Indianola Alderman Gary Fratesi was visibly frustrated as Monday night’s regular meeting of the board of aldermen began.
Fratesi said that there have been repeated times
when items he turned in to be on the agenda did not make the final cut.
“This stuff is pertinent,” he told Mayor Ken Featherstone.
“We already have a loaded agenda,” Featherstone said. “We can add some items but not all of them.”
Featherstone told Fratesi that other aldermen had items left off the agenda, which had 30 items total for the open session.
“In an effort to try and make our city meetings more efficient, we’ve tried to narrow down the agenda,” Featherstone said.
It took eight minutes for the board to adopt the agenda and then another five hours to handle the people’s business, which was hit or miss when it came to actual board actions.
Nearly a third of the agenda was tabled for various reasons.
Accomplished
The city agreed in principle to sell a tract of land on the west end of West Davis Circle for $43,700 to AW Design & Build Co., a sale that could lead to the development of eight new duplex buildings.
The city voted back in late 2023 to have the property appraised.
Anthony Wansley, with AW Design & Build, was present on Monday and asked the board if it would be feasible to tap into the city’s water and sewer system for the development.
There did not seem to be any glaring issue with that, but City Engineer Ron Cassada said that Wansley is going to have to submit formal plans for the buildings to the city for review so that all of the details can be worked out ahead of construction.
“He’s not going to have any problem with the capacity he’s going to put into the system,” Cassada said. “He may have to put a pump station in.”
Overall, the board was supportive of the project, which could place as many as 16 families in the homes.
Ward 5 Alderman Sam Brock asked if the city could take on more housing units, based on population trends.
Ward 4 Alderman Marvin Elder suggested the city’s housing woes are rooted more in quality than with supply.
“One of the things that we have in the city of Indianola is a lot of slum lords. We have some apartments and homes that really aren’t fit for habitation,” Elder said.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi agreed.
“We’re in need of good housing,” he said. “We do have a lot of slumlords.”
Fratesi did tell Wansley that he would like to see the homes built according to the conceptions that were in the board’s packet this week.
The deal is not finalized, but the board voted 4-1 (Brock opposed) to agree to the sale of the land.
Accomplished
The city has agreed to partner with the county on a project that should improve Airways Circle, the county road that leads to the National Guard Armory building.
Sunflower County Economic Development Director Steve Rosenthal told the board that there is money available through a Federal Aviation Administration grant that would provide a good DBST surface on the road.
But Rosenthal said he would like to pursue a 100% paid grant that would make the road even stronger and more marketable for an industrial prospect.
“Because we are in an impoverished area, we actually qualify for a 100%-funded grant,” Rosenthal told the board. “It’s not the 80-20 grant that’s being allotted to everybody else.”
Rosenthal asked the board to agree to the partnership Monday night because the grant application is due at the end of the month.
Rosenthal said that the county would serve as the fiscal agent on the grant, and that would allow the project to move forward despite the city’s audit delinquency.
Alderman Elder suggested a work session to discuss the matter further.
“Can you do it tomorrow?” Rosenthal asked, stressing the urgency in the matter.
“We just received this tonight,” Elder responded.
A motion was made to move forward with the grant application and the partnership with the county. Elder made a subsidiary motion to table the matter until a work session could be scheduled. That motion was voted down 3-2.
The original motion then passed 3-2, with Aldermen Fratesi, Darrell Simpson and Ruben Woods voting in favor. That discussion took nearly 14 minutes.
Tabled
A nearly hour-long discussion between the board and City Engineer Cassada amounted to very little in the end.
There were two actionable items on the agenda, including payment to a contractor in the amount of $224,016.17 to Avis Construction Inc. for work completed on Cox Street, as well as a $9,830 payment to Gardner Engineering.
Cassada began the discussion by providing a packet to the board with all open and closed projects from 2007 to date in the city.
He then attempted to walk through all of the open projects and give a status on those.
One of those projects is the B.B. King sidewalk debacle, which began in 2013 but is now held up due to the city’s audit delinquency.
