When it comes to approving the city budget, Natchez aldermen Dan Dillard is right.

The wheels of the car are falling off. The city has run out of gas.

City attorney Hyde Carby confirmed it; the mayor and board of aldermen should have known it.

They have been down this road before — most of them for many years, over several terms.

Set by the Mississippi code, the deadline for municipalities to approve their budgets is Oct. 1. The requirement is nothing new.

In order to approve the budget, there must be a public hearing. In recent years, the law was changed to require seven days between the hearing and final budget approval.

As of Tuesday afternoon’s aldermen meeting, the city had yet to complete the budget and advertise for a public hearing on the matter.

With the restrictions set by the code, 14 days are necessary for the board to approve the budget. They only had seven.

Dillard read from the code, “The board of governing authorities shall not authorize any expenditure of money, and the city clerk shall not issue any warrant for same, except for bonds, notes, debts and interest, after October 1 in each year, unless and until the budget be finally approved, and such approval entered upon their minutes.”

The city would not be able to spend money on salaries, stamps or even soft drinks.

“The wheels of the car are falling off,” Dillard said.

They have been falling off, at least in the city clerk’s office, for years. Once again the city has yet to file an audit with the state auditor, even though the city has gone to great lengths to purchase new accounting software, hire accountants and seek help from an outside accounting firm.

The situation has made it all too easy for the mayor and the board of aldermen to shed the blame and point their collective finger at city clerk Donnie Holloway.

While much of the responsibility lies with Holloway, the mayor and alderman also share some of the blame.

Before Tuesday’s meeting the board had met only once as a board to discuss the city’s $37.7 million budget.

They met on Sept. 15, the same day they were to have a complete budget finished.

Again, the Mississippi Code is unambiguous: “the governing authorities of each municipality of the State of Mississippi shall, not later than September 15 each year, prepare a complete budget of the municipal revenues, expenses and working cash balances estimated for the next fiscal year.”

It isn’t clear whether the board did not know about this statute or chose to ignore it.

What is clear is that the board continues to miss deadline after deadline and neither the mayor or aldermen seem able to do anything  about it. Dillard expresses anger, yet the problem still exists.

Instead, the mayor and board sit silently pointing fingers toward the city clerk’s office, wishing the city’s financial nightmare was over. Thankfully, they have made their move to make the clerk an appointed position. Now we wait for approval from the attorney general and governor.

When that happens, let’s hope nothing more than the city’s wheels have fallen off.

 

Ben Hillyer is the design editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can reached at 601-445-3541 or by email at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.