FRIARS POINT — As the city of Friars Point is rewriting job descriptions for all departments, one of mayor James Washington’s main focuses is providing the youth more opportunities.
The city council had its first of a series of work sessions on job descriptions for all employees in executive session Tuesday morning and Washington will be looking to the police department to help him reach his goals.
According to Washington, the last time city job descriptions were updated was 1977, which was the first year of his first stint in office. He is currently in his third go-round as mayor and took office in July 2017.
When the updates are completed, Washington said he hopes more city employees are hired, particularly in the police department.
There are currently three police officers employed in the city of Friars Point.
“Of course, right now, the big push is for protection,” he said.
“If everything works out, we are going to get some more people.”
The mayor said the police department has been involved with the community for a long time and partaken in activities such as first aid and life saving.
“Communitywide, that’s one of the things our police department has always done, be visible and working with the community and stuff like that to enhance it,” Washington said.
Washington said he wants to involve the police department in the process of the city working with Coahoma Community College to get the GED program extended. That would help kids who have dropped out get back to school and provide them with a positive activity to be involved with.
“I think things go a little deeper,” Washington said. “We’ve got to make sure that our young folks have viable duties, responsibilities, outlook and a goal in life.
“We want to get them doing viable things and good things and doing positive things to be able to make a living for themselves rather than standing around throwing bricks and bottles.”
Washington said some of the other departments city officials looked at rewriting job descriptions for were city hall employees and the maintenance department.
“We want to update our job description. That’s all,” Washington said. “We don’t have any issues. We just wanted it updated. When we get through, we’re going to give it to our attorney (Cheryl Webster) to make sure that everything is legal in there — that we can do it. We just want to make sure everybody is doing what they’re hired to do.”
The date of the next work session has not been determined.
Washington said he would talk with Webster about everything that happened during Tuesday’s work session to make sure he was on the right track before moving forward.
The next regular city council meeting is scheduled for January 2019, but a work session could be held earlier.
