Horhn supporters will help fund Jackson police. Will their donation provide perks for the chief?

By Molly Minta | Originally published by Mississippi Today

A nonprofit group formed by a key supporter of Mayor John Horhn will help pay for public safety initiatives, including support for senior police officers, under an agreement approved by the City Council. 

Jackson Rising made a donation to the city after a dispute over an employment contract Horhn proposed that would have given Jackson’s new police chief, RaShall Brackney, benefits not typically received by city department heads. 

After some council members voiced concerns during an unrecorded meeting in April, Horhn pulled the contract. The mayor vowed to find philanthropic funding for Brackney’s benefits, including severance if she is let go without cause after her first year, up to $15,000 in moving expenses and a 90-day rental stipend of $1,000. 

The City Council last week narrowly approved the agreement with Jackson Rising. The group was recently formed by attorney and former Hinds County Circuit Judge Robert Gibbs, who chaired Horhn’s mayoral transition team in 2025. It has agreed to donate up to $100,000 to an account controlled by the mayor. 

Documents submitted to the City Council did not specifically name the police chief but said the money can be used to recruit and retain senior officers, including “employment-related expenditures.” 

Gibbs did not respond to Mississippi Today’s requests for comment. Nic Lott, the city’s communications director, did not respond to the news outlet’s questions but sent a response the city had provided to WLBT. 

“This development arose organically through interactions the Mayor had with supporters and community leaders,” Lott wrote. “Citizens want to know what they can do to help.” 

The donor agreement is not the first time private donors in Jackson have supported local law enforcement. 

Meet the Hundred Club of Jackson  

Each year, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department, the Jackson Police Department, Capitol Police and city firefighters are honored at a black-tie banquet hosted by the nonprofit Hundred Club of Jackson. 

The club is primarily supported by dues-paying local businesspeople. It was founded in 1961 by “to use the old-fashioned term, ‘captains of industry,’” said Doug Boone, president of the club’s board of directors. 

“We’ve really flown under the radar most of that time,” he said, adding similar clubs exist across the country. 

In the beginning, the club offered $10,000 life insurance policies for officers, Boone said. Over the decades, that assistance morphed into providing direct financial support for families of officers killed on duty. 

“We call ourselves financial first responders,” Boone said. 

The club has also sporadically helped local police agencies with projects, including donating $25,000 to refurbish MetroOne, a helicopter used by law enforcement agencies across central Mississippi. 

Recently, Boone said the club took over the finances of another nonprofit, the Jackson Police Foundation. Boone said the foundation had long offered opportunities for people to donate equipment or money to police for backpack drives, JPD’s Christmas toy drive or other initiatives that are often “the first casualty of any kind of budget tightening.” 

“Somebody wanted to donate some money so the sheriff’s department could buy some feed for their horses for their mounted unit,” he said. 

Would the club donate to support the police chief’s benefits? Boone said his 12-member board would have to think on it. But, he added, the club has been contemplating ways to use its resources to support Jackson’s entire police department – and help sustain the new energy Boone believes Horhn has brought to the city.

“Put it this way,” he said. “Nobody’s come and asked us yet.”

How would the agreement work?  

While the Hundred Club of Jackson sometimes reimburses local agencies for requests, Jackson Rising is making a direct donation to the city. 

Once the city takes control of the donation, the agreement says the money would become public dollars, subject to Mississippi’s transparency laws. Jackson Rising has agreed to donate an initial $50,000, according to the agreement, as well as pursue an additional $50,000. 

“Donor shall have no authority to direct personnel decisions, compensation decisions, promotions, discipline or law-enforcement operations,” the agreement says. 

To that end, the agreement also says the money is not “earmarked” for a specific employee and that Jackson Rising shall not have “control” over recipients. But the donation can be used for executive recruitment efforts, retention initiatives and “relocation or transition assistance” — spending areas that WLBT first reported overlap with Brackney’s proposed employment contract. 

At a May 18 meeting, the day before the council approved the contract, Ward 1 Council Member Ashby Foote asked how the city was going to determine which senior officers would receive benefits. 

“Is the city council out of the loop, in the loop?” he asked. 

In response, Pieter Teeuwissen, the city’s chief administrative officer, said he’d had several conversations with Jackson Rising and the city attorney, Drew Martin. Everyone was comfortable the contract was “not going to blow up on anyone.” 

“It’s perhaps a narrow path or a narrow needle to thread, but it is a doable one,” Teeuwissen said.

He added that he thought Jackson Rising would indicate “who it intended to support” and that a council vote wasn’t necessary, even though the contract states the donor “shall not” select recipients. 

“We’ve tried to be transparent from this administration, and I would encourage us to continue to be transparent if we get to a point where Jackson Rising is supporting any of our senior officers,” he said. “Nobody wants to find that out some other way.” 

Asked about this comment on Thursday, Teeuwissen said he misspoke and that “documents speak for themselves.” 

Why did some council members vote no? 

Teeuwissen previously told Mississippi Today that Brackney was the only department head to request an employment contract. 

The proposed contract included benefits similar to ones Brackney received when she was police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to documents reviewed by Mississippi Today — professional development support, a three-month housing stipend and moving expenses. 

As she left City Hall after Tuesday’s council meeting, Brackney said she wasn’t aware of the new agreement. She was followed by her new chief of staff, Tonya Norwood, a former community engagement specialist with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. 

“I don’t know what the Jackson Rising proposal is,” Brackney said. “I have not seen that.” 

If the city uses Jackson Rising’s donation to support Brackney’s relocation expenses, she would be the only department head to receive such a benefit under Horhn’s nearly year-old administration, according to information provided through a public records request. 

The exceptional treatment is the reason Ward 2 Council Member Tina Clay said she voted against the agreement with Jackson Rising. She was joined by Ward 4 Council Member Brian Grizzell, but neither offered an explanation for their votes during Tuesday’s meeting. 

Clay told Mississippi Today she thought the agreement sent the message that police matter more than other city departments.

“Don’t put that police department out there on a pedestal by itself,” she said. 

The Jackson Rising donation could be a model for future private support of Horhn’s goals for the city. 

“There are folks who want to donate to support various causes while not wanting to necessarily donate directly to the government,” Teeuwissen said at the May 18 meeting, noting the nonprofit shares a name with the series of community conversations that Horhn tasked several campaign supporters with convening last year. 

The discussions yielded a list of ideas that could be supported by public-private partnerships, including an effort to bring a Texas consultant to Jackson to help the city reduce homelessness. 

Downtown Jackson Partners, the organization managing the downtown business improvement district, is helping Horhn pursue donations for that contract. 

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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