Ward 2 Candidates

Introducing Ward 2 Candidates: Special Election Nov. 17

by Kayode Crown

The special election to fill the Ward 2 Jackson City Council seat of Melvin Priester Jr., who stepped down to focus on his law career, is on Nov. 17, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Six candidates are vying for the post: Angelique Lee, Tyrone Lewis, James Paige, Thomas Warren Powell, Funmilayo Bannerman Tilden and Melinda Greenfield Todd. The Jackson Free Press asked all of them the same questions in interviews. The answers are edited for space here with more at jfp.ms/Ward2election. Absentee voting for the special election is underway at city hall, ending at 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

Angelique Lee

What motivates you to serve?

Well, I’ve been a servant all of my life. Ever since I grew up, I’ve always been in Ward 2, my family has a business on Farish Street, and I’ve always given to those neighborhood kids. I’ve always been surrounded by children.

I went into teaching—a ministry of service because you generally don’t go into teaching for the Angelique Lee money. Then, when my daughter became of school age, I started serving on her PTO board and moved my way up to PTO president and raised $100,000 for her school by knocking on doors in the community and businesses and giving back in that capacity. Then, I’ve run after-school, STEM programs. I have always been in the area of service.

Now that my dad is in his 80s—and he also lived in the ward, and my children all live in the ward, I have a 4-year-old and a 12-year-old—it is important for someone that has a voice and resources and the capacity to get things done to run for office. .

What prepared you for this position?

I have been lobbying for almost a decade with the Mississippi Legislature for public education, higher education and teachers. ... I have the resources, the connections, and I have built strong relationships with the community to be able to get things done. I have managed a lot of political campaigns to get pro-public education candidates elected; I ran Jennifer Riley-Collins’ campaign (for attorney general) with her. That was statewide. And Willie Simmons’ (campaign) in the central district.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

They intersect. We both have the same issues, the city of Jackson and our ward. The number-one issue will be crime. We need safe spaces for our citizens and constituents to live in. We need safe spaces for our businesses to move into. We can’t expect economic development to grow without a safe space.

I would like to have policing in hotspots ... and bring some targeted prevention programs with our youth in conjunction with our community leaders, school leaders, and church leaders and youth, and get targeted programming to prevent them from going into the life of crime.

Not only do we need safe roads and bridges for our constituents to travel on, our school buses to travel on, ambulances and fire trucks, but infrastructure also includes broadband access. Especially with COVID-19 and our children learning virtually, we need access to wifi and broadband and also for our seniors doing health screening.

Infrastructure also includes some areas in our ward that have a lot of issues with flooding. I will say the key area of focus and issue that we have that intersect with the city and our ward is economic development. As our wards experienced white flight, a lot of our businesses went away, and now we have a lot of debilitated buildings, plots, homes; they are just sitting there vacant.

I would like to initiate a buy-the-block program in our ward ... and give businesses the opportunity to come in, especially around the Lake Hico area, now that we see that some of those industries are moving out, and focus on Highway 49 and bring economic development over in that area.

Tyrone Lewis

What motivates you to serve?

I consider myself a public servant. I am a native of Jackson. I was born here. All my life has been in Jackson; all of my education from elementary school to Headstart to college has been right here in the city of Jackson. I am not one of those ones that left to go to college elsewhere. I am a graduate of Jackson State University. I went to Lanier High School, 833 West Maple Street.

What prepared you for this position?

My childhood of watching my parents, watching everybody around my parents, my teachers that embraced me through the years, my community, the churches that I attended were involved in this whole process.

The motivation came James Paige from all of those combined together and wanting to give back to those that have prepared me and given to me to get me into a position to come back and serve them in their elder ages because right now they are not in the capacity to move out of the city of Jackson. So they need those people that they helped mold to come back and help them, and that’s my purpose.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

I have seen crime reach an all-time high. Today as we speak, we are probably at 112 murders or homicides. I’ve never seen anything like that before. So people are scared. They are afraid, along with the pandemic that they are afraidof, they are afraid to come out of their houses. They are afraid to sit on their pouches. They are afraid to go to the grocery store. We need to address that.

Number two is economic development. We have businesses that want to open in Jackson, but because of the crime issues that we have, they are afraid that they won’t be successful in opening up a business in the city of Jackson. In order for that to happen, we have to reduce the crime element in order to attract businesses to our community.

With that being said, if we can attract businesses in our community when we reduce crime, we can have a supporting tax base, and with that supporting tax base, not only can we take care of our men and women of the Jackson Police Department and our city services, we can deal with our infrastructure, which is number three.

We have a crumbling and a failing infrastructure that is in bad shape because we don’t have the revenue or the tax base to support it because we’ve had businesses moving out for several reasons.

James Paige

What motivates you to serve?

I am a very passionate man about Jackson, I truly believe in Jackson, I’ve been in Jackson all my life, I am a product of Jackson public-school system, I am a product of Jackson State, I am a product of Jackson Police Department. For me to see these institutions operating at the level they are operating in, I feel like, with my experience, business experience, and my law enforcement experience, that I could really take something to the council, to bring a different look to it.

We can bring a businessman to the table and an experienced law enforcement officer to the table. I think that what I have to say and my input, and my ability to negotiate with people will make a difference.

What prepared you for this position?

