In Attendance
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba,
Chief of Staff Dr. Safiya Omari
7 Council Members were Present:
Ward 1 - Ashby Foote
Ward 2 - Angelique Lee
Ward 3 - Kenneth Stokes (arrived later)
Ward 4 - Brian Grizzell
Ward 5 - Vernon Hartley
Ward 6 - Aaron Banks (Council President)
Ward 7 - Virgi Lindsay
City Business
Connected JXN - Blue Light Safety Initiative
Lee put forward an ordinance for creating regulations for installation of digital security cameras at gas stations and convenience stores. Ordinance also included adding the cameras into the wider Blue Light Camera.
Status: Rolled over to next meeting
Mayor motioned for adoption of an ordinance that would create a centralized financial body. Lee asserted that she was skeptical of its necessity. According to Foote, it costs $600,000, therefore out of budget. He also said that it's not clear that there's a real need for a centralization of finance activities. Hartley asserted that it's not proper to vote on something that isn't understood fully. The Mayor pointed out that the proposal was based off the information given to the council by the organization they requested to help. He remarked that it didn't make sense to complain about the problem while rejecting the proposed solution given by the experts.
Status: Rolled over to next meeting
Police
Item 58, Stokes proposed raising the salary of JPD to be higher than any other department in the region (including Capitol Police). He remarked that due to the higher amount of calls that JPD answers and that Jackson ought to be the "best", that they deserve the highest pay. Jackson, according to Councilman Stokes, has to be the best, including being better than Capitol Police. Councilman Banks proposed that they amend the order into a resolution to include a raise for the fire department and have an objective formula (information from JPD and JFD) to determine how much to give them. After some back-and-forth, Stokes removed his proposal.
Miscellaneous
Since the Director Lee is about to leave in a week or so, Foote, in the discussion portion, pushed for outsourcing public works to private firms. This is another attempt, done against many municipalities across the country, to privatize essential public services.
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