The Jimmie Rodgers Museum on 22nd Avenue is a popular tourist destination for those seeking to learn more about the musician dubbed the “father of country music.”

Meridian City Council members on Tuesday heard from local residents and organizations who came to voice their concerns over the council’s distribution of charitable contributions.

Council members heard from representatives from the Meridian Public School District Foundation for Excellence and the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, both of which did not receive funding from the council this year.

“We need to invest in our city schools,” said Neil Henry, president of the MPSD foundation.

Henry said his organization, which exists to support the teachers and students of Meridian schools, had been discussed for some time and formally organized near the end of 2022. Having recently completed its first year in operation, he said the foundation has done a lot but still has much more to do.

The foundation, Henry said, is completely separate from Meridian Public School District, and works to address need that the school district can’t always address easily. The group has partnered with the Meridian Housing Authority to educate parents and children about literacy, reads to pre-k students each Friday, helps sponsor student activities and more.

Marion Mayor Larry Gill, who serves on the MPSD Foundation board, said the schools and the community are tied together. What happens at one will impact the other, he said.

“For the city to be successful, the schools need to be successful,” he said.

Leslie Lee, executive director of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, said Meridian and Jimmie Rodgers go back for decades, and the city has long benefited from the tourism generated by the foundation’s programming.The city is known nationally and internationally as the home of Jimmie Rodgers, Lee said, and the annual nine-day Jimmie Rodgers Festival draws thousands of visitors who stay in Meridian hotels, eat in Meridian restaurants, shop in Meridian stores and more.

“I want to make sure the council understands the importance of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation,” she said.

Getting ready to celebrate its 71st year, the annual festival is the longest running music festival in the nation, Lee said, and has been kicked off for the past two years by the Singing Brakeman Century Ride, which alone draws more than 100 visitors to the Queen City.

Greg Elliot, vice president of the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation executive board, asked council members to imagine the millions of dollars the festival has generated for Meridian over the past 70 years. Other cities would love to have the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, museum and festival in their towns, he said, but he believes that shouldn’t happen.

“Meridian has a long history of supporting the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, and I don’t see any reason we should stop now,” he said.

Councilman Joe Norwood Jr., who serves as council president, said there has been some confusion about the council’s process of choosing charitable contributions, with reports of secret voting taking place. That, he said, is not what happened.

Nonprofit organizations requesting funding from the city are required to fill out an application, with a deadline each year in July. The deadline is set in July as that is when the council begins to work on the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, he said.

For each budget year, the City Council decides how much money it wants to allocate for charitable giving, and puts that money in the legislative fund to be divided up later. For fiscal year 2024, which runs through Sept. 30, the council set aside $400,000 for contributions.

Once the deadline has been reached, the applications are turned over to the city attorney’s office to review and make sure the council can legally support the organization, Norwood said.

City Attorney Will Simmons said there are a number of laws that govern charitable giving by the city, but the one that applies to most organizations is that the city can only provide matching funds. Nonprofits must provide bank statements or other proof of funds in an account and cannot rely on pledges or other funding commitments as a match, he said.

“It must be in the bank ready to spend,” he said.

After the review process is complete, the council is given a list of organizations, what they requested and whether or not the group is eligible for funding. From there, Norwood said individual council members take the amount budgeted for charitable giving and distribute it among the requesting organizations how they see fit.

Those five lists are then compiled together, with the organizations selected by three or more council members receiving funding and those with two or less getting nothing, Norwood said. For those getting funding, the dollar amounts from each council member are added together and the sum divided by five, he said.

“It’s the fairest way to do it,” he said.

Both the MPSD Foundation and Jimmie Rodgers Foundation missed the deadline to have their applications submitted, Norwood said, and were not eligible to receive funding.

Lee said the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation had been invited to apply for funding after visiting the council in September and believed that invitation meant its application would still be considered.

For the MPSD Foundation, Henry said he was initially unaware of the matching requirement and requested $75,000. That request was altered in August after realizing the foundation did not have the funds to match it, he said.

Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey called for the council to reconsider both the MPSD and Jimmie Rodgers foundations’ requests as she believes the process was confusing for all involved. Lindsey also said she will support pledging an annual contribution of $30,000 to the Jimmie Rodgers Foundation going forward.

Norwood said he is against pledging funding for years into the future as the council cannot predict the finances of future city councils. The current council has itself been encumbered by two ongoing pledges for the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, which is still ongoing, and the Mississippi Children’s Museum Meridian, which was completed last year. Having dealt with inherited commitments from previous councils, Norwood said he will not vote to do the same to others.

The two foundations were just two of several organizations that did not meet the July application deadline and were ruled ineligible for funding, Councilman Dwayne Davis said. While he has nothing against either organization, Davis said revisiting two applications will open the door to revisiting all other applications as well.

Although residents may not be thrilled with its decision, Davis said the council is doing its best to be careful stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars.