McComb Mayor Zach Patterson announced a likely city board vote on a proposed fiber optics project, justified recent votes in executive session meetings and talked about his vision for the city at an Exchange Club meeting on Thursday.
This week Mainstream Fiber Networks officials presented the city board with a $13 million plan that would wire McComb, Magnolia and Summit with super-fast fiber optics and requested an answer by next week’s board meeting.
At the mayor’s urging, selectman delayed putting the project on the agenda for a vote July 24 and asked Mainstream to come back with a deadline for a decision.
Patterson hoped that selectmen could have more time to consult with city residents and business leaders. However, he said that before he addressed the Exchange Club Thursday, he received word the vote was set for the July 24 meeting’s agenda. If it were up to him, he’d delay the decision after holding a public hearing on the matter, Patterson said.
After a question by Exchange Club member Jason Tate, Patterson echoed concerns made Tuesday on the proposal, which is said to provide bundled high-speed telephone, cable television and Internet services cheaper than others. Patterson said he is worried about the city competing against existing providers and overextending itself, since it’s already juggling to complete two existing projects, the McComb Sports Complex and a mandated new wastewater treatment plant.
“These balls I’ve got to keep in the air,” he said Patterson.
He said the city already has its hands full managing a water and sewer utility, and he believes a fiber optic utility would come with its share of complexities.
“It’s a tough business,” said Patterson, formerly a chief information officer for the U.S. Army Signal Activity, which dealt heavily with technology.
Mainstream officials say they only need one area governing body to take the lead and activate a regional fiber authority so that 20-year bonds, which will fund the project, can be issued.
If selectmen reject the proposal, than Patterson said he wouldn’t mind seeing Magnolia act as a test city for the project. The Magnolia mayor said this week they would be interested in hosting Mainstream if McComb decides not to.
But if selectmen end up passing the measure, Patterson said he’ll do his best to make it work.
CLOSED SESSIONS
After a question by Exchange Club President Ronnie Temple, Patterson justified several recent city board decisions made in closed session, which apparently conflict with the state open meetings law.
“How do you reconcile that?” Temple asked Patterson.
Patterson said he believed that all decisions made in the closed sessions followed the law because they dealt with personnel.
“I did not intentionally do anything wrong,” he added.
Under the Mississippi Open Meetings Law, a public body may go into closed session regarding personnel if the discussion relates to individual job performance.
The board was in closed session during recent meetings when it OK’d most employee pay raises, created the city department of community relations, activities and tourism and amended the budget.
Patterson said approving the employee pay raises would have taken much longer in open meetings and may never have happened without the executive sessions.
“Sometimes business is best discussed behind (closed doors),” Patterson said.
After executive sessions, Patterson said he welcomes anyone, including the media, to inquire what happened. Nothing is kept secret, he said.
Patterson said he abides by every law and when in question, he confers with city attorney John H. “Bubber” White.
Patterson said if the city is sued for open meetings violations, the maximum penalty would be $100. He said that would be a small price to pay for the chance to grant pay raises.
“I have to move on,” he said.
PATTERSON’S VISION
During the meeting the mayor also discussed how development along Interstate 55 and Highway 98 would spur the city and region toward economic gains.
Patterson said city officials need to start thinking about developing an interstate frontage road from Delaware Avenue to Highway 24 and possibly further south.
Also, Patterson said a major place for growth will be near the I-55 and Highway 98 intersection, where a convention center or a multi-use outdoor arena would make good additions. He’d also lobby for McComb to house the state civil rights museum.
In order for McComb to continue growing, it will have to act cohesively with the rest of southwest Mississippi, the mayor said. Every community in the area is inextricably linked to McComb, he said.
“When Brookhaven catches a cold, we catch pneumonia,” said Patterson, adding it’s not about competing against each other.
However, he said McComb must still be a regional leader and the city can stimulate growth by maintaining an attractive city and a stable political climate. He said the political officials can disagree without being disagreeable.