It was said earlier this year that Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons suggested that if the city made progress with its audits in the next 12 months, there is a chance the grant would be reopened.
Cassada cautioned that the holdup is with federal money, and he believes the city needs to be caught up to its 2022 audit in order to make that happen.
“I don’t know how quickly you can get your audits up to 2022,” Cassada said.
Alderman Brock confronted Cassada multiple times about a motion that was made back in 2023 that ordered Cassada to supply City Clerk Angela Goodwin with all papers regarding open projects in the city.
Cassada told Brock that all relevant documents are given to the mayor and city clerk when they are executed.
“My office is open,” Cassada said. “Public works is in there a couple of times a week looking at files. I was trying to get you what you needed. If you need more, I can get you more.”
Brock would eventually object to the Avis payment, stating that all of the work in that project had not been completed.
Cassada insisted that it had been. Part of the Cox Street paving project involved a CDBG grant, and part of it is wrapped up in the city’s ARPA money projects. Until the city can repair and replace the water lines under the unpaved portion of the street, it cannot be paved, Cassada said.
As for the CDBG side of the project, all services have been rendered, minus the final inspection, Cassada said.
When Cassada brought up the fact that South Delta was the administrator of that grant, and that the city could approve the payment contingent upon South Delta applying for a release of the CBDG funds, accountant and CPA Dr. Phyllis Rhodes chimed in by phone.
She said she would need to do more research to make sure that the grant was still open and that the city did not get itself into a similar mess as it did with the payment to Spencer Construction.
The differences in the projects, Cassada said, is that this grant is still open, the contract is between Avis and the city and South Delta was merely the grant administrator.
“We don’t know,” Rhodes said.
“Yes, yeah we do,” Cassada responded.
The board ended up tabling those actions. Cassada suggested that Rhodes, Goodwin and anyone from the board who was interested come to his office to discuss the city’s ongoing projects in more detail.
Tabled
The board tabled the approval to pass a resolution to join the Mississippi Municipal Liability Plan. Tabled along with that was the entering into an interlocal agreement between the city and the liability insurance plan for providing liability coverage for the city.
The city sent a check to the company for six figures back in December in order to secure deductible-free liability coverage for the city.
No Police Cruiser
Surplus
A request from IPD Chief Ronald Sampson to surplus two 2011 Chevy Tahoe cruisers died for lack of a second.
That lack of action negated a follow-up request to donate the vehicles to the Drew Police Department.
The city did surplus and donate two vehicles to the Moorhead Police Department a few weeks ago. Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi said the city needs to offer the vehicles to any department heads who may need them or consider selling them before giving them away.
Payroll Issues
The city continues to have issues with its new payroll system.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi told the board on Monday night that he is still receiving calls from city employees telling him that the withholdings for PERS and vacation and sick leave calculations are incorrect.
“Temporary problem,” Mayor Featherstone said.
Fratesi noted that this has been going on since the start of the new year.
“We’re six weeks into this, and it’s becoming more of a problem, not a hiccup,” Fratesi said.
City Clerk Goodwin downplayed the concerns.
“As those are coming in, we are addressing those,” Goodwin said. “We didn’t have hardly any issues with that on our last payroll. If there are some issues, I’m unaware of them. No one has come into my office and mentioned they’ve had some additional issues.”
The department heads in attendance told another story, however, noting that there are still issues with federal withholding, PERS, social security and vacation.
“My plan is to have a special called meeting to discuss nothing but payroll, time clocks, payroll, that’s the plan going forward,” Goodwin said.
Alderman Brock noted that he too is receiving calls from employees about the issues.
The city’s former payroll clerk, Cheryl Thomas, retired at the end of 2023, and the city has been contracting payroll since then.
Goodwin suggested that someone may be in place as the new payroll clerk by March 1.
In the meantime, Brock said whoever is handling payroll needs to be in city hall two to three days a week.
The board took two actions after a nearly hour-long executive session and adjourned just before midnight.
