LAUREL —
The Laurel City Council voted 4-2 Tuesday against rescinding a recent
resolution targeting what they call exploitative payday lending
practices.
Last month, the council approved a resolution that asked the
Mississippi State Legislature to take action against such practices
during the current session. Laurel Mayor Melvin Mack also put a
moratorium on payday lending institutions establishing in the city.
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However, after a presentation from a state group that represents the
payday lending industry, Mack had a change of heart. He lifted the
moratorium and asked for council members to rescind the resolution.
“I believe we acted hastily,” Mack said Tuesday. “I wanted to hear both
sides of the story. We did and this is where we’re at right now.”
Ward 7 Councilman Trey Chinn, who approved the resolution, said he doesn’t believe the council made a hasty decision.
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“When it gets to the council agenda, there’s no respect to the
administration,” he said. “It’s purely a council decision. The council
has the option to do their own research.”
Chinn said the council shouldn’t get in the habit of rescinding
resolutions just because someone provides another side of a story.
“We should make a decision and stand by it,” he said. “There are some
question marks around this order such as why it came back up and what’s
the nature of it.”
Ward 2 Councilman Tony Wheat, the board’s president, said he was also
confident in his decision — which was against the original resolution.
“The information given (by the Mississippi Center for Justice) was
filled with inaccuracies,” he said. “The mayor has the right to bring it
back up.”
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Wheat agreed that the Mississippi Center for Justice representative
presented payday lending institutions “in the worse possible light.”
However, he said he does have a problem with the high interest rates
given those loans.
Ward 3 Councilman Tony Thaxton also voted to rescind the resolution.
Ward 6 Councilman Johnny Magee said he does believe payday loans are “predatory.”
“I stand by the fact that there should be other options made,” he said.
“A lot of people in Laurel use those services because they don’t have
anything else. It doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing for them.”
Chinn said payday loans have “affected people’s lives.”
“We have to develop a way that we’re not debt driven by way of payday
lending institutions,” he said. “We don’t get tax money from them. Some
of these people can’t pay their property taxes, and the loans are due in
full not in installments.”
Wheat said that people also put themselves in debt through credit cards, asking whether the council should also target those.
In other matters, the council adopted:
• A resolution to enter into a change order with C. B. Developers on
the 2009 SRF Water System Improvements Project contingent upon
Mississippi Department of Health approval for loan eligibility.
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• An order requesting approval to advertise for bids for a “Valve
Insertion Device” which is required by the Mississippi State Fire
Department.
• An order approving lot cleaning assessment bills on a number of properties.
The council also set a public hearing on Feb. 8 for a number of
properties to determine whether or not the properties are in such a
state of uncleanness so as to be a menace to the public health and
safety to the community.