Mississippi Today

‘Be realistic’: Concerned about blight, Jackson’s Ward 7 council candidates learn who’s responsible

Published

5 months ago

March 21, 2025

mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2025-03-21 15:57:00

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
March 21, 2025

As far as Mary Alex Thigpen knew, the truckloads of mulch she’d just had delivered would sit at Belhaven’s Laurel Street Park until she could find enough volunteers to spread it.

Thigpen, the executive director of the Greater Belhaven Foundation, then got a call from a neighborhood resident. Employees with the city’s parks and recreation department were putting down the mulch with shovels and rakes.

“It just kind of made me laugh because I didn’t tell anybody at parks and rec about the mulch,” Thigpen said. “But I guess they saw it and thought it was theirs?”

Thigpen’s story illustrates a widespread issue facing citywide efforts to rid Jackson of litter, blight, dilapidated housing and overgrown weeds: No matter how many resources are available, many stakeholders are not on the same page. And not everyone knows who — between the mayor, his departments, the council, local nonprofits or individual citizens — is responsible for what.

“People are tired of waiting for someone else to do it, and they’re starting to do it on their own,” said Ashlee Kelly, a Belhaven resident who has been involved in volunteer clean-up efforts across Ward 7.

That’s the case across the city, but in Ward 7, most of the seven candidates running for council believe that Jacksonians need to get better coordinated when it comes to pursuing quality of life improvements in the city. The 14-mile ward encompassing Fondren, Belhaven and downtown Jackson is one of two council areas this election season where the incumbent has chosen not to run again.

Quint Withers

During a voter forum last month at Millsaps College, five of the seven candidates agreed that city clean-up is important for economic development and crime reduction.

Some of their ideas were ambitious. Democratic candidate Quint Withers, an accountant and Realtor, said he wants to switch the city’s street lights to LED so they last longer.

Bruce Burton, an attorney also running in the Democratic primary, thinks the city should install cameras across the ward to catch illegal trash dumpers.

And independent candidate Ron Aldridge, a government-relations attorney and current chair of Fondren’s Business Improvement District, said the city needs to be working more with its neighborhood associations.

But what will these candidates be able to realistically accomplish if they win? Aldridge told Mississippi Today he knows his ideas do not technically fall under the purview of the city council.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aldridge said. “That’s what I’m gonna do. I’m just telling you. I’m not someone that waits.”

As a voter, Kelly looks to see if candidates have an accurate understanding of these roles and responsibilities. In Jackson, city council candidates often do not realize the statutory division of power between the city and the mayor.

A family at the start of the Museum Trail, an attraction in Ward 7, heading out for an afternoon of biking.

“People make a lot of promises, and they don’t realize there’s really basic functions,” she said. “If you do anything out of the scope, it’s great, but it’s also a part-time job. You have to be realistic about what you can do.”

Under state statute, the mayor of Jackson is the city’s full-time chief executive office, overseeing city departments, appointing department heads and drafting the city budget.

The council, on the other hand, works part time and essentially functions as the legislative branch of the city government. Working together, the council has the ability to write and pass ordinances, subject to the mayor’s veto. Likewise, the council can vote down the mayor’s budget.

For the newcomer, outgoing Ward 7 councilperson Virgi Lindsay’s advice is, “You have to get in there and do it. It is the consummate of on-the-job training.”

For instance, Lindsay said she is frequently calling the city about abandoned houses in the southern part of Ward 7. But as a council person, she has no power to order any city department to tear down the houses.

What Lindsay can do, however, is ensure the city is funding the right departments, which she said the council worked to do by increasing solid waste’s budget.

But in the past, council members have disagreed over the extent of their powers, causing a breakdown in the city’s ability to function. This happened most notably when, during a years-long dispute over entering a new garbage contract, the council and the mayor sued each other, hiring separate attorneys, something a specially appointed judge said should not have happened.

“So, in effect, we have City of Jackson vs. City of Jackson,” Judge H. David Clark said in 2023. “That raises a few problems in itself. George cannot sue George.”

Since the council approved the long-term contract with the mayor’s vendor in 2024, city spokesperson Melissa Payne said there’s been “way less contention between the council and the mayor, and I think he appreciates that and wants to keep it that way.”

Inspired in part by the disagreement, Working Together Jackson, a nonprofit, held a “candidate school” last month about the council’s roles and responsibilities. Two candidates in Ward 7 – Withers and Kevin Parkinson – attended.

Chevon Chatman, a WTJ organizer, said she encourages candidates who win to attend the city’s free legal training on the council’s statutory obligations.

