Thomasville city elections for 1999
Here are the final results of the Thomasville city elections, November 2, 1999.
When qualifying ended, there were three contested elections in the city of Thomasville.
Thomasville Municipal General Election
November 2, 1999
City
Council District 1
Juno Green - 270-Total 82-Douglas 184-Harper 4-Absentee
David Lewis - 544-Total 134-Douglas 391-Harper 19-Absentee
Francis Stone - 70-Total 44-Douglas 26-Harper 0-Absentee
City
Council District 2
Camille Payne - 918-Total 421-Jerger 472-Scott 25-Absentee
City
Board of Education At-Large
Jessie Booth - 1077-Total 67-Douglas 112-Harper 376-Jerger 496-Scott
26-Absentee
Juanita Jackson - 834-Total 194-Douglas 491-Harper 75-Jerger 50-Scott
24-Absentee
City
Board of Education District 1, Post 1 & 2
Top two finshers win
M. T. Brown - 172-Total 51-Douglas 120-Harper 1-Absentee
Matthew Conyers - 616-Total 153-Douglas 442-Harper 21-Absentee
Lucille Morris - 381-Total 124-Douglas 244-Harper 13-Absentee
City
Board of Education District 2
Roy Lilly, II -- 941-Total 424-Jerger 491-Scott 26-Absentee
Total registered voters:
1582-Registered in Douglas 272-voted in Douglas
2445-Registered in Harper 628-voted in Harper
1776-Registered in Jerger 460-voted in Jerger
3011-Registered in Scott 550-voted in Scott
51-total Absentee voted
8814-Total 1961-voted - 22.24%
--Three contests were decided
Tuesday, November 2, in Thomasville municipal elections. David Lewis won the
City Council District 1 seat being vacated by retiring Ben Hatcher. On the city
school board, Jess Booth retained his at-large post and for the two posts in
District 1, incumbent Lucille Morris retains her seat and Matthew Conyers, jr.,
wins the seat being vacated by retiring Curtis Thomas. There were 1,961 votes
cast in the city, including absentee, out of 8,814 registered voters, for a
turnout of 22%. The winners take their seats at the first meeting after the
first of the year.
--David Lewis won both precincts in District 1, Douglass and Harper, against
his opponents, Juno Green and Francis Stone, 525 to 266 and 70 respectively. In
the at-large city school board district, Jess Booth won the two precincts in
District 2 against Juanita Jackson, 872 to 125, but Booth lost the two
precincts in District 1, 179 to 685. In the city school board contest for two
posts in District 1, Matthew Conyers had 595 in the two precincts, Lucille
Morris had 368 and M. T. Brown had 171.
--In District 1, there were 272 voters out of 1,582 in Douglas (17%), 628
voters out of 2,445 in Harper (26%) and for the whole of District 1 there were
900 voters out of 4,027 registered, for a turnout of 22%. In District 2, there
were 460 voters out of 1,776 in Jerger (26%), 550 voters out of 3,011 in Scott
(18%) and for the whole of District 2, there were 1,010 voters out of 4,787
registered, for a turnout of 21%. There were 24 absentee ballots from District
1 and 27 absentee ballots from District 2.
--Camille Payne was the only candidate in the city council District 2 election
and had 918 votes. George Lilly, II, was the only candidate in the school board
District 2 election and had 941 votes.
--Qualifying ended Friday afternoon, September 17, for Thomasville city elections with three contested elections facing citizens on November 2. Both the city council and the school board have the same district lines in the city; District 1 generally is the western half of the city, District 2 is the eastern half of the city.
--Juanita W Jackson, 67,
retired, of 1103 Lester Street, qualified for the at-large post on the city
school board. The incumbent in the at-large school board post, Jess Booth, a
banker at Commercial Bank, qualified also. Three candidates qualified for two
seats in the District 1 election for the school board: Melvin Thomas Brown Jr.,
62, of Plum Street, a retired teacher from Rickard's High School in
Tallahassee, Matthew Conyers Jr., 64, of Crestwood Drive, retired principal of
Harper Elementary School, and the incumbent in one of the two posts in District
1, Lucille Morris, 76, of West Calhoun Street, President of Glen-Mor Nursing
Home. The top two finishers in the balloting get the two posts open in District
1 of the school board. Curtis Thomas retired from the District 1 seat on the
school board. The incumbent in one of those District 1 seats, Curtis Thomas,
retired. George Lilly II, a local attorney, was the only person to District 2
post on the city school board in whichhe is the incumbent.
