NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson said he’ll pursue legal charges against any Natchez alderman who “leaked” information discussed at board meetings closed to the public.
“If it is found that any of you — in coming out of that executive session — have shared that with anyone outside of that room, it will be investigated and you will be prosecuted,” the mayor told the six aldermen during their Tuesday meeting.
Gibson alleged aldermen he didn’t publicly name disclosed “important details” to others not privy to discussions held at a recent closed-door board meeting with the mayor. He said it was concerning personnel issues that the public was not supposed to know about.
While government boards can hold secretive meetings to discuss certain subjects – such as someone’s job performance, lawsuit strategy or business development – it’s uncertain if a board member can be prosecuted for sharing such information with someone not in the meeting.
When asked after Tuesday’s meeting what state law makes it illegal to disclose information discussed in executive sessions, Gibson said that’s a question for city attorney Bryan Callaway to answer.
The mayor did say it’s “despicable that anyone would willingly spread confidential information gained during discussion of personnel matters for the purposes of disparaging a person’s reputation for personal or political means — especially when mistruths are then spoken and spread.”
During Tuesday’s board meeting, the mayor also refuted “rumors” that Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry was temporarily suspended from his job as punishment imposed by the mayor and aldermen. Calling such gossip “laughable,” Gibson said Daughtry was absent from a recent board meeting while on “a well-deserved vacation.”
The mayor also rebutted what he called “mistruths” in Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten’s published assertions that the Natchez Police Department is unsuitable for housing the city-county’s emergency dispatching operations. The mayor said the NPD building does not have roof leaks and is not infested with snakes, as Patten noted it was when he worked there as a police officer several years ago.
Patten has said he’s against moving the Natchez-Adams County E911 operations to the NPD on Devereaux Drive, which has been proposed by the mayor and aldermen as an alternative to where emergency-call dispatchers are currently located: the problem-plagued Adams County Jail’s basement.
The sheriff has advocated moving the city-county E911 operations to a stand-alone facility independent of the city and county law-enforcement agencies.
As city and county officials review proposals, Gibson said they will “work together in good faith” for relocating the E911 operations center.
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The board on Tuesday closed the public out of discussions about the Broadway Street train depot’s lease. While movie producers Tate Taylor and John Norris began leasing the city-owned building two years ago, their plans have stalled for renovating it into a restaurant and entertainment venue. Restoring the century-old train station has been hampered by cost inflation and supply snags.
After the Board of Aldermen selected Norris and Taylor in 2019 to pursue their plans for opening the old depot last year, aldermen subsequently revised the lease with an October 2022 deadline to have it operating.
The board also closed the public out of its discussions Tuesday about the agreement it has with the Adams County Board of Supervisors for the Natchez Fire Department to respond to fires outside the city. Issues center around whether the county should pay the city more for such services.
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