Charleston leaders say their recent adoption of a proposal to change the form of government under which they operate is merely a formality that returns the city to its roots.
At their regular monthly meeting Jan. 4, the Charleston Board of Commissioners, on a motion by Ward 2 Commissioner Lloyd Smith and a second by Ward 1 Commissioner Gyrone Kenniel, voted unanimously in favor of a resolution that would amend the municipal charter.
Billed as an effort “to modernize the language of the charter of the city of Charleston,” the amendment would stipulate that the mayor of the city has executive power and superintending control of city employees. In other words, he would be in charge of day-to-day operations of the city.
The city board, which would now be called a board of aldermen rather than a board of commissioners, would hold the legislative powers. While they would make decisions such as hiring and firing employees, they would be specifically prohibited from giving orders to “any employee or subordinate of the municipality other than the alderman’s personal staff.”
Under the commission form of government, commissioners were assigned individual areas of oversight, such as the police department, fire department, finances, parks and recreation, etc.
The amendment provides that the mayor presides over all board meetings and, in the event of a tie on any vote of the city board, may cast the deciding vote.
The mayor has veto power over any ordinances, resolutions and orders that might be adopted by board members, and the board, like the state Legislature and U.S. Congress, may override any veto by a two-thirds vote.
The proposed amendment also would repeal a January 2000 amendment setting the salaries of the mayor and board. Instead, the new amendment would provide that salaries of the mayor, board, city clerk and other municipal employees would be determined through a resolution adopted by the board and signed off on by the mayor, rather than dictated by the city charter.
“Salaries established shall not be arbitrary and unreasonable when considered with the municipal resources and duties of the office,” the amendment states.
The proposed amendment, which has been published in The Sun-Sentinel for the required three weeks and submitted to Gov. Tate Reeves and Attorney General Lynn Fitch, will take effect automatically barring any protest of at least one-tenth of the city’s voters by Feb. 1.
Charleston Mayor Sedrick Smith
Mayor Sedrick Smith said the proposed change in the form of government from mayor-commissioner to mayor-board of aldermen really would only validate the manner in which the city has been operating for years.
“The secretary of state’s office said that [for all intents and purposes], we have been operating as a mayor-alderman form of government,” Smith noted recently.
Kenniel echoed that sentiment.
“We don’t function as a commissioner form,” he said. “We actually function as a mayor-alderman form of government and we just call ourselves commissioners. ... I think it’s time to make it official ... that we really become what we really are: aldermen.”
Ward 1 Commissioner Gyrone Kenniel
Charleston, which was founded in 1837, was incorporated by the state Legislature on Feb. 28, 1848, with its governing officials being listed as mayor and board of aldermen.
Jason Camp is an Extension specialist with the Center for Government and Community Development at Mississippi State University Extension Service and an editor and contributor to MSU’s publication, “Municipal Government in Mississippi,” Seventh Edition.
Camp said that while it is unclear when Charleston’s mayor-alderman form of government became mayor-commissioner, he has found that charter documents “sometime around 1912 started referencing the commission form” of government.
As late as 1910, news accounts of municipal board meetings published in The Tallahatchie Herald, a newspaper then located in Charleston, referred to Charleston's governing body as the board of aldermen.
Smith said Charleston (population 2,193) is one of only three cities in Mississippi — the others are Clarksdale (population 17,962) and Vicksburg (population 23,856) — that still bear the title of having a mayor-commission form of government.
In the latest MSU municipal government publication, only Clarksdale and Vicksburg were listed as commission cities, but Camp said the omission of Charleston appears to be an error that may have existed for several editions of the book.
Smith noted that the commission flag places Charleston officials in an awkward position at meetings, conferences and conventions of other state municipal leaders.
“It’s kind of like we stand alone,” he noted.
Despite the fact Charleston elects city commissioners, the official city letterhead has for years identified board members as “alderman” rather than “commissioner.”
Kenniel said that when he was first elected to the city board in 2017, business cards he had printed listed him as “Alderman Gyrone Kenniel.”
“I think that when we go to this form of government, we will be complying with just about everybody else in our state,” said Kenniel. “Most are either called councilmen, aldermen, alderpersons, or whatever. But they’re not commissioners.”
All other municipalities in Tallahatchie County — Glendora, Sumner, Tutwiler and Webb — are governed by a mayor and board of aldermen.
