Greenwood officials had the opportunity to provide feedback on issues to state legislators at the Mississippi Municipal League Legislative Mid-Winter Conference last week.
Mayor Carolyn McAdams said the conference was a great opportunity to network and understand municipal law and other cities’ processes.
“It is a very beneficial tool for the whole state of Mississippi,” she said.
More than 600 people from local municipal offices across the state, legislative members and state agency employees attended the conference, according to a Mississippi Municipal League press release. All Greenwood City Council members attended.
The organization’s mission is to help cities and towns excel, and it represents 292 governments statewide, according to the release.
Ronnie Stevenson, president of the Greenwood City Council, said the conferences are “always a benefit for not just Greenwood but for all municipalities. We show unity when we go, so where there are numbers, there is strength.”
Attendees were able to provide feedback to state legislators on how certain issues were affecting local government.
“I have been going for a number of years, and this year actually — hopefully — was better than the past years,” Stevenson said.
The Mississippi House of Representatives recently passed House Bill 722, which will help fund cities and counties road and bridge maintenance.
Stevenson said this was something that Greenwood officials were pushing for at the conference.
The bill will now be passed on to the Mississippi Senate.
The conference began Tuesday for some officials including McAdams, who is the chairwoman of the 87th annual conference in June. The league has three conferences per year: the small-town conference, the mid-winter conference and the summer conference. This year’s summer meeting will be in Biloxi.
Also offered on Tuesday were Certified Municipal Officials Program classes, and McAdams said some city employees such as Chief Administrative Officer Cynthia Stanciel participated. The classes focused on topics such as municipal finance, law, economic development and ethics, she said.
On Wednesday, the attendees visited the Capitol and were able to network with other government employees.
Afterward, the opening general session of the conference began and featured Attorney General Jim Hood as keynote speaker, followed by a panel session on loans and grants.
The panel consisted of representatives of the Mississippi Development Authority, Mississippi Department of Environment Quality and the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
“It was great and offered many suggestions about how you could go about getting certain grants,” McAdams said.
The city of Greenwood has worked with some of those state departments on projects such as the Milwaukee Tool expansion and the new wastewater treatment plant, she said.
The conference ended Thursday with another panel session with updates from different state agencies including the Insurance Department, the Office of the State Treasurer, the Office of the Secretary of State, the Department of Finance and Administration and the Office of the State Auditor.
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
