Holloway to nominate new Public Works director

Mayor A.J. Holloway will be asking the Biloxi City Council to hire the former director of the Jackson Public Works Department as Biloxi’s new streets-and-drainage chief when the council meets this afternoon at 1:30.

Dan Gaillet

The meeting, which is open to the public and will be held at City Hall, has an agenda of 13 items.

Holloway is proposing to make Dan Gaillet Biloxi’s new Public Works director to replace Richard Sullivan, who left the post 11 months ago. Gaillet led the Jackson Public Works Department since 2010 under Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and served until last month. He was one of four department heads dismissed by new Mayor Chokwe Lumumba.

The 53-year-old Gaillet — pronounced “guy-yea” — is a longtime city traffic engineer and former director of the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District, which serves the Ross Barnett Reservoir.

While in Jackson, Gaillet helped develop a $17.5-year, $400 million plan to help improve the city’s failing sewer system. He also oversaw the city’s capital projects program skyrocket from 25 projects to 150 projects and worked with MDOT to improve Jackson’s traffic camera program.

He also used federal funds to create the state’s first bike-pedestrian path, and developed the traffic pattern and flow that helped transform Jackson’s Fondren area into a second downtown.

As Jackson’s Public Works director, Gaillet oversaw an annual operating budget of $195 million and nearly 500 personnel. In Biloxi, the city’s Public Works Department today has an operating budget of $9.96 million and 111 personnel.

In other business today, the City Council will be asked to approve several measures involving the city’s ongoing infrastructure work, as well as consider a request by Mayor Holloway for the city to provide $6,000 to help buy a fire truck for the city’s fire museum, and approve a bid for trimming and removing trees from the public right of way.

The agenda also includes first readings of two measures: one that establishes slip fees at the city’s commercial harbor, and one that would remove Civil Service protection for future city hires.

Read the agenda: To read the entire agenda and supporting documents, click here.

News and notes

No DRC: The Development Review Committee will not meet this week.

Traffic Update: To see Public Works Department’s road construction update for today, click here.