§ 4-7. City-county hospital.

(a)

The mayor and city council and the county board of supervisors hereby create a hospital district in the county under the authority and provisions of Chapter 277, Laws of the Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature of 1944 (Miss. Code Ann. 1972, Section 41-13-15 et seq.), as amended, comprised of the area within supervisors districts 2, 3, and 4 and New Hope, Poplar Head and West Creek election districts of supervisors district 5, which area includes all the area of the city; which hospital district shall be the Gulfport-West Harrison County Hospital District.

(b)

All hospital property now or hereafter operated by and as a part of the hospital district shall be owned fifty (50) percent by the city and fifty (50) percent by supervisors districts 2, 3, and 4, and New Hope, Poplar Head and West Creek election districts of supervisors district 5.

(c)

The city on the one hand, shall assume, contribute and pay fifty (50) percent of the cost of maintenance, support and operation of the hospital operations of such hospital district, and supervisors districts 2, 3, and 4, and New Hope, Poplar Head and West Creek election districts of supervisors district 5, on the other hand, shall assume, contribute and pay fifty (50) percent of the cost of maintenance, support and operation of the hospital operations of such hospital district; and each through the mayor and city council on the one hand and the board of supervisors on the other hand shall, within the limits fixed by law, cause to be levied and collected sufficient taxes to pay such pro rata share of such costs, with the same levy for each supervisors district and election district within this hospital district.

(d)

The city on the one hand shall provide through the issuance of bonds or otherwise sums sufficient to pay fifty (50) percent of the cost of all future acquisitions of real and/or personal property and improvements thereof to be acquired for such hospital district, where not payable out of funds provided for in subsection (c) hereof, and the supervisors districts and election districts shall jointly provide through the issuance of bonds or otherwise sums sufficient to pay fifty (50) percent of the cost of all future acquisitions of real and/or personal property and improvements thereof to be acquired for such hospital district, where not payable out of funds provided for in subsection (c) hereof.

(e)

The Gulfport-West Harrison County Hospital District shall be operated by a board of trustees consisting of seven (7) members who shall be appointed by the mayor and city council and by the county board of supervisors as follows:

(1)

The board of trustees shall be appointed as follows:

a.

Two (2) trustees appointed by the mayor and city council for five (5) year terms shall continue to served the terms for which they have been appointed, as follows:

One (1) trustee term expiring July 18, 1995.

One (1) trustee term expiring July 18, 1997.

b.

The mayor and city council shall appoint a third trustee to serve for a term expiring July 18, 1994.

c.

Two (2) trustees appointed by the Board of Supervisors of Harrison County for five (5) year terms shall continue to serve the terms for which they have been appointed, as follows:

One (1) trustee term expiring July 18, 1993.

One (1) trustee term expiring July 18, 1994.

d.

The board of supervisors shall appoint a third trustee to serve for a term expiring July 18, 1997.

e.

The trustee appointed by the mayor and city council and the board of supervisor each as a unit with one (1) vote shall continue to serve as the seventh trustee for a term expiring July 18, 1996.

f.

The terms of each member of the board of trustees shall expire after the date of expiration as hereinabove specified without regard to the date of appointment and/or expectancy.

(2)

Upon the expiration of the terms of the first trustees, or of the terms of their successors named because of their vacation of their offices prior to the end of the term appointed, each vacancy shall be filled by appointment made by the respective appointing bodies, dependent on which body made the appointment, as hereinabove stated in subsection (1), and such trustees shall be appointed for terms of five (5) years.

(3)

All vacancies in the board of trustees, because of resignation, death or removal, prior to the expiration of the term of a trustee, shall be filled by appointment made by the original appointing body for the unexpired term of the trustee who has vacated his or her office.

(4)

The intention of the appointing bodies being that each body shall appoint or shall have appointed initially and continuously thereafter, three (3) members of the board of trustees and shall jointly agree on the seventh member; and that the terms of no less than one (1) member and no more than two (2) members of such board of trustees shall expire each year on the eighteenth of July, and the term of no more than one (1) member of each appointing body shall expire during any one (1) year.

(f)

Effective on the eighteenth day of July, 1946, the City and County Hospital of Gulfport, heretofore operated under the provisions of former sections 2999-3002, Mississippi Code of 1942 (repealed by Laws 1982, Chapter 395, section 6), pursuant to a resolution of the mayor and city council of record in Minute Book 21 at page 351, and a like resolution heretofore adopted by the county board of supervisors shall be the hospital operation of the Gulfport-West Harrison County Hospital District and owned and operated as provided above in this section, and as provided by Chapter 277, as amended (Miss. Code Ann. 1972, Section 41-13-15 et seq.); and all bills and accounts payable, all books and records, and all other personal property of every kind and description held by the hospital commission of the City and County Hospital of Gulfport and/or the hospital be delivered and/or transferred and assigned to the board of trustees of the Gulfport-West Harrison County Hospital District.

(g)

The contract, evidenced by this section and a similar resolution adopted by the county board of supervisors, may be terminated by either the mayor and city council or the county board of supervisors, to be effective on the first day of July of any year, upon either body giving to the other notice in writing of such termination not less than one (1) year prior to the effective date of such termination.

(h)

The council action from which this section derives, and the subsequent amendment to increase the composition of the board of trustees to seven (7) members, together with a similar ordinance or resolution, and a similar amendment adopted, or to be adopted by the county board of supervisors shall constitute a contract as referred to in subsection (g) above.

(Code 1963, § 14-8; Ord. No. 1916, §§ 1, 2, 12-22-92)

Cross reference

General government, Ch. 1.