Mississippi Today
Secretary of State Michael Watson says AG Lynn Fitch’s failure to enforce tidelands leases is costing taxpayers

Secretary of State Michael Watson says Attorney General Lynn Fitch ghosted him when he asked for help enforcing public tidelands leasing laws, and that her inaction is costing taxpayers and threatening a precious public resource as he hires a private firm to do the work.
“I write once again to express my concerns about matters in which we have requested assistance from your office to no avail,” Watson opened in a letter to Fitch on May 5. “… I have included a chronology below outlining our multiple attempts to obtain assistance from your office, as the state’s ‘law firm’ and its failure to act on behalf of my office to protect the state’s interest.”
Watson’s letter, obtained by Mississippi Today, goes on to outline how Fitch and her office for about a year ignored his requests for help in protecting property belonging to the Mississippi public.
“Having no solution and virtually no assistance from the AGO, I have no option except to retain outside counsel with the Tidelands funds to protect against these unauthorized uses,” Watson wrote to Fitch, adding that he had notified legislative leaders about the issue.
In a recent interview, Watson said Fitch since his May letter has approved him hiring outside lawyers. Watson said he is doing so at a cost up to $75,000, but that he believes that is a cost taxpayers shouldn’t bear because Fitch has a team of staff attorneys on payroll that could do the work.
Mississippi has more than 60 miles of coastline, with 27 miles of man-made public beach. In many areas, there is private ownership of coastline land out to the mean high tide, but water-bottoms subject to the ebb and flow of the tide are owned by the public, held in trust by the state. Upland private landowners have “littoral” rights to the water and can build small piers or docks. Businesses such as casinos, hotels or restaurants and public entities can lease these tidelands from the state if they receive proper environmental permits. These lease payments are returned to local governments on the Coast and used for tidelands management, conservation, reclamation, preservation and enhancement of public access to the water.
Mississippi currently has 152 tidelands leases, and collects between $10 million and $12 million a year from them.
Watson, a Coast native, said he’s run into a problem with “entities both public and private, who have either failed to obtain a lease or failed to make lease payments” on tidelands. He said there are currently about 25-30 entities who are “trespassing,” or using tidelands without a lease. About a dozen entities subleasing tidelands from another state agency have not been paying rent.
At the time he wrote Fitch the letter, Watson said, the Mississippi Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi was behind in its $5,000 annual tidelands rent, but it has since paid up. Watson noted that none of the Coast’s casinos, some of the largest lessors of tidelands, are behind on rent or trespassing without leases.
Fitch through a spokeswoman declined to be interviewed for this article. Her spokeswoman issued a statement that said there is a long history of outside counsel working with Mississippi secretaries of state on tidelands cases.
“Public Trust Tidelands is a unique and complex area of law and there are a number of firms, particularly on the Coast, with expertise and experience in this field,” said Fitch spokeswoman Debbee Hancock.
But Watson said the issues he’s asking with help for are not complex tidelands litigation, but “basic contract and trespass law.” He said the cost of hiring outside lawyers is unwarranted for such simple enforcement.
Watson said Fitch’s office also threw a wrench in his efforts to enforce tidelands leasing laws last year when the AG sided with the Department of Marine Resources over the secretary of state’s office.
DMR is the agency tasked with issuing permits for construction on tidelands. Watson wanted DMR to require entities to have a proper tidelands lease with his office before granting such permits. DMR said it shouldn’t be required to do so, and Fitch agreed.
A recent state Supreme Court ruling, Watson said, adds urgency to the need to enforce public tidelands leasing. Watson’s office in 2021 had filed a lawsuit over a plan by Biloxi and Harrison County to lease property to RW Development to build a new city pier. Watson claimed a state tidelands lease was required for the project — although his office offered one rent-free to help the city project. But the state high court agreed with a lower court ruling that city piers had been built for many decades without requiring a lease, so one wasn’t required.
Watson in his letter to Fitch said this precedent “demonstrates the court’s willingness to forever bar the State’s efforts to enforce rights given it by the Legislature where the State previously failed to act.” He noted that in light of that ruling, “In a desperate attempt to spark some activity from your office, you will recall I emailed you specifically on March 24, 2023, to request a meeting on these matters so that we can move forward and ensure the interests of the state are preserved.”
Watson, like his secretary of state predecessors since legalized casino gambling in the early 1990s sparked a development boom on the Coast, has faced some blowback from trying to enforce state tidelands laws and leasing. Developers, business interests and some local government leaders have claimed it hampers development.
Some environmental groups, however, have decried the state being too willing to lease tidelands and allow development in environmentally fragile tidelands, and said the Mississippi Coast could end up like other coastal cities where private development hampers public access to the water.
Robert Wiygul, an environmental attorney who represents citizens and public interest groups, told Mississippi Today that competing interests with tidelands and who exactly controls the land make for extremely complex scenarios, but state leaders should ultimately ensure that the public’s rights are protected.
“Mississippi law says it’s the public policy of the state to preserve coastal wetlands and ecosystems,” Wiygul said. “That doesn’t mean no commercial development in tidelands, but it does mean that any kind of development has to be very carefully evaluated.”
Last year, the Biloxi Businessmen’s Club wrote Watson a letter asking him to lay off tidelands enforcement and “take a more favorable stance towards economic development and move on to the more pressing business handled by your office.”
Watson responded to that missive by saying he supports Coast development but, “I will not turn from the statutory duty given this office by the Legislature and ‘focus on the other important jobs’ of my office when any municipality, county or region of the state seeks to be creative with the law.”
Watson said dealing with public tidelands is a balancing act, and “the idea behind the public trust tidelands is that the entire Coast and the entire state benefits and people have access to the Lord’s natural resources … That’s incredibly important to balance economic development with preservation. The Coast is a huge economic driver for this state … We have, in my opinion, done a great job balancing that.”
Watson said his fellow Republican Fitch is a good friend and he is uncertain why she has been recalcitrant about helping enforce tidelands laws.
“Enforcing some things can be unpopular or can ruffle some feathers,” Watson said. “I’m not saying that’s the case here, but sometimes people go along to get along.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming
A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.
The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.
The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other.
The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts.
But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents.
The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.
Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals.
Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation.
The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court
The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans.
The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district.
It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week.
While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races.
The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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