NATCHEZ — City officials met for more than two hours in executive session Tuesday to discuss the job performance and other personnel matters related to engineering department employees.

The discussion was spurred by the recent proposal by City Engineer and Water Works Superintendent David Gardner to separate the city’s engineering department from Water Works.

The city currently contracts with Water Works for engineering services.

The board, City Attorney Hyde Carby, Mayor Butch Brown and Gardner met for approximately 45 minutes in executive session prior to the board’s regular meeting.

The board then conducted its regular meeting for 30 minutes and went back into executive session, where the aldermen, Carby and Brown again met for discussions. Gardner, Assistant City Engineer David Atkins and City Surveyor Tony Moon joined the discussion for the last hour.

The board is allowed by the open meetings law to meet in executive session to discuss personnel matters relating to the “job performance or the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of a person holding a specific position.”

Discussion of matters generally affecting employees are not allowed under the open meetings law. The board, therefore, could not meet in executive session about whether it is favorable to separate Water Works and engineering simply because it may affect employees.

Carby said there are four engineering department employees whose job performance the board discussed. The engineering department staff consists of Moon, an administrative assistant, draftsman and a secretary.

Brown said discussions in executive session included the interlocal agreement between the city and Water Works as it pertains to how the employees are paid and the specific duties of those employees.

An increase in water rates was also proposed in December, but Brown said that was not discussed in executive session. That type of discussion in executive session is not permitted under the open meetings law.

No action was taken Tuesday regarding the engineering department, and the board has not yet decided if it wants to discontinue the contract for engineering services with Water Works.

The city and Water Works have apparently been operating on a month-to-month basis since the interlocal agreement between the two entities expired this summer and until new terms are decided.

Water Works is a city entity but is governed by a board of commissioners appointed by the city.

Gardner said in December he has been wanting to meet with the board of aldermen for quite some time to discuss the possibility of creating a new engineering department, as the city had in the past.

The city and Water Works, Gardner has said, both have overwhelming engineering needs. He has said Water Works has been putting off its own engineering needs because of the city’s needs.

Gardner said he believes a move back to the city having its own engineering department has been needed for a while.

Gardner was hired as city engineer in 1993 to lead the city’s engineering department. In 2005, under former mayor Phillip West’s administration, Gardner said he resigned his position to become superintendent of Water Works.

The city then asked Gardner to remain city engineer, and he agreed to do both jobs. The city’s engineering staff then resigned, Gardner said, and was rehired as Water Works employees and moved out of City Hall to Water Works offices on North Shields Lane.

Brown said after the meeting Tuesday the board of aldermen will likely call a special meeting or work session to discuss the future of the contract between the city and Water Works.