Starkville’s no-smoking ordinance is nearing completion, and the Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to hold a referendum on the location of the proposed justice complex.
The committee responsible for drafting Starkville’s no-smoking ordinance has finalized its work and is waiting on the city attorney to finish putting the ordinance in legal language, Ward 5 Alderman Matt Cox reported. The board will hold a public hearing on the matter at its March 21 meeting.
The committee, which includes three aldermen, two proponents of the smoking ban, two opponents of the smoking ban and an MSU student, was formed last month to bring together people with different viewpoints to write the ban
“It has been a process that has worked, bringing together members from across the community,” Cox said.
In a 4-3 vote, the board also passed a proposal to hold a referendum May 16 on the location of the proposed justice complex. Mayor Dan Camp has two weeks to veto the move.
The referendum would be nonbinding, which means its purpose would be to gauge the views of the citizens of Starkville and not to approve an action.
The ballot will ask voters to choose between the former Millsaps auto dealership at the intersection of Lampkin and Jackson streets, the old Coca-Cola plant on U.S. Highway 12 and the Stark property on Hospital Road for the location of the police department, Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins, who proposed the referendum, said.
It would then ask voters to decide if the municipal court should be located in a separate building on the same site as the police station or on a different site.
Cox, who called the proposal a “classic bait and switch,” said that the board had voted unanimously at its first meeting for a bond referendum.
“This motion is to in essence exchange a binding bond referendum for a watered-down opinion poll,” he said.
Ward 1 Alderman Sumner Davis said Cox was “100 percent correct when he said we voted to hold a binding bond referendum for this project,” but that voters will be more likely to support a bond if they first get their say in the location of the building.
“In my mind, unless we settle the issue of location first and do it in such a way that no one can say the mayor and Board of Aldermen are trying to pick a site and force it on me as a voter,” the city will successfully pass the bond, he said.
Cox said he did not know how the board could put a site it hasn’t looked at on the ballot for a referendum or why the ballot asked residents to decide if they wanted the facilities to be located in a single location or separate locations.
“I feel like I need to make an amendment to ask the color of the building,” he said, adding that he wanted to know how much a referendum would cost the city.
Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey said he felt that the public had already expressed its view on the location of the facilities, since it was a major issue in last year’s campaign.
“I feel like the public had its referendum on location, at least in my ward, when they elected me to office,” he said.
The matter of the justice complex has been before the board many times, and people deserve the right to vote, Perkins said in a voice filled with emotion.
“The people want the right to vote, and now we give the people the right to vote, and we get criticized, we get ostracized,” he said.
Perkins will vote for the site the people choose, he said.
“When I go home tonight, I’m going to sleep well because I have listened to the people,” he said.
People need the right to say yes or no to a location, not choose the location themselves, Ward 2 Alderman Jim Mills said. “That’s a good right for the people to have: yes or no. Not going all over the city of Starkville saying, ‘I found a good place,'” he said.