“People don’t know the council is a legislative body and does not have control over the pothole on your street,” she said.

When candidates have an accurate understanding of their roles, Kelly said they can provide more detailed campaign goals to voters.

“When they say education and economic development, I want to squint a little bit because it’s like, where are you going with this,” she asked. “What do you mean by economic development? That’s such a broad term.”

Mississippi Today was able to interview four candidates for Ward 7 by press time: Democrats Parkinson, Withers and Turner Martin, as well as independent Aldridge.

Corinthian Sanders, another Democrat, was unable to speak by press time due to a personal matter. Neither Taylor Turcotte, a Republican, nor Burton, a Democrat, returned multiple calls.

Martin, an employee in the city’s Department of Human and Cultural Services, said his experience writing resolutions helped him understand how power is divided between the mayor and the council.

Specifically, Martin authored a resolution related to the maintenance of the Arts Center of Mississippi, a building downtown that he manages. Based on his experience at the Arts Center, Martin said he thinks the city needs to fill some gaps in its services, especially when it comes to maintenance on its property.

“There’s literally no one I can call,” he said.

When trash builds up outside the Arts Center, Martin said it is not technically the responsibility of anyone in the city to pick it up. The custodians work inside the building, while parks and recreation maintains and trims the landscaping.

“Regardless of how these departments are supposed to work, if it’s not being enforced by the executive branch, there’s very little the council can do,” he said.

Downtown Jackson Partners receives funds through the area’s business improvement district to provide landscaping and other services, but Martin said he does not think they should have to conduct upkeep of city properties. In areas with established improvement districts, property owners pay an extra fee on top of taxes for services aimed at promoting business. The fee is collected by the county and distributed through the city to the district designees, such as Downtown Jackson Partners.

“We have a balcony at Thalia Mara, so if an unhoused individual sleeps on that balcony for weeks because we can’t afford to have full-time security, who’s responsible for that,” he asked. “There’s no one to call except for an organization that already wears so many hats in terms of keeping our downtown beautiful.”

At the same time, Martin said he would like to see the city doing a better job of advertising the services it does provide, such as its monthly “Roll-Off Dumpster Day” at the Metrocenter Mall. Aldridge mentioned this, too.

Parkinson, a former principal of Midtown Public Charter School, said people misunderstand the role of the city council in one of two ways.

“They think that the city councilor is the king or queen of their ward and that by some form of strong authoritarianism or maybe a magic wand, whatever the city council person says for their ward will automatically be done, and that is not how that works,” Parkinson said. “The other way that people mess it up, though, is they say, ‘Well, we have a strong mayor system, so as a city council person, there is nothing that I can do.’”

What the council should do, Parkinson said, is focus on building relationships with each other and with the mayor. But that doesn’t mean going along to get along.

“Unified doesn’t always mean rubber stamped,” he added.

Withers had a similar opinion. He said the city council needs to compromise for the common good, but he doesn’t see that happening right now.

“The council can probably advocate with the administration and help hold hands with the right people,” Withers said. “That role can exist as long as you can talk to those department heads, but my best understanding now is that they’re siloed.”

For example, while code enforcement falls under planning and development, the Jackson Police Department has started a neighborhood enhancement team to help tackle some of the city’s blight.

Parkinson said that it’s great so many Jacksonians are working to fix the blight, but on the bureaucratic side, these efforts are made more complicated by the number of entities involved.

“Even for something as simple as a house we could all agree needs to be demolished … there’s so many partners,” he said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of the blighted property is actually owned by the state through tax forfeiture.”

All four candidates said they had canvassed the ward’s 18 neighborhoods, though Aldridge said he has done that primarily through an outreach ministry, not his campaign, that he’s been involved with over the last two and a half years.

They’ve seen the blight with their own eyes, and all concur the issues in the southern part of the ward are greater — and more forgotten about, due in part to population loss.

“There’s an inverse graph of less resources to tackle these things while the issue itself is growing,” Martin said.

Belhaven Heights Park located in Ward 7.

Abandoned shopping center near Terry Road in Ward 7.

Parkinson identified the Savanna Street neighborhood as an area of particular need. The street has burned-out houses, and last year, a tree fell on a man, killing him in his home.

“Two things can be true,” Parkinson said. “There’s a lot of people working really hard and trying their absolute best and are making some of an impact. … And it is woefully insufficient. It needs to be accelerated. We all need to get on the same page. It has to be a priority of the mayor. That’s just a reality. The city council has to support, and we need the state to step up.”