--On the city council, David O. Lewis, 68, a retired businessman of Pinewood
Place, for District 1, as did private tax manager Frances Andrews Stone, 77,
of 711 Hansell Street, and Juno L. Green, 40, of 809 Fletcher Street, a
teacher at Garrison-Pilcher Elementary School. The top finisher replaces retiring
Ben Hatcher. Camille Payne, of Pastime Drive, who works at Archbold Hosptial,
was the only person to qualify for the District 2 post she held as an
incumbent.
MUNICIPAL ELECTION CANDIDATE FORUM
All but one of the candidates for Thomasville City elections appeared at a
forum Sunday night, October 17. City council and school board candidates were
there, but most of the issues discussed were related to schools and focused on
school safety and student access to resources. Issues discussed by city council
candidates were mostly about finances and taxes.
--The forum was at First Missionary Baptist Church at Calhoun and Madison
Street and was sponsored by the Thomasville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority. The candidates attending were Jess Booth and Juanita Jackson,
candidates for the At-Large District on the city school board, and M. T. Brown,
Matthew Conyers and Lucille Morris, candidates for two posts in District 1 of
the school board. Juno Green and David Lewis were there as candidates for District
1 on the city council. Not at the forum was Francis Stone, a third candidate
for District 1 of the city council. Also not present was Camille Payne but she
has no opposition as a candidate for her city council District 2 seat.
--Candidates had opening remarks in an order selected by lot before answering
questions. Juanita Jackson, at-large school board candidate, said that public
schools belong to the community and it was her commitment to make the schools
safe, challenging and productive. She said in addition to measuring IQ, schools
should measure and teach to each student’s ability in linguistic, music, logic,
spatial and personal intelligence. Jackson said the school system was doing a
good job, but the concerns she heard were about keeping good teachers and
maintaining challenging facilities and programs.
--Lucille Morris, an incumbent candidate for one of the two posts on the school
board District 1, said she was a committed citizen and the key to good schools
was a good school board. She said every school ought to have a good leader and
committed parents. Morris said, "We should keep up with the changing
students." She said leaders were needed who are sensitive to changing
students. Morris said schools should stop "dumbing down education for slow
learners" and challenge every student to do their best. Morris said
parents had a responsibility to prepare students because research is finding
that children are learning earlier than many had thought. Parents should read
to students before they start school.
--M. T. Brown, candidate for a post in District 1 of the school board, said
parent involvement in schools is important, especially in kindergarten to third
grade. He said Internet skills are important for students as well as safe
schools. Brown said schools should improve SAT test-taking skills beginning
with the eight grade.
--Jess Booth, the incumbent candidate for the at large post on the school
board, said his service on the school board showed him how difficult issues
were and "sometimes issues aren’t the same as we think they are." He
said the schools contribute a quality education to all students but that
improvements can always can be made. Booth pointed out that academics were
first, but there were many areas where Thomasville students could excel in
addition to athletics.
--Matthew Conyers, a candidate for a post in District 1 of the school board,
said he had been in education for over 30 years in Thomasville. Conyers retired
as principal of Harper Elementary School at the end of the 1998-99 school year.
He said he was for a strong education system, a safe environment, keeping the
taxpayers in mind and having an open board. Conyers said he had three goals:
requiring a higher level of achievement from children, a safe environment by
moving troubled students out of classrooms and providing a quality education.
--David Lewis, a candidate for District 1 on the city council, said Thomasville
was governed in a positive fashion. He said his knowledge of finance and
business experience meant that he was familiar with the needs of the city and
the work expected of a council member.
--Juno Green, a candidate for District 1 on the city council, said she had the
"people’s agenda" and if there was an issue the people wanted to be
raised by the council, she would do it. She said, "As I learn, the
district will learn."
