Despite a new law recreating the Jackson Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport board, the governor and lieutenant governor have agreed to maintain the status quo for the time being, a federal judge noted in a court filing on Monday.
The law went into effect July 1. It would replace the five-member board of commissioners selected by Jackson officials with a nine-member commission appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and supervisors in Madison and Rankin counties as well as Jackson officials.
However, in late June, the city of Jackson and members of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority asked to join an existing lawsuit filed by local resident and former airport board member Jeffery Stallworth seeking to block the reorganization of the airport board.
Attorneys for the state filed a motion Tuesday arguing that Stallworth lacks the legal standing to sue. The papers also claim the Legislature and the governor can’t be sued for their official actions.
A hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction was rescheduled until after the July 1 date when the new law would have taken effect. Court documents signed by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves show that a telephone conference now is scheduled for July 20.
The plaintiffs argue that the airport legislation “seeks to ‘take,’ ‘convert’ or otherwise ‘strip’ the City of property rights and municipal purposes.” Supporters of the law, including Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, say the state created the airport board and therefore has the authority to reconfigure the body.
Rankin County named Chance Carter, of Community Bank of Brandon, as its selection to the new regional airport authority created by the Legislature. Madison County selected retired air guardsman Brig. Gen. Bob Matthews as its representative to the board.
In addition to the Rankin and Madison representatives, the adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard and the head of the Mississippi Development Authority would also sit on the authority, under the new law.
Brig. Gen. Janson Boyles will replace Augustus Collins as adjutant general when Collins retires in September.
The governor would get to name two others to the board, but they must live in the city of Jackson.
The mayor of Jackson gets one selection, who would serve a one-year term initially, as would the Jackson City Council.
Mayor Tony Yarber has said that he would not make a selection. Neither Bryant nor Reeves responded to requests for comment.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.