Years ago, Aldridge said he was involved with efforts by nonprofit Keep Mississippi Beautiful and local affiliate Keep Jackson Beautiful to clean the green spaces at the High Street and Pearl Street entrances off I-55, which he said are vital to the city as the first things people see when they drive into downtown — home, he said, to some of the state’s greatest museums.

It was a “total effort,” Aldridge said. The litter was picked up, the weeds were mowed, and the oak tree canopy, which was coming down into the road, was trimmed.

But now, Aldridge said the street looks as if that work never happened.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Two Mississippi media companies appeal Supreme Court ruling on sealed court files

Published

12 hours ago

August 28, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-08-28 13:05:00

by Taylor Vance and Anita Lee, Sun Herald, Mississippi Today
August 28, 2025

A three-judge panel of the Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that court records in a politically charged business dispute will remain confidential, even though courts are supposed to be open to the public.

The panel, comprised of Justice Josiah Coleman, Justice James Maxwell and Justice Robert Chamberlin, denied a request from Mississippi Today and the Sun Herald that sought to force Chancery Judge Neil Harris to unseal court records in a Jackson County Chancery Court case or conduct a hearing on unsealing the court records.

The Supreme Court panel did not address whether Harris erred by sealing court records and it has not forced the judge to comply with the court’s prior landmark decisions detailing how judges are allowed to seal court records in extraordinary circumstances.

The case in question has drawn a great deal of public interest. The lawsuit seeks to dissolve a company called Securix Mississippi LLC that used traffic cameras to ticket uninsured motorists in numerous cities in the state.

The uninsured motorist venture has since been disbanded and is the subject of two federal lawsuits, neither of which are under seal. In one federal case, an attorney said the chancery court file was sealed to protect the political reputations of the people involved.

Quinton Dickerson and Josh Gregory, two of the leaders of QJR, are the owners of Frontier Strategies. Frontier is a consulting firm that has advised numerous elected officials, including four sitting Supreme Court justices. The three justices who considered the media’s motion for relief were not clients of Frontier.

The two news outlets on Thursday filed a motion asking the Supreme Court for a rehearing.

Courts are open to public

In their motion for a rehearing, the media companies are asking that the Supreme Court send the case back to chancery court, where Harris should be required to give notice and hold a hearing to discuss unsealing the remaining court files.

Courts and court files are supposed to be open and accessible to the public. The Supreme Court has, since 1990, followed a ruling that lays out a procedure judges are supposed to follow before closing any part of a court file. The judge is supposed to give 24 hours notice, then hold a hearing that gives the public, including the media, an opportunity to object.

At the hearing, the judge must consider alternatives to closure and state any reasons for sealing records.

Instead, Harris closed the court record without explanation the same day the case was filed in September 2024. In June, Harris denied a motion from Mississippi Today to unseal the file.

The case, he wrote in his order, is between two private companies. “There are no public entities included as parties,” he wrote, “and there are no public funds at issue. Other than curiosity regarding issues between private parties, there is no public interest involved.”

Harris

But that is at least partially incorrect. The case involves Securix Mississippi working with city police departments to ticket uninsured motorists. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety had signed off on the program and was supposed to be receiving a share of the revenue.

Mississippi Today and the Sun Herald then filed for relief with the state Supreme Court, arguing that Harris improperly closed the court file without notice and did not conduct a hearing to consider alternatives.

After the media outlets’ appeal to the Supreme Court, Harris ordered some of the records in the case to be unsealed.

But he left an unknown number of exhibits under seal, saying they contain “financial information” and are being held in a folder in the Chancery Clerk’s Office.

File improperly sealed, media argues

The three-judge Supreme Court panel determined the media appeal was no longer relevant because Harris had partially unsealed the court file.

In the news outlets’ appeal for rehearing, they argue that if the Supreme Court does not grant the motion, the state’s highest court would virtually give the press and public no recourse to push back on judges when they question whether court records were improperly sealed.

“The original … sealing of the entire file violated several rights of the public and press … which if not overruled will be capable of repetition yet, evading review,” the motion reads.

The media companies also argue that Harris’ order partially unsealing the chancery court case was not part of the record on appeal and should not have been considered by the Supreme Court. His order to partially unseal the case came 10 days after Mississippi Today and the Sun Herald filed their appeal to the Supreme Court.

Charlie Mitchell, a lawyer and former newspaper editor who has taught media law at the University of Mississippi for years, called Judge Harris’ initial order keeping the case sealed “illogical.” He said the judge’s second order partially unsealing the case appears “much closer” to meeting the court’s standard for keeping records sealed, but the judge could still be more specific and transparent in his orders.

