By V. Hugh Lewis II
Jefferson Jimplecute
Candidates for Jefferson City Council and JISD School Board were in good spirits and appeared unified on a number of issues affecting the City in a structured forum held last Thursday.
Candidates were asked a variety of questions generic in nature, but answers were supposed to be geared at their specific wards.
Infrastructure and Communication were the top contenders for both the most pressing issue and the biggest thing the city is missing, and what the city needs to do to address the infrastructure and communication issues.
“The biggest concerns of the people that I talk to is a problem with the sewer and drainage,” said Ward 1 candidate Hollis Shadden. “And I know that the city has paid quite a bit lately to upgrade this, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”
“The complaint was sewage and garbage or trash pickup and in the gutters,” said Shadden’s opponent Michelle Fox-Davis. “[the people I’ve spoken with] want something done.”
“I think infrastructure, streets sewer water is a big issue for my my ward,” said Ward 2 candidate James Parsons. “I know, there’s, you know, the same problems that are occurring in other wards. I would say that, you know, our streets are in poor conditions. And I think I think we as the city need to reevaluate how we allocate money for street repairs.”
“The biggest thing that I’ve learned in ward two [while talking to people] is affordable housing, and flooding, drainage,” said Parsons opponent Will Thomas. “You know, also, there’s a there’s a big lack for things for the youth to do in the community.”
“Of course, the streets,” said Ward 3 candidate April Taylor-Johnson. “No one wants to feel like they’re at Six Flags on a roller coaster when they’re riding home. So, we have to stop patching, and actually go in and fix big things.”
Thomas summarized the candidates feelings on how to fix the issue: “I think the biggest problem, the best way to address the issues is to talk to the people communicate more with, with the people in the communities, find out exactly what they want done, and then prioritize it, and let them know when each one of the projects or when each one of the projects are done,” he said.
Each candidate was given 3 minutes to introduce themselves, 90 seconds to respond to questions, and a 3-minute closing.
Jason Cooner, running against Kirstin Johnson for school board, and India Stanberry, running against April Taylor-Johnson for Ward 3 City Council, were both absent from the forum. Stanberry had indicated earlier in the week she would be out of town attending a funeral.
Other questions focused on how candidates thought the city should address the lack of a city administrator. Current Council abolished the position in March which shifted all duties to the City Secretary, who has been on the job less than a year.
“First off, the mayor and the council members need to see what they can do to help the city secretary to make sure that things are getting done and kind of keep an eye on what’s going on,” said Shadden. “Second, we need to look at given the department heads should know thority to handle their people better.”
Fox-Davis added, “We need to come up with the solution and help the secretary, because it is a big job. It’s a lot to do.”
Taylor-Johnson said “I think the first thing that we need to do is ask her what her opinion is, and ask her what she needs to make sure that she’s able to do her job successfully. Because people above you can always tell you how to do that do your job, but you need to go to the person is actually doing the job every day.”
“As far as the city secretary, she is doing a good job. And she has communicated to us what she needs. My opinion, I would like to I would like to possibly if we can find somebody, hire a part time internal auditor, and finance person to help with that part of the city secretary’s job,” said Parsons.
“First of all, great job very taken over all of those tasks. And all of those duties. I think one of the things that that, first of all the mayor should do is make sure that he keeps his finger on the pulse of what’s going on with the city secretary, as well as she takes on these other administrative duties, or these other duties from the city administrator, and then is sure that he talked with the City Council, and basically delegate some of the tasks to everybody,” added Thomas.
Candidates were also united on the biggest thing the city is missing: unity.
“I think that our city, the biggest thing that we are missing is unity. I feel like in working together, I feel like there is no sense of really wanting to work together,” said Taylor-Johnson.
“The biggest thing the city is missing is communication and transparency. We would we we do have a good counsel right now. Although some things do seem like they’re talking to circles a lot lately,” said Fox-Davis. “We need to see things through by communicating and being open. And not having people feel like they don’t have a voice. We all have a voice.”
“We need to do away with this politics of personality and focus on the issues,” added Parsons.
Kirstin Johnson was asked versions of all the questions, but they were adjusted for JISD as possible.
“I think the most pressing issues for the school district is our drop in enrollment,” she said, “and the ability to sustain staff and academics.”
When asked how she felt JISD should approach this issue, she said, “I feel the school board needs to address the previous issues; identify what the problem is. Once we’ve identified what the problem is, then see why the enrollment is dropping. Why we can’t sustain teachers while the academics are falling. Once the problem is identified, then we can look at steps to correct the problem. We may need to do a survey. We may need to do something similar to an exit interview when students leave. Why are you leaving? Is it family issues? Are you relocating for better things? Once we identify the problem, then we can put steps in place to try to fix that problem.”
She was also asked specifically about the possibility of a 4-day school week.
“My thoughts on that may not be a good fit for our district at this time. I’m not saying maybe not forever, but right now, our kids are struggling academically, don’t know why we want to show them their work their school week, and extend the hours during the day,” she said. “I think there are a lot of factors that we need to look at before deciding our four day work week. I’m not a fan of it right now.”
“So my vision for JISD is that our students will want to be part of JISD,” said Kirstin Johnson. “And they will want to come back. Tourism is great. I hear a lot spoken about tourism here. But if our students can graduate from here and come back here and work, to scan, they spend their money and they leave. If our students stay here and work here, they put money back into our economy, they’re working, they live here, they’re not just spending money for the weekend. They’re spending money every day, they are giving their lunch here they are shopping for their kids here. So if our if our district can work to help our students want to stay here, or even leave and come back here to raise their families, like I do with my children, I think it would be a benefit for our city and our district as a whole.”
Early voting started on Monday at the County Elections Building on North Alley Street. As of press time Wednesday, 97 people had cast a ballot in early voting. Early voting continues today, and Monday and Tuesday of next week, with Election Day being May 7.
A video of the forum is available on both the Jimplecute’s FaceBook page and YouTube Channel (https://youtu.be/S-q2hH2FGF8).