--Questions from the audience of about 50 people were mostly for school board
candidates and were dominated by safety issues. Jess Booth said the school
board took advantage of grant opportunities to hire school resource officers –
fully equipped police officers – paid by the city, school board and grants.
Booth also said the state Department of Family and Children Services needed to
be involved in school discipline and the school’s Exalt program needed to
continue to place disruptive students away from other students but in a
learning atmosphere. M.T. Brown said students should be involved in conflict
resolutions at schools and approved of school resource officers. Brown also
said kindergarten students should be taught to deal with violence. Lucille
Morris said she was optimistic about dealing with school safety and community
resources like the Boys and Girls Club, Community in Schools and the
Thomasville Resource Center would help students stay safe. Morris said
alternative schools were only a quick fix. Matthew Conyers said the school
system needed to make sure people were screened when they came to school
grounds, student ID cards were needed and cars on campuses needed to be
checked. Conyers said his experience establishing voluntary school uniforms at
Harper was good.
--Candidates were asked about the need for a one-percent sales tax and a city
property tax. David Lewis said he was not ready to have the city impose
property tax when currently there was no city property tax. Lewis also said
there was a need for improvements to infrastructure and the work did not need
to be done incrementally, so he was in favor of a special purpose sales tax.
Lewis said any citizen can inform himself about the way the city spends money
by asking for a city financial statement. Juno Green said taxes were inevitable
and she supported a special purpose sales tax. Green also said she would have
meetings in the city district and ask citizens their advice about spending
money.
--School candidates were asked about how to prepare more students to use all
resources available for their education. M. T. Brown said there could be a need
to go back to "tracking" but with more parent involvement. He said
grades needed to be based "on the curve." Lucille Morris said teacher
home visits used to be useful but now there needed to be better interaction
between students and teachers.
--Asked about how to encourage cultural diversity, Lucille Morris said Balfour
pre-K school was a good example of how cultural diversity could work, saying
the students there naturally had no conception of cultural differences. Morris
said it was a different story when students reached middle school and high
school and said she wanted to work to make student acceptance of each other
better in the upper grades.
--On the need for more minority teachers, M. T. Brown said there needed to be
more men at Harper School. Former principal at Harper Matthew Conyers said
Harper used to have men teachers and he was proud that a majority of the
teachers there were from minorities. Juanita Jackson said more minorities
needed to be encouraged to take education in college. Lucille Morris said
minority teachers could be found if sought.
--On teacher incentives with bonus pay for improvements in K-8 test scores,
Morris said it was generally a good idea but there was more to education than
raising test scores. Jess Booth said incentives were good but all aspects of
teaching needed to be encouraged.
--Jess Booth said computers were important in education and several computers
have been placed in elementary schools and at Balfour pre-K. He said students
could use the computers and adults could learn to use them after school hours.
CITY
ELECTION FORUM
Candidates for Thomasville city elections attended a forum Wednesday morning,
October 20, at Thomasville High School, appearing before members of the senior
class. There were differing views on the consolidation of city and county
schools expressed by school board candidates and a civic center was discussed.
Attending were David Lewis and Juno Green, both candidates for a city council
post in District 1, Jess Booth and Juanita Jackson, candidates for the at-large
post on the city school board, and M.T. Brown and Lucille Morris, candidates
for two posts in District 1 of the school board. Not there were Matthew
Conyers, the third candidate for one of the two posts in District 1 of the city
school board and Francis Stone, a third candidate for the District 1 post on
the city council. Also not there was Camille Payne, the only candidate for
District 2 on the city council.
--School board candidates were asked their opinions on the consolidation of the
city school system with the county school system. Jess Booth, an incumbent on
at-large post on the school board, said he was not in favor of consolidation.
He said the three schools in the community (Brookwood is a private K-12 school)
all serve the community well. He said the city schools had a history of
producing quality academic and athletic programs for Thomasville that he wanted
to continue. Booth said the consolidation of city and county schools would
produce divisions in the community as questions would have to be resolved about
the number of high schools and identities associated with athletic teams.
