Administration and city council come together in leadership workshop

While the administration and the Meridian City Council have been having disagreements, particularly Chief Administrative Officer Richie McAlister and Councilman Weston Lindemann, today, however, things are looking to be more positive.

“Me and Councilman Lindemann have been working on some projects, and it’s been interesting.” -McAlister

Mississippi Power is partnering with the administration and the council to go through a leadership workshop that includes projects and going through a program called, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

“In the end, we both want the same thing and that’s what’s best for the city of Meridian and the citizens here. When you find common ground, you find a way to move forward. That’s not saying that down the road we won’t get into it, but that’s just government and that’s finding common ground and compromise to move forward. We appreciate Mississippi Power putting this on and helping us move forward,” says McAlister.

While McAlister and Lindemann have been working together during this workshop, Lindemann says putting it into practice when it comes to city business can be quite different.

“Its still a matter of trust. It’s a matter of what is our end goal and how do we get there, and if we’re not on the same page with those three things; if we can’t trust, if we don’t have the same end goal in mind and we don’t know how to get there, then it doesn’t matter what workshop you send people to. You have to have those three things at least on the same page, otherwise its just not going to work,” says Lindemann.

“I think one thing is, is that we’ll become a lot more efficient. We’ll be able to work together on projects, and you’ll see stuff start to come to fruition a lot quicker than they have been in the past.” -McAlister

They can at least both agree on one thing: the citizens come first.

“I think if we’re able to work together in a way where there’s more trust established and we have the same end goals in mind, then moving forward we can make a lot of these changes a lot quicker and move onto bigger issues that Meridianites want to see us accomplish and get things done for the communities.” -Lindemann

McAlister says he hopes the continue these workshops at least once or twice a year.