McComb’s city board debated Tuesday if it could tell the McComb-Pike County Airport board how to run its meetings.
A week earlier city officials told airport board president Robert Hensarling that the airport board’s meetings were improper because they lacked a quorum.
In last week’s work session, the city board asked its attorney Angela Cockerham to write a letter and give comments about the airport board meeting.
The issue surrounds the December airport board meeting, which had just three members present. There are seven seats on the board, which requires four members in order to have a quorum, but two seats on the board remain vacant, including a city appointed seat and a joint city-county appointee. In December, the airport board handled a number of measures to make emergency repairs to the facility following a tornado that hit the day after Thanksgiving.
Hensarling said airport board attorney Robin Dickerson said three members would still constitute a quorum until all seven seats are filled, but selectmen Devante Johnson and Ronnie Brock disagreed.
Cockerham sought clarity on what the board wanted her to do. Johnson said he believed it was Dickerson’s job to address the issue, not Cockerham's.
“I brought the conversation up at the work session, and after I thought about it, I don’t think it is her place to dictate to the airport board or give them clarity. That is what they have their own attorney for,” Johnson said.
Mayor Quordiniah Lockley agreed.
Selectman Michael Cameron said he did not think it was the city board’s job to micromanage the airport board.
“I don’t remember in 101⁄2 or 11 years, any board member on city board directing any other board that we appointment members to of whether they should be meeting or not,” he said.
Cameron said he believed the members of the city board were impeding the airport board in handling its business by objecting to its meetings.
“What is the deal with this airport board? What is the deal with the airport that we have a problem with trying to get their bills paid and their buildings fixed with insurance money?” he asked.
Selectman Ronnie Brock said it is important that the airport board follow state public meetings laws and it is the city’s job as partial owner of the airport to make sure.
“We don’t appoint an airport board and turn them loose. There is a statute they are required to follow,” he said. “We are required to make sure that the boards that are appointed by us and the members follow statutes and code, and if they are not, they are out of compliance, and that comes back to us.
“We are sitting here and not paying attention to what our airport board is doing, and we are making ourselves liable from the auditor and other entities that regulates these monies.”
In other news, the board:
• Approved the repair of the fire department's Jaws of Life for $5,353.
• Hired Shannon T. Cowart as a deputy city clerk effective Tuesday.
• Approved the payment of $463,138 Dickerson & Bowen Inc. for the 2020 mill and overlay project.
• Approved a $1,988 payment to Webster Electric Co. for work on Railroad Boulevard.
• Hired Shawn Jay Tyler as a police officer for the city.
• Approved a $2,200 contract with Laird Engineering to inspect the top level of the parking garage.
• Requested the board attorney to draft a contract for off-duty police officers to work as security guards.