Instead of simply labeling the sealed records as “financial information,” Mitchell said the Supreme Court could promote transparency in the judiciary by ordering Harris to conduct a hearing — something he should have done from the outset — or redact portions of the exhibits.

“Closing a record or court matter as the preference of the parties is never — repeat never — appropriate,” Mitchell said. “It sounds harsh, but if parties don’t want the public to know about their disputes, they should resolve their differences, as most do, without filing anything in a state or federal court.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Two Mississippi media companies appeal Supreme Court ruling on sealed court files appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content focuses on transparency, accountability, and the public’s right to access court records, which aligns with values often emphasized by center-left perspectives. It critiques the sealing of court documents and advocates for media and public oversight of judicial processes, reflecting a concern for government openness and checks on power. However, the article maintains a factual tone without overt political partisanship, situating it slightly left of center due to its emphasis on transparency and media rights.

Mississippi Today

Judge: Felony disenfranchisement a factor in ruling on Mississippi Supreme Court districts

Published

2 days ago

August 27, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-08-27 05:00:00

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
August 27, 2025

The large number of Mississippians with voting rights stripped for life because they committed a disenfranchising felony was a significant factor in a federal judge determining that current state Supreme Court districts dilute Black voting strength.

U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock, who was appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush, last week ruled that Mississippi’s Supreme Court districts violate the federal Voting Rights Act and that the state cannot use the same maps in future elections.

Mississippi law establishes three Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the northern, central and southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each to the nine-member court. These districts have not been redrawn since 1987.

The main district at issue in the case is the central district, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro Area.

Several civil rights legal organizations filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black citizens, candidates, and elected officials, arguing that the central district does not provide Black voters with a realistic chance to elect a candidate of their choice.

The state defended the districts arguing the map allows a fair chance for Black candidates. Aycock sided with the plaintiffs and is allowing the Legislature to redraw the districts.

The attorney general’s office could appeal the ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A spokesperson for the office stated that the office is reviewing Aycock’s decision, but did not confirm whether the office plans to appeal.

In her ruling, Aycock cited the testimony of William Cooper, the plaintiff’s demographic and redistricting expert, who estimated that 56,000 felons were unable to vote statewide based on a review of court records from 1994 to 2017. He estimated 60% of those were determined to be Black Mississippians.

Cooper testified that the high number of people who were disenfranchised contributed to the Black voting age population falling below 50% in the central district.

Attorneys from Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office defended the state. They disputed Cooper’s calculations, but Aycock rejected their arguments.

The AG’s office also said Aycock should not put much weight on the number of disenfranchised people because the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that Mississippi’s disenfranchisement system doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Aycock, however, distinguished between the appellate court’s ruling that the system did not have racial discriminatory intent and the current issue of the practice having a racially discriminatory impact.

“Notably, though, that decision addressed only whether there was discriminatory intent as required to prove an Equal Protection claim,” Aycock wrote. “The Fifth Circuit did not conclude that Mississippi’s felon disenfranchisement laws have no racially disparate impact.”

Mississippi has one of the harshest disenfranchisement systems in the nation and a convoluted method for restoring voting rights to people.

Other than receiving a pardon from the governor, the only way for someone to regain their voting rights is if two-thirds of legislators from both chambers at the Capitol, the highest threshold in the Legislature, agree to restore their suffrage.

Lawmakers only consider about a dozen or so suffrage restoration bills during the session, and they’re typically among the last items lawmakers take up before they adjourn for the year.

Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of a list of 10 types of felonies lose their voting rights for life. Opinions from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office have since expanded the list of specific disenfranchising felonies to 23.

The practice of stripping voting rights away from people for life is a holdover from the Jim Crow era. The framers of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution believed Black people were most likely to commit certain crimes.

Leaders in the state House have attempted to overhaul the system, but none have gained any significant traction in both chambers at the Capitol.

Last year, House Constitution Chairman Price Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall, advocated a constitutional amendment that would have removed nonviolent offenses from the list of disenfranchising felonies, but he never brought it up for a vote in the House.

Wallace and House Elections Chairman Noah Sanford, a Republican from Collins, are leading a study committee on Sept. 11 to explore reforms to the felony suffrage system and other voting legislation.

Wallace previously said on an episode of Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that he believes the state should tackle the issue because one of his core values, part of his upbringing, is giving people a second chance, especially once they’ve made up for a mistake.

