Biloxi Council asked to approve hiring CPA, lobbyist, full-time judge

BILOXI -- Councilwoman Dixie Newman asked for a quarterly report Tuesday to keep up with the new hires the administration is asking the council to approve.

On Tuesday the council agreed to hire R. Scott Levanway at a cost of $2,500 a month as a lobbyist. City attorney Gerald Blessey said his job would be primarily to help advance the Gulf Coast Fiber Initiative in the state legislature -- "Be our eyes in the legislature to make sure our ask is given proper attention."

Gulfport Council is expected to pay the other half of Levanway's monthly fee.

The council also approved elevating municipal Judge James Steele from part-time to full-time. The additional expense is $35,687 a year and Blessey said, "It's needed now."

The council met in executive session Tuesday to get an update on the lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the city is jailing people for non-payment of their fines. The council did not take any action following the executive session.

Councilman Paul Tisdale went down the list of new hires discussed in a morning workshop and the afternoon meeting:

-- 15 or more people in a new engineering department. The city's contract with HNTB to oversee the $365 million infrastructure project ends in February and Biloxi plans to take the oversight in house by creating a separate engineering department.

-- A new public works director. Current director Dan Gaillet would move to oversee the engineering department.

-- A new director of administration/chief financial officer, who must be a Certified Public Accountant, to keep financial reports for the infrastructure project and oversees all the city's financial concerns.

-- Other positions on the list are a new assistant of public affairs, a municipal clerk court and an administrative assistant.

Tisdale also asked how the civic innovation and development officer's salary is in the budget but not on the pay scale.

David Nichols, chief administrative officer, said the council approves the personnel budget annually and the mayor can move positions during the year. The council does vote when there is a budget increase.

Also on Tuesday, F. Cliff Kirkland reported that all five cities in Harrison County have joined the Gulf Coast Broadband Initiative and He expects all 12 cities and three counties eventually to be part of the project to bring accessible and affordable higher speed internet across South Mississippi.

Last week Gov. Phil Bryant pledged $5 million of the settlement from TransOcean toward the project. The fines for the Gulf oil spill are paid over a number of years and Blessey said additional money could be added in future years.

Mayor Andrew "FoFo" Gilich estimates it will cost $15 million to develop a fiber ring across the three Coast counties. Some cable and phone providers already have areas of fiber optic cable in the ground but they don't offer it to everyone, Kirlkland said.

"Not everyone is all that happy with us, with the cities," Gilich said.

Biloxi officials are optimistic they will soon have an organization representing all the municipalities that will speak as one voice and seek state and federal funding for the fiber ring.

Removed from the agenda was a first reading of an ordinance to allow short-term rentals in some areas of the city.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Biloxi Council asked to approve hiring CPA, lobbyist, full-time judge ."