Juanita Jackson, running against Booth for the board, said Thomasville was one
of only five independent city school systems in the state. Jackson said she had
not made a decision if she supports consolidation because she wanted to study
what the situation was in those counties where there was only one system. M.T.
Brown, a candidate for one post on school board District 1, said he was in
favor of consolidation with county schools. Brown said there would be better
use of resources by the community. Lucille Morris, an incumbent on the school
board’s District 1, said she was not in favor of consolidation. Morris said she
agreed with the observation that bigger schools were not always better and a
larger, consolidated, school system would cause more safety problems.
--Students asked about the possibility of an auditorium for assemblies and
stage-plays by high school students. M.T. Brown said a better idea was a
multi-purpose facility that could serve as a civic center for the whole community.
He said it may have to be built with sales tax money. Jess Booth said building
a stage for the high school would cost money that the local system would need
for new classrooms to meet possible state requirements bringing down
student-teacher ratios. Booth said the project would likely need state or
federal money. Meanwhile, Booth said he thought the stage at MacIntyre Park
Middle School was available for high school stage productions. David Lewis, a
candidate for Thomasville City Council District 1, was asked if the city should
build a civic center. Lewis said no city funded civic center in the state
managed to operate "in the black." He said if a civic center is
built, then there should be county wide support for it’s capital development and
support. Juno Green, another candidate for city council, said she supported the
city building a civic center, "The city needs it bad."
--There were several other issues discussed during the forum. Students asked
the city council candidates if they supported building a shopping center or
activity area for teens to "hang out." David Lewis said he was
"philosophically opposed" to government involvement where private
commerce should be. However, he said he supported the city’s Community Network
Services (CNS) because it used high-technology fiber optics to provide cable-TV
and high speed Internet service that otherwise "would not have been here
for years." Juno Green said she supported CNS because it brings money to
the city government and it was good to provide competition to the other,
private, local cable company. M.T. Brown said teens already had several places
to congregate, like the Boys and Girls Club and the Thomasville Community
Resource Center.
--In other remarks, Lucille Morris said character education should be seriously
implemented in schools to address the problems of school violence. She said
education was more than passing SATs, that all students can learn and get an
education that will be useful to them after they leave school. She said
teachers, students and administrators should know more about each other and
their problems. Morris said she liked the idea of year-round schools. She said
students were individuals and it was the job of a school board to provide the
community good leadership.
--M.T. Brown said his platform was parent involvement and the training of
success. He said he wanted to improve student scores on the American College
Test, promote job shadowing and connect students with caring adults.
--Jess Booth said his platform was to offer the best school system for all
students. He said schools should keep changing goals to meet job requirements
in the workforce. He praised the school bands and literary societies. He said
he supported computers in schools and favored the opening of schools after
hours for adults to learn computers.
--Juanita Jackson told the students if they came to school determined to learn
and work, "then there is no stopping you." She encouraged everyone to
learn and she pledged to provide good facilities. She said safe schools meant
more crisis intervention workers when needed and programs to encourage school
safety.
CITY
ELECTIONS FORUM
Candidates for Thomasville city council and city school board spoke at a forum
Thursday night, October 28, addressing issues raised by a panel and citizens in
the audience. The forum was sponsored by the Thomasville NAACP and Kappa Sigma
Psi fraternity. At the forum were candidates for city council District 1, David
Lewis and Juno Green. Not present was the third candidate for that post, Francis
Stone, who is recovering from surgery. Also present was M. T. Brown and Matthew
Conyers, candidates for two posts on the city school board, District 1. Not
present was one of the two incumbents in that school board district, Lucille
Morris. Also not present was Roy Lilly, II, the only candidate for city school
board District 2. The two candidates for the at-large city school board post,
incumbent Jess Booth and challenger Juanita Jackson, were present. Camille
Payne, who has no opposition for city council District 2, was present.
