NATCHEZ — Officials from Premier Gaming and Natchez Enterprises met with the Natchez mayor and board of aldermen behind closed doors Tuesday, but not before there was discussion on the legitimacy of keeping the public out of the meeting.

Mayor Jake Middleton said the group was there to discuss their “business strategy and financing” which he said qualified the meeting for executive session.

Aldermen Dan Dillard and James “Ricky” Gray voted against entering executive session saying they weren’t sure everything the gaming group planned to discuss was within the realm of executive session.

“I don’t see why it can’t be discussed in the regular meeting and if something comes up that needs to be discussed in executive session we can do that,” Dillard said.

Alderman Bob Pollard said the group should be allowed to meet in executive session.

“They don’t want their competition to be aware of that business strategy,” Pollard said.

Gray said since the group pitched their original idea in regular session, the discussion about the progress of the project should be in regular session now.

“It is not good for us to just start off in executive session,” he said.

City Attorney Everett Sanders said the meeting could qualify for executive session if the group discussed contracts, changes in contracts or financing.

“That is what they said they were going to discuss,” Sanders said.

Dillard said he didn’t understand what changes or contract discussion the group could want to discuss.

“I don’t know that there are any negotiations that need to be done,” he said.

The board voted four to two to enter executive session, and met privately for just over an hour.

Middleton said after the meeting he was confident progress was being made on the development of the Roth Hill casino. He said Premier Gaming is on the agenda for the Nov. 18 Mississippi Gaming Commission meeting to seek approval to proceed on the project.

“We are at the mercy of the gaming commission now,” Middleton said. “They have everything in their hands now. They can call (Premier Gaming) in to ask questions if something raises a red flag, but we are basically waiting on them.”

Middleton said if Premier Gaming doesn’t receive approval to proceed at the November meeting, the group will seek to be on the December agenda.

In other news:

4 Police Chief Mike Mullins discussed the feasibility of switching from the department’s current 12-hour shift schedule to an eight-hour schedule.

Mullins was asked to explore the option to see if the shorter shifts would put more officers on the streets.

Mullins said the department currently operates with two shifts working each day. Each shift has approximately seven patrol officers.

Currently there are 43 officers at NPD. The department is budgeted for 47, but two officers are on administrative leave, one is in training and one is on military duty.

Changing to an eight-hour shift schedule would put six to seven officers on patrol most shifts, but could result in shifts with only five patrolling officers.

“What is created with the eight-hour shifts is difficulty in scheduling days off for everyone,” he said. “People still have to have their two days off.”

With the current schedule officers have every other weekend off, but with an eight-hour schedule, Mullins said, some officers might not have a weekend off for two months.

“If you asked all of the officers if they wanted to go to eight-hour shift, you’d probably only get three or four officers that would say ‘yes,’” he said. “Those would probably be officers in charge of a shift who know they are going to get the weekend off regardless.”

4 Lionel Brown, manager of Holiday Apartments, addressed the board on improvements made at the complex since he became manager approximately one year ago.

Brown said since he took over the complex, there has been a concerted effort to dispel disturbances at the complex, but he said many times groups will only go across the street.

“I can just about control Holiday Apartments, but I can’t control what they do when the police runs them out of Holiday Apartments,” he said.

Brown said there is a list of people who are banned from the premises that he updates almost daily and faxes to the Natchez Police Department each day.

Mullins said Brown has worked well with officers to correct problems at Holiday Apartments, but once the groups causing the disturbances leave the complex, it is harder to control the situation.

“If they are on private property and the owner doesn’t mind them being there, we can’t do anything unless they are breaking the law,” Mullins said. “We are down there regularly, and there are some people who cooperate and help us but some of them don’t.”

4The board voted unanimously to begin keeping official minutes each time four or more of the board members meet to discuss official business. Currently minutes are kept in regular and specially-called meetings.