See what Jackson, MS, police, fire departments asked for in budget meetings

Jackson City Council members heard budget requests on Friday, Aug. 29, from three department heads — Jackson Police Department, Jackson Fire Department and Department of Public Works — for fiscal year 2025-2026.

The hour and 15 minute-meeting adjourned after each department presented their presentations to the council.

See what each department said about its budget:

Jackson Police Department

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones, who was recently appointed as interim chief of the Jackson Police Department, appeared first before the council.

Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade, who announced his resignation on Aug. 26, was absent from the meeting. Jones attended in Wade’s place. Wade’s resignation takes effect Sept. 5.

For the coming year, Jones is requesting a $37.8 million budget, slightly increased from the previous year’s budget around $36 million.

The proposed budget allocation for FY 25-26 was presented as follows:

• Personnel service to cover salaries and benefits: $30,876,452

• Supplies and materials for items used in daily operations: $2,216,227

• Other services and charges to pay for contracted services and training: $2,032,265

• Capital outlay to pay for funds for purchasing assets such as vehicles and technology: $1,345,415

• Grants and contributions to allocate money to community programs: $1,310,066

• Debt service to cover repayment of borrowed funds: $25,858

“The budget reflects an unwavering commitment to serving the community with a clear focus on efficiency, transparency and integrity in every action that we take,” Jones said.

For two years in a row, the council approved pay raises for JPD. Jones said the department is not asking for pay raises for this new fiscal year.

Jones said instead, JPD is aksing for the council to allocate $437,820 for eight patrol vehicles upfitted with items such as radios, technology and emergency equipment. Jones said for the previous fiscial year, $736,028 was allocated to fund 15 upfitted patrol vehicles.

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As it relates to the vehicles, Jones said there have been discussions about lease purchasing police cars through Enterprise Fleet Management.

“For approximately $587,000, you can get 42 vehicles on this lease purchase agreement. You can get 100 vehicles for approximately $1.5 million. And you can get 84 vehicles for approximately $1.2 million for this program,” Jones said. “But this money from my understanding would be have to be budgeted every year for these for these vehicles.”

Wade 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell asked Jones about how funding for license plate readers and 25 additional cameras were accounted for in the budget. Jones said it was not included in this budget. Grizzell stated the issue would be addressed through amendments.

Jackson Fire Department

Speaking after Jones was Jackson Fire Department Chief RaSean Thomas, who disclosed that the current budget level is $25,935,321, which is 93% of the department’s personnel services and 7% of operational needs.

Details were presented as follows:

• Building maintenance: $73,238

• Motor vehicle repairs: $250,000

According to Thomas, since Oct. 1, 2024, the department received 11,316 incident calls, 501 smoke scares, 292 structure fires and 151 vehicle fires.

Thomas said the department operates 21 fire stations, 12 engines, six ladder trucks, five rescue units and one mini-pumper.

“The budget we’ve presented before the council today will suffice the needs that we need for this coming fiscal year,” Thomas said.

After Thomas finished his presentation, Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote asked, “Is $73,000 enough to take care of 21 fire stations?”

Thomas answered, “It’s enough to start the process. We’re looking for other funding, federal funding to assist with that. The mayor and the administration are working hard to make sure we secure funding to ensure that we’re about to rehab our stations, but we understand it’s a long process.”

Foote reponded, “If you divide 73 by 21, you only end up with three or four thousand dollars, and that’s not near enough money. We need to allocate a whole lot more money to maintaining 21 different fire stations, that firemen live in, have showers, plumbing and air conditioning and all the other things people normally expect out of their residence. You can’t take care of 21 buildings with only a budget of $73,000. That needs to be adjusted.”

Foote urged council members to prioritize increasing funding for the fire stations and suggested they “triple, quadruple, or quintuple” the proposed amount, citing the poor conditions of many of the city’s fire stations.

Department of Public Works

Coming near the end of the meeting, the Public Works Department presented updates that were led by Interim CAO and Interim Public Works Director Peter Teeuwissen, alongside two other department members.

The department is asking for a flat budget of $16,557,043. The breakdown of the budget was not read aloud.

“We clearly need much more than $16 million to maintain the infrastructure of the city of Jackson. Let me make that clear,” Teeuwissen said. “The department itself is not very efficiently organized. And so before we come seeking more money, what we seek is to put these numbers in place. Then allow us, during this upcoming fiscal year, to better consolidate our resources.”

One item the department proposed was moving grass-cutting and seasonal crews to the public works division to ensure fully staffed, properly scheduled teams across multiple areas. According to Teeuwissen, the public works division currently has 177 authorized positions, with 174 filled — a sharp decline from the nearly 500 employees it employed in previous years.

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“We need more employees, but we’re not there yet,” Teeuwissen said, adding the department rather maximize current staff before requesting additional hires.

The department also requested the council raise custodians’ pay from $11 to $12.46 per hour, noting that maintenance workers received a raise from $9 to $14 in a previous budget while custodians did not. Teeuwissen urged the council to consider the increase.

“That is not $14 where maintenance was, but having met with a number of the custodians, they are understanding that we necessarily can’t do that in one year. But if we would show some good faith, they would certainly be pleased,” Teeuwissen said.

Teeuwissen also mentioned the department may pursue challenging U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate on if the public works division “can get out of the business of having to subsidize JXN Water employees.”

Wingate appointed JXN Water Interim Third-Party Manager Ted Henifin in 2022 to manage Jackson’s water and sewer systems. Henifin later established JXN Water to operate the utilities under federal oversight.

Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS city council hears police, fire, public works budgets 2025