The Council of Governments, founded in 1969, builds relationships and rapport through communication and cooperation between governmental entities. COG provides technical planning and public policy services to Lee County and its municipalities. The Council has met once a month for the last 39 years in area restaurants and meeting rooms, breaking bread together, and getting to know one another. These relationships are essential when municipality and county officials must work together on large projects such as annexation, industry recruitment, incentive packages for recruits, and utility projects.
"The council of Governments, which is very positive and very active in Lee County, brings all the govermental facilities together in a regular monthly meeting. In each of those meetings we have a meal, we talk about problems that we have, we get reports from each of the communities, and we understand the difficulties that each other is having, or we share the successes that each of the governments in the county are doing. It's the best forum that I have found for us to keep communications going and there by be very proactive and not have problems of communications and competition." - Larry Otis, Former City of Tupelo Mayor
COG’s governing body includes the mayors from each of the nine municipalities which are Baldwyn, Guntown, Nettleton, Plantersville, Saltillo, Shannon, Sherman, Tupelo, and Verona, and the Lee County Board of Supervisors. Others who attend the monthly meetings are area legislators, other county elected officials, aldermen, and city councilmen. (Links to the Municipalities city websites are at the bottom of this page.)
Click HERE to download a PDF of the 2012 COG Planning and Development Services Brochure
Some accomplishments throughout the years as a result of COG are the Lee County land use plan in 1970, a county-wide beautification program in 1977, a county-wide mass transit system in 1977, a rural fire protection program in 1978, the regional water supply program in 1987, the regional transportation plan in 1987, the numerical road system and enhanced 911 program for Lee County in 1989, updated comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances for the municipalities beginning in 1996, the PUL Alliance in 2001, and much more. The impact of the Council of Governments over the last four decades is almost immeasurable. The current COG officers are: Mr. David Rumbarger, Secretary/Treasurer; Supervisor Joe McKinney, Chairman; Mayor R.V. Adams, Vice-Chairman; and Mayor Jimmy Anderson, Immediate Past Chairman.
