Budget amendments and proposals highlighted the Jackson City Council’s monthly meeting at Jackson City Hall, Tuesday.

“Today, we had a really busy City Council meeting, a lot of process issues that we walked through – new zoning ordinance revisions, some abandoned alleys that we had to approve,” said City Councilman Paul Taylor, “The budget and audit committee gave their annual report … a lot of things we’ve gone over the last year … an internal auditor hired, a new external auditor to look over our financial situation and provide us a financial report at the end of each fiscal year.

“We took a lot of things in the budget and audit committee, and we’ll continue to do that for this next year and work on being as transparent and fiscally responsible as possible.”

Jody Pickens, District Attorney General, 26th Judicial District, expressed his appreciation when the City Council approved $88,590.26 for a gang prosecutor by unanimous vote.

“I was pleased the Mayor and City Council voted to fund a position for a gang prosecutor,” Pickens said, “Swift and tough prosecution of gang crimes is essential to deterring gang activity and making our city safer.

“Equally important was their decision to form a committee to study the implementation of an gang prevention/anti-gang curriculum.

“We have to educate young people on the dangers of becoming involved with criminal street gangs if we hope to effectively deal with the gang issues we have in our community.”

(PHOTO: Jody Pickens, District Attorney General, 26th Judicial District, thanks council member Marda Wallace for her support of a gang prosecutor)