The Mendenhall Mayor and Board of Aldermen recently attended the Mississippi Municipal League (MML) Conference.
The Mississippi Municipal League is a voluntary group of Mississippi cities and towns whose mission is to serve their members in a variety of ways, through legislative advocacy, optional benefits programs, training and educational opportunities, and multiple publications.
The League staff, under the direction of the executive director, has the responsibility of implementing League goals and objectives.
The conference is an opportunity for newly elected officials and incumbents to learn new strategies and share knowledge. The conference offers several classes on different aspects of running a municipality, as well as teaching new policies.
Mayor Todd Booth explained that everyone did a good job attending classes and acquiring new knowledge. He explained that the conference served as a good refresher of some things that he already knew. He said, “We discussed some new laws and legislation that we are trying to get passed. These are some things that we have been working on for a while that will help the municipalities.”
He also explained that he is taking his CMO’s, which a set list of required courses. Booth said he also had a chance to attend some elective courses, and he chose Festival and Community Development.
He said, “I wanted to go to this class to get different ideas about how festivals help your city. I learned of different sponsors and different ways to host events to help our local businesses.” Booth added, “It was really interesting, and I learned a lot of different techniques.” The class was presented by Main Street Association.
Another interesting takeaway from the conference is the change in the laws for bidding on projects over $50,000. Booth explained that in the past when purchasing high priced equipment or funding projects the city would accept sealed bids. Now for projects or items over $50,000 they must be advertised on a secured site with the maximum dollar amount a city is willing to spend. From there a reverse auction is held where contractors give cities the lowest possible price. Booth said, “It’s probably good that everything be transparent at that point. This technique could save the city thousands of dollars on big ticket items.”
Booth also attended an advanced community development course. He discussed the benefits of building excitement in the community about the community.
Alderman Tim Gray said, “The conference is always full information and some of the stuff I focused on was the economic development side of things, and bringing in more businesses.” He explained that there are some small incremental changes that can be made to accomplish this goal.
Alderwoman Sandra Weeks who recently took office explained that the conference was exceptionally beneficial. She said, “It was a great experience and I even took extra classes. Gosh we learned so much.” Weeks said that she learned new learns and even sat in a mock board meeting. She said, “I learned some things you can and can’t do. The conference was very helpful to me and taught me a lot of things I didn’t know, and a lot of things that we will be able to do for our city.”
Alderman Mangum said, “It was very informative and we received a lot of information is a short period of time. The municipal finance was extremely important to me, and it mentioned some of the budget aspects we should go over. ”
Each individual walked away with new knowledge that will be beneficial to the city of Mendenhall in the future.