My passion for Jackson, number one, and my experience as a businessman, my experience as a law enforcement officer and my desire to serve. I think you’ve got to have the knowledge of what regular, everyday people are going through before you can help them, and I have both of these.

I know the needs of the neighborhoods. I do believe that I have some plans, that I can address some of those needs.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

Crime, youths and development. Let’s take crime; when you are trying to grow a city, crime is always going to probably be at the top of the list because you’ve got to have your crimes under control in order to attract businesses and people to your city.

From a law-enforcement eye, I see that there are too many illegal guns on the street, and most of these illegal guns end up in the hands of our youth. A lot of our youth problems are stemming from the City deciding not to invest in our young people.

So me being old enough to see how the youth were coming out when the city was investing and what the youth are looking like right now when the city is not investing, it’s not good. Across the summer, every teenager in Jackson used to have a summer job, all the public schools were opened, and all the little kids were not left at home. They were sent to the school for older kids in the summer youth programs to look over them, keep them instructed. None of these things are happening now, so you know, I just think that we got to put resources back into our young people.

They are very young people, their lives ruined, but you know, you’ve got to put the investment in to get something back out of it. And I see the back end at the job that I work now down at the federal courthouse, and it’s not good. I see the broken hearts, the crying mothers, the crying grandmothers, the crying fathers because their kids are going off for a very long time, for doingsomething that possibly if he had been in a constructive environment he might not end up in that wrong environment.

The two that I described—the crime and the youth—play into development. If the schools are not performing, if the city has high crime, no one will want to come here and set up a business, no one will want to come here and set up residence. And you know if we have to go outside of Jackson to a decent park to exercise, something is wrong. So youth and crimes are very important for there to be development.

We’ve got some golden opportunities. I think Jackson is set up to have more potential than any city in the southeast of the United States because of its geographical location and natural resources that have not been tapped or developed. For example, we have the Pearl River running through Jackson; nothing has been done to that river in terms of development; they’ve got two or three plans on the table, but they have not acted on these ideas, plans for 20 years.

Pertaining to Ward 2, we have a lake up there, Lake Hico. Entergy is going in a different direction in terms of making their energy, so they no longer need that lake for a cooling pond.

Thomas Warren Powell

What motivates you to serve?

Well, I’ve been a tax attorney in this area for 30 plus years; I’m a resident of Jackson. So I know the problems with the city, and I want to try to address them and help the city get back on track.

What prepared you for this position?

My educational background, being a juris doctorate degree holder with a specialty doctorate to teach paralegal technology for Hinds Community College on Medgar Evers. Also, being involved in community projects through my membership in organizations. I am already involved in a pilot program called Woody’s Landscaping and painting to teach youth to work and have self-worth. I live in the heart of the city and know the issues of the city.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

Well, I would say crime would be an issue; the roads are being worked on right now, which is good. In terms of economic development, you know, bringing some type of businesses into the community or where the city grants money for people to come in and demolish houses and neighborhoods and that type of thing.

Funmilayo Bannerman Tilden

What motivates you to serve?

I’ve been in this ward 43 years, and over the course of that time, I have seen it decline from thriving businesses to vacant buildings and debilitated homes, And I want to work hard to change that around and restore this area to its former glory.

What prepared you for this position?

The community. I live in this community; I work in this community, I worship in this community. I am an educator, so I deal with families that live in this community every day. I see the needs of families, see the needs of people and see the needs of the area.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

Crime, infrastructure and the absence of businesses. In my ward, I will say, the absence of businesses, infrastructure and a dwindling condition overall.

With crime, I think there is a problem with gun control, and my family has been a victim of gun violence. ...

I think there is a problem with people-control. I think there are too many children running around with nothing to do, and they have too much freedom, and they have too much access to guns and drugs and alcohol and things of that nature.

And I believe that if we can turn that around at the youngest age possible, we can get them to direct their lives in a different direction, which makes them make better choices and stay away from getting in trouble, and causing trouble.

With the businesses, I believe that there should be some type of initiative to bring small business owners back into the community, except that they must use vacant buildings that are already existing. Instead of new buildings or going into new construction, I think that they should use the buildings that we have here that are sitting here vacant and abandoned.

With problems with infrastructure, that’s going to take some research to find feasible ways to rectify the situation. I understand that repairing infrastructure will take a lot of dollars, a lot of manpower.

Still, I think that there are some ways that we could find to feasibly rectify the whole situation without having to dig the whole city up.

Melinda Greenfield Todd

What motivates you to serve?

I have always wanted to run for city council from way back early in the ’90s. … I have been in the ward for 44 years, and I am motivated to help make it better.

What prepared you for this position?

My experience with the community, working in the community, walking in the schools, faith-based organizations in my ward, those experiences working on health projects, and my background in public health education have prepared me to work with the public.

What are the top three problems facing Jackson and your ward?

Crime, infrastructure and community unity. Crime in the city of Jackson has increased, especially with the coronavirus, white flight, lack of jobs, and employment opportunities for our young people. Getting back to youth employment opportunities in the area, the health, making sure that our young people are viable; they are able to do what they need to do in the community.

For infrastructure, that’s been a long-term city issue. So, working on things like bond issues and others to help us provide the funds needed to fix our infrastructure in our area. Lastly, working together as a ward, we’ll have a better ward for our constituents.

These interviews are edited for length. You can read all five questions and answers at jfp.ms/Ward2election.