NATCHEZ — With eight years of experience as mayor of Natchez, Larry L. “Butch” Brown said he will have no trouble hitting the ground running Monday to tackle some of the city’s most talked-about issues in his first year as mayor.

Cleaning up the city

Brown said he believes it is very important that the community be able to see rapid “physical” changes in Natchez. That change can come in many forms, such as cleaning up litter, dilapidated housing, cutting overgrown lots or removing abandoned vehicles, Brown said.

“You can see it now with just cleaning and some outside work on the City Council Chambers,” he said. “But that work needs to extend beyond City Hall, and people need to see some activity to let them know that there is new administration with new ideas getting to work.”

Brown said he will ensure residents see that work quickly.

“I think it’s important that those things get done so the general public feels there is going to be a new direction and commitment to making out city great again,” he said.

Accounting

One of the areas in city government that Brown said distresses him greatly is the way the city’s money is being accounted for and managed.

“I want to try to restore a good information dissemination device that lets the public know where we are fiscally, how we’re dealing with fiscal needs and, in some cases, discrepancies,” he said.

Brown said he believes once the public feels his administration is addressing city responsibilities that have been neglected and have not functioned properly, it will help restore confidence in city government

“It will give (the public) confidence in the leadership and the direction we want to take the city,” Brown said.

Getting the city’s accounting on track is very important, Brown said, because the city cannot make visible physical change, upgrade equipment and technology or address personnel issues until the city knows where it stands financially.

“Planning for the future will be a big part of this administration, but in order to deal with what our goals and aspirations are, we have to know how we’re going to pay for it,” he said.