JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Jackson City Council has overridden the mayor’s veto of an ordinance that would have prevented police chiefs, fire chiefs and assistant police chiefs from being fired during an election year.
On Tuesday, members voted 5-2 to override Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s veto of a measure to approve labor agreements for the positions.
The mayor vetoed the measure on June 3, about two weeks after the council initially approved the measure.
Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, who introduced the article, said labor agreements are needed to protect at-will employees during election years. He said they also need to “untie” the hands of appointed officials.
“We just have to get out of their way and let them do their job, and giving the chief a contract and the assistant chief a contract, that’s a step in the right direction,” he said. give the fire chief a contract, it’s the right thing”.
Voting with Stokes were council members Ashby Foote, Angelique Lee, Vernon Hartley and Virgi Lindsay. In opposition were councilors Aaron Banks and Brian Grizzell.
Five votes are required for an annulment.
The original measure was approved on May 21.
The order directs the mayor to enter into employment agreements with chiefs and assistant chiefs once they are confirmed.
The agreements will outline roles, responsibilities, compensation, benefits and anything else the council deems necessary, according to city documents.
However, in his June 3 veto message, Lumumba said the demand for such agreements “violates the separation of powers within the mayor-council form of government.
He argues that the order would also infringe on the mayor’s authority to “appoint and terminate these positions at his will and pleasure.”
Jackson has a mayor-council form of government.
The mayor is responsible for appointing department heads, including police and fire chiefs. Those heads must be confirmed by the council, but serve at the will and pleasure of the chief executive.
Stokes says that in the past, mayors have fired their chiefs before elections for political purposes, and he wants to prevent that from happening in the future.
However, this did not happen under Mayor Lumumba, with the mayor staying with his previous boss, James Davis until 2023, when Davis retired.
Lumumba, meanwhile, has given no indication publicly that he intends to fire his current chief, Joseph Wade, who was appointed to replace Davis last year.
Stokes, who introduced the measure in May, told council members on May 21 that similar deals have been offered in the past.
Council President Aaron Banks recalled one of those offered to Robert Johnson when he was appointed to the city’s top law enforcement position.
However, Banks recalled that Johnson was coming on board during an election year and it was unclear at the time who would win that year’s race.
Banks, meanwhile, wasn’t sure if Stokes’ measure could pass muster and suggested he talk to the city’s Law Department to discuss an ordinance that would allow the city to offer deals in the months before an election.
“I don’t think we have the authority to do that as an ordinance, but we do have the authority to make a law, and we can create an ordinance that says, ‘Five, six months before the election, the chief and the fire chief will Continue [a] contract to make sure there is no political involvement,” he said.
Stokes says he is not trying to usurp the power of any mayor and that any new mayor will still have his or her ability to appoint new department heads after he or she is in office.
However, he said the deals are important to ensure current police and fire chiefs are not sacked “without reason”.
“You don’t want to wait to enter the election cycle… and [say]”Let’s make a contract,” he said. “Let’s take that out of the equation. Let’s make sure that… first responders will not be part of the political landscape.”
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