The Jackson City Council confirmed several members of Mayor John Horhn’s new administration, but a notable position was missing from the agenda: chief financial officer.

Fidelis Malembeka, a former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba appointee, said after heading up Jackson’s finances for the last four years, Tuesday was his last day with the city but that he would still be around to answer questions. 

Jackson plans to announce a permanent chief financial officer appointment “very soon,” Horhn told Mississippi Today. In the meantime, to aid in the development of next year’s budget, the city has contracted with Michael Thomas of Systems Consultants Associates to create performance indicators for city departments.

“He is evaluating the financial department to see where there are greater efficiencies that can be had, and he is also looking at any possibility that a deeper dive may need to take place on a forensic audit,” Horhn said. 

Thomas’s contract, which the city opted to issue without a bid, is not to exceed $50,000. The shift in financial leadership comes just after the city adopted a flat budget earlier this month — a precautionary move resulting in part from the city’s failure to maintain annual audits. 

The city is still working to complete its 2023 audit, which it was supposed to finalize last year but faced challenges in doing so due to the privatization of the city’s water system in 2022. The financial statements from the city and the water utility must be combined, but JXN Water, the third party manager, produced an audit by calendar year instead of municipal fiscal year, making the reports difficult to reconcile, Thomas said.

Thomas said the city’s goal is to finish both the 2023 and 2024 audits by next September. 

As an example of a performance indicator Systems Consultants Associates might recommend, Thomas mentioned the city’s Public Works Department. The department might be given a timeframe to complete a task — say, 24 hours from the time a pothole is identified to the time it is paved — that the department could be measured against. 

Thomas said it’s too early in his assessment to tell which departments are already effectively measured versus ones that need new benchmarks.

It’s also up to the administration to take the consultant’s recommendations. Thomas said the last time he helped the city in this capacity was during the Tony Yarber administration. He was tasked with finding efficiencies, such as with the in-house print shop — an enterprise fund that generates revenue for the city. Instead of using outside companies for the Jackson’s printing needs, Thomas said he suggests the city use its own shop. 

Public Works, a crucial yet challenged city department, has lacked a permanent leader for nearly two years now. The city council filled the vacancy Tuesday, confirming Lorenzo Anderson as the next director.

WLBT reported that Anderson most recently served as Washington County’s engineer while working for IMS Engineers – a familiar contractor to the city of Jackson – but was removed in 2024. 

This work history was not raised by council members during the confirmation, but Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes noted that he’d recently had an opportunity to check out  Anderson’s former jurisdiction. 

“I had a chance to go to Washington County, to the Delta Blues festival. I presented Bobby Rush a plaque, and the roads are great,” Stokes said. 

Just after confirming Anderson, Horhn announced the city had signed on a $40 million bond issue for ditches, drainage, street and bridge repair that “might have just made Mr. Anderson’s job a little easier.”

The city is still working to fill two other major positions: the Jackson Police Department Chief after Joseph Wade stepped down in August, and director of planning and development, a position Von Anderson has held since July on an interim basis.

The city is holding listening sessions to engage the public on the search for a new police chief. As for Planning and Development, Horhn said the city is still working through applications.

“We think we need a planning and development director with more breadth and depth of experience,” he said. 

Shortly after his inauguration, Horhn announced that Grace Fisher, communications director at the Mississippi Department of Corrections, would serve as the city’s new communications director, but after the announcement, she remained at MDOC. 

The council on Tuesday confirmed Nic Lott, a government affairs consultant and former Republican gubernatorial staffer, as the director of communications and constituent services. In addition to spearheading the city’s social media, Lott will work on a committee alongside Information Technology Director Nathan Slater, also confirmed Tuesday, on rebuilding the website. 

Ward 5 Councilmember Vernon Hartley asked Lott if he would work with council members who he said have not had the opportunity to coordinate with the city’s communications department in the past. 

“I believe we should go about telling the story of what we’re doing in the city better,” Lott said.  

A staple in city and county government, Pieter Teeuwissen, was also confirmed as chief administrative officer. Stokes, the most tenured member of the council, recounted that when he left the city in 2012 for a stint on the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, he asked Teeuwissen, then city attorney, to follow him there.

“I asked him would he consider coming to Hinds County to keep us out of jail and he came to Hinds County, did a wonderful job, kept us out of jail,” Stokes said.

Speaking before her confirmation, Municipal Clerk Angela Harris said she was continuing efforts she began in 2022 to digitize the city’s files. 

While confirming Harris, two council members urged the mayor to look at bringing the city clerk’s office back under the council, where it resided before the Lumumba administration moved it under the mayor.

“We have that under review. We have just been dealing with crisis management since we started here 12 weeks ago and as things settle down, we’ll get into the reorganization that we’ve been talking about,” Horhn responded.

During the confirmation of City Attorney Drew Martin, Hartley recommended taking more frequent legal action to hold parties accountable for the poor conditions, such as blight, that Jacksonians are experiencing. He implored the legal staff to find more ways “to make sure that we have our knife sharpened when it comes to these issues affecting our quality of life,” Hartley said. 

“We hear the complaints, we hear the issues, and a lot of times there is a legal remedy, and I’d like for us to be a little bit more nimble, a little but more flexible in applying it so we can get some results so we can’t tell the folks that there’s nothing we can do,” Hartley said.

When it came time to confirm Director of Human Resources Toya Martin, a Lumumba holdover, Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell said he was “completely against” the nomination and said he had drafted a resolution for a vote of no confidence in the director he may introduce later. Martin was confirmed by a 5-2 vote.

The council also confirmed six municipal court judges, Taurean Buchanan, Kevin Bass, Lilli Bass, June Hardwick, Jeffrey Reynolds and Virginia Watkins.

The following cabinet appointments by Horhn were confirmed Tuesday:

• Chief Administrative Officer Pieter Teeuwissen
• Fire Chief RaSean Thomas
• Director of Human and Cultural Services Pamela Junior
• Information Technology Director Nathan Slater
• Director of Communications and Constituent Services Nic Lott
• Municipal Clerk Angela Harris
• Director of Human Resources Toya Martin
• City Attorney Drew Martin
• Director of Public Works Lorenzo Anderson

Upcoming listening sessions for the ongoing police chief search:

• Tuesday, September 30 – 5:30pm – First Presbyterian Church, Miller Hall, 1390 N. State St., Jackson, MS
• Wednesday, October 1 – 5:30pm – Greater Mount Calvary Baptist Church, 1900 Robinson Rd., Jackson, MS
• Visit www.jacksonms.gov/survey to share input on public safety in Jackson

Jackson Editor Anna Wolfe contributed to this report.