Minute with the Mayor – January 7, 2026

2 comments

1. 

   Beverly Johnson

   January 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM

   The Mayor is not presenting completely accurate facts or perhaps half facts. PHI (the med vac) program is not available to all citizens of Kosciusko as he stated. PHI will not accept anyone on Medicaid, which is about 35% of the Kosciusko residents. So those citizens are not eligible for the program. It will accept those on Medicare, although under Part B Medicare med evac is covered, although with a copay which could possible be steep as med evac is very costly. Furthermore, most City employees have State Employees insurance, for either themselves or themselves and their families. This is through BX-BS. Their policy plan pays for Med Evac by air if medically necessary. So, for them, their is possible redundancy in having the City provide this additional program. Consumer protection agencies inform citizens that before they subscribe to a med evac program that they FIRST check their insurance policies to see what coverage they provide. Also, PHI clearly states that even if you are a member of their program that they DO NOT GUARANTEE that a med evac vehicle (helicopter) will be available when called on. A copter might be under maintenance, for example, or if its service area is large, it might easily be out on another call. ADDITIONALLY, Archives and History did not tell the Mayor that videos must be “kept forever.” The situation is more nuanced than that. What they informed him of is that “in the absence of a specific ruling” about how long a video must be kept, if not used for minutes, that it must be kept until there is a ruling. With the rapid acceptance throughout the state of MS by more and more Boards of Aldermen that the citizens want videotaped meetings, it is predictable that at some point in the near future, Archives and History will establish a ruling. That is different than saying that “the law” is that videos must be kept “forever.” Furthermore, the argument about expensive cloud storage being a reason to not video meetings is facetious. Cloud storage is incredibly inexpensive and the City already pays to have a contract with a Jackson (?) company to manage its computer dealings.

   Reply
2. 

   Beverly Johnson

   January 7, 2026 at 1:35 PM

   For grammar nerds, I mistakenly typed “their” for “there” and “possible” for possibly, but there is no editing function once a comment is submitted for approval.

   Reply