“This issue is not a Republican or Democratic issue,” Wallace said. “It allows a woman or a man, whatever the case may be, the opportunity to have their voice heard in their local elections. Like I said, they’re out there working. They’re paying taxes just like you and me. And yet they can’t have a decision in who represents them in their local government.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Judge: Felony disenfranchisement a factor in ruling on Mississippi Supreme Court districts appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a focus on voting rights and racial justice issues, highlighting the impact of felony disenfranchisement on Black voters in Mississippi. It emphasizes civil rights concerns and critiques longstanding policies rooted in the Jim Crow era, which aligns with center-left perspectives advocating for expanded voting access and systemic reform. The coverage is factual and includes viewpoints from multiple sides, but the framing and emphasis on racial disparities and voting rights restoration suggest a center-left leaning.

Mississippi Today

Jackson police chief steps down to take another job, national search to come

Published

3 days ago

August 26, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @mintamolly – 2025-08-26 12:39:00

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
August 26, 2025

Jackson Police Department Chief Joseph Wade told the mayor last week he was choosing to retire after 29 years of service and two years at the helm of the force. Wade said he’d been given another job opportunity, which has yet to be announced.

His last day is Sept. 5.

Mayor John Horhn said he told Wade the officer would be crazy not to take the job — one that comes with less stress and more pay.

“His wife has been on his back, his blood pressure has been up,” Horhn said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “He has done a commendable job.”

Wade became chief during a period in which Jackson was called the murder capital of America. Under his tenure, Wade said crime has fallen markedly, including a roughly 45% reduction in homicides so far this year compared to the same period in 2024, the Clarion Ledger reported. He said he’s also increased JPD’s force by 37, for a total of 258 officers.

Wade said his biggest accomplishment is reestablishing trust. “We are no longer the laughing stock of the law enforcement community,” he said.

The chief’s departure comes less than two months after Horhn took office, replacing former Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba who originally appointed Wade, and on the heels of a spate of shootings that Wade said were driven by gangs of young men.

“I have received so many calls from the community: ‘Chief, please don’t leave us,'” Wade told the crowd in council chambers.

But Wade said he “would rather leave prematurely than overstay my welcome,” adding that the average tenure of a police chief is 2.5 years.

Wade said that last year he stood next to Jackson Councilman Kenny Stokes and told the media he was going to cut crime in half, “And what did I do? Cut it in half,” he said.

“What I’ve seen in our community in some situations is people want police, but they don’t want to be policed,” Wade said.

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones will serve as interim police chief until the administration finds a replacement. Jones said he has not finalized a contract with the city, responding to a question about whether he will draw a salary from both agencies.

“I could think of no one better than the sheriff of Hinds County,” Horhn said, adding that the appointment is temporary.

Jones said during the meeting that his responsibility as sheriff will continue uninterrupted and that his goal within JPD is to ensure continued professionalism in the department.

“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my dear friend and retired police chief Joe Wade,” Jones said. “Again, let me be clear, I have no aspirations to permanently hold the position.”

Horhn said there is precedence for the dual role that “Chief Sheriff Jones is about to embark upon,” citing former mayor Frank Melton’s hiring of Sheriff Malcolm McMillin.

The city has enlisted help from former U.S. Marshal George White and the former chief of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Col. Charles Haynes, to lead the Law Enforcement Task Force that will conduct a nationwide search to fill the position. The administration expects that to take between 30 and 60 days, according to a city press release.

The release said the task force will also examine safety challenges in Jackson more broadly, such as youth crime, drug crimes, departmental needs and interagency coordination.

“I am grateful that Marshal White and Col. Haynes have agreed to lead this important effort. Their breadth of experience, commitment to public safety and deep understanding of law enforcement challenges will ensure the task force conducts a rigorous search for our next chief,” said Horhn. “I am confident they will help shape solutions that address the evolving needs of Jackson.”

The city said it would soon release details about the opportunity for the public to offer input on the process.

“Hinds County is all in for whatever we have to do to make Jackson and Hinds County the safest it can be,” Hinds County Supervisors President Robert Graham said during the meeting.

Wade, who hails from nearby Terry, graduated from JPD’s 23rd recruit class in 1995, rising from a police recruit and hitting every rung of the ladder on his way to chief. “I was homegrown,” he said.

Wade said he received “an amazing offer in a private sector at an amazing organization. Don’t ask me where. That will be released at the appropriate time.”

This story may be updated.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Jackson police chief steps down to take another job, national search to come appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article presents a straightforward news report on the resignation of a police chief, focusing on facts, quotes from officials, and crime statistics without evident ideological framing. It covers perspectives from multiple local government figures and avoids partisan language, reflecting a neutral, balanced tone typical of centrist reporting.