--M.T. Brown indicated that he had changed his mind about consolidation of city
and county schools. Answering a question about the possible consolidation of
the two systems, Brown said he previously was in favor of bringing the systems
together as a county system, but was now convinced that consolidation was not
needed. Brown said after indicating his views in previous forums, he had heard
from enough citizens to convince him that consolidation would be divisive to
the community. Matthew Conyers said he was not in favor of consolidation of the
school systems, but there could be a consolidation of purchasing for both
systems. Juanita Jackson said Thursday night she had said she would study the
issue, but she too had heard several citizens express to her that they did not
want consolidation. Jackson said if people did not want consolidation, then she
would not be in favor of it. Jess Booth repeated his views against
consolidation.
--The city council candidates were asked about their stand on the need for a
special purpose one-cent sales tax to fund road paving and the Emergency
Services Authority. David Lewis said he was in favor in principle and generally
for the sales tax. However, he said he had concerns that it might not be open-ended.
He said, "What do we tell those who still had roads to be paved when the
sales tax ended?" Juno Green said she supported a sales tax to pave
streets.
--There were questions directly related to race relations. On a question about
why there were more roadblocks in black neighborhoods than white neighborhoods,
Camille Payne said city police normally set up roadblocks where citizens
complain about speeding. Juno Green said roadblocks needed to be in all areas
of the city. David Lewis said the council sets policy for the police and the
chief runs the day to day operations of the department, but if there were any
racial reasons for the placement of roadblocks, then he wanted to know about
it. On the need for more black police officers, Green said more money was
needed for better pay for officers and a sales tax could help with that. Also,
Green said better communication was needed by white and black officers with the
community. Lewis said he would find out if there was a problem with finding
good black officers, but sometimes a simple number breakdown was often confused
with good policy. Asked about expanding minority student participation in
advanced education programs, Booth said the system was trying to do just that,
but what was also needed was "more hands on teaching." About a
lawsuit filed against the city school board by several black citizens charging
racial discrimination, M.T. Brown said he did not know enough about the issue
to make a comment and Matthew Conyers said the suit "never should have
happened in the first place." Conyers said there needed to be a way to
have people to be able to discuss issues and not have lawsuits.
--On safety in schools and the need for School Resource Officers, Jess Booth
said SROs were already in place and doing a good job, along with the DARE
program. Booth said good parents and smaller schools prevent violence. M. T.
Brown said schools should start with conflict resolution taught in early grades
and that way schools could prevent the hiring of expensive SROs. Brown also
said students should be involved in the disciplining of other students. Matthew
Conyers said about large-scale violence in schools, "Don’t say it couldn’t
happen here because it could." Conyers said he was in favor of student ID
cards, strict dress codes, monitoring cameras, metal detectors and strict
enforcement of rules. Conyers also said he was in favor of smaller class sizes
and having all teachers as master teachers. Juanita Jackson said schools needed
to establish school safety teams.
--Camille Payne was asked to comment about the relationship of the city and
county. She said the relationship was good, but both the city and county were
very protective of their privileges. Payne said what conflicts there were
establishing the Emergency Service Authority may have made for "a flawed
situation," but the ESA was good for the community.
--On the city’s participation in establishing a high-tech TV cable system and
Internet access, David Lewis said he was "philosophically opposed" to
the city being involved in a venture normally reserved for business. However,
Lewis said in this case, if the city had not gotten involved, it would have
been several years before such a system would have come to Thomasville. Juno
Green said the city should be involved and it will bring needed revenue.
--City school board candidates were asked how to open school board meetings to
the public. Jess Booth said the meetings were already open and a part of the
meeting was devoted to allowing people to address the board on whatever subject
they wanted. Booth said one way to open access the school system was to involve
parents and one way to do that was opening schools after hours for parents to
learn to use school computers. M.T. Brown said the board should take it’s
meetings into various places in the community. Juanita Jackson said the board
needed to make sure meetings were open and citizens were not intimidated.
--Asked about allowing beer sales in residential areas, David Lewis said the
city had to follow the law in those situations. Juno Green said the city should
follow the law but she said she did not want beer sold in residential areas.
--School board candidates were asked if a religious service should be allowed
at the end of the school year. All the candidates said such Baccalaureate
services should be allowed.
--Juanita Jackson said all the elementary schools should have enough counselors
to serve students instead of having only two for the whole elementary system.