Business View Civil and Municipal | March 2021

26 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MARCH 2021 from the League.” BVM: How will MML continue to be a viable voice for members? Veazey: “The pandemic has probably changed forever how we operate. But one thing we’re constantly trying to do is help them find funding for infrastructure. So our focus for the next two to three years will be helping protect their current municipal revenue stream and fighting hard against unfunded mandates getting passed down to them. We’re working really hard to build a stronger relationship with our state legislators and our federal delegation because going forward it will be more important than ever for us to be engaged at the state capital and in D.C. as well. “So much of what our members gain from the Mississippi Municipal League is the networking with each other. We provide a lot of training but they learn a lot just from visiting with other city representatives because they’ve all had some of the same issues. Not having those opportunities to engage with each other is going to be a real challenge. You can only do so much virtually, so we’ll be looking at what other associations are doing and focusing on how to meet that challenge.”