approved payroll changes for employees in the sheriff’s office.
• Accepted a bid from Midway Construction for $331,297 for bridge repairs on Verucchi Road.
• Agreed to renegotiate the terms for debt repayment by the Adams County Port Commission. The commission owes approximately $2 million to the county.