Katie Hightower

On Tuesday, Aug. 13, the Jackson County Sentinel hosted a political forum for Scottsboro’s upcoming election. The forum, originally scheduled to be held in the Bynum Auditorium, was moved to the auditorium at Collins Intermediate School due to air conditioning issues at Bynum. Judge Brent Benson served as mediator. 

The candidates were called forward one at a time in alphabetical order per race and each given three minutes to answer each question with a warning bell at the thirty-second mark and a final bell when the time was up. All candidates were given five questions to answer.

The first question for the school board candidates was, “School funding is always a concern for our schools. With the loss of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funding also known as ESSER Funds, how should the school board approach funding without depleting the existing reserve?”

Lee Benson, incumbent, said the school board has a good staff and the public needs to trust in the directors in place. He said SCS has a good CSFO and the reserve has increased from 1.6 to 4.5 months. He suggested fundraising and giving teachers raises in order to keep them.

Challenger, Patrick Dicus, said the school board needs to look at infrastructure and buildings and put a priority on fixing things that need to be fixed. He also said the board needed to work with the CSFO to make sure they’re doing things to line up with a budget and work on getting a balanced budget. He said the school might need to buckle down and mentioned salaries are a big part of the budget.

Challenger, Kristie Shankles, said with the loss of funding the school board needs to look at what has been spent and the effectiveness of the current existing programs and make a plan. Shankles said the board needs to involve the community. She also said the board can look into grants and other ways to apply for funds.

The second question for the school board candidates was, “Some citizens have expressed that they feel they should be able to address the school board at public meetings without prior screening and approval.”

Benson said, he believed the school board’s policy is set up well and is comparable to the rest of the education world. He believes every citizen should be able to address the school board but there is a chain of command people need to follow before they come to the board and that a lot of problems can be solved by going to the first person involved rather than going straight to the top.

Dicus said every citizen should be heard and SCS’s policy is in line with other school system’s board policies. He also said transparency would go a long way and suggested the board start live streaming meetings or recording them so people can see them. 

Shankles said she also checked out other districts and SCS is in line with all the other districts. She said the board needs to be careful about what is brought before the board because it acts as a final review in certain cases and the school board is not allowed to have any prior knowledge in order to make an unbiased and fair decision. At the same time, she believes the school should be live-streaming or posting recordings of the meetings and the agendas. 

The third question for the school board candidates was, “It seems that the city school system has decided to reimburse the city for the full-time SROs. What is your understanding of this plan and do you approve of it or do you have an alternate plan?”

Benson said that is a vote he has to abstain from due to his position as a school resource officer. He did say he agreed with it and has looked over it. He said while retired officers do a great job and he is thankful for them, there are things full-time officers can do that the retired officers can’t do like relationship-building training. 

Dicus said, the SROs do a good job and are important but that is $100,000 that can go towards students, faculty and schools. He said he was not in favor of the plan and it would be better to go with the City Council’s proposal.

Shankles said, it is something that needs to be revisited each year to make sure it’s viable with the budget. She said they need to make sure it’s sustainable when the ESSER funds are gone and to look into other funding options and training for the SROs. She said she she does not agree with the current contract.

The fourth question for the school board candidates was, “What are some significant changes facing our school system this year and beyond and how do you think these should be addressed?”

Benson said the biggest change is the number of new people in administration. He the administration is doing a great job. He said the central office did a great job with the interview process in putting the right people in the right positions. 

Dicus said the biggest change is the lack of ESSER funds. He said funding and making sure the budget is balanced are the biggest issues the school is facing.

Shankles said teacher retention and recruitment should be priority since it costs over $146,000 for each teacher turnover. She said SCS has the highest teacher retention of first-year teachers with 79% staying but she said SCS has to look beyond to the retention of all teachers. She also said the school needed to look at recruiting the most highly qualified candidates for all open positions.

The final question for the school board candidates was, “What are your qualifications for serving on the school board?”

Benson answered that he is a parent who loves SCS. He said one can be a board member by just having common sense and being able to listen and work well with others. He said he feels like his experience with being a police officer has helped him in the job. He said it’s hard to be a board member or to be in public office and thick skin is necessary for the role. He said he didn’t realize how much being a board member would mean to him when he initially ran for office or that he would make the difference he made in the past six years. He said he wanted to thank his friends, family and coworkers for allowing him to serve and that he would like to do it for another six years.

Dicus answered that he too is a parent and a public servant with his firefighting for 20 years. He said he loves this city and we have a good school system here. He said he loves engaging in anything Scottsboro Wildcats, including helping coach baseball voluntarily. He said he wanted to see kids come back here and raise their families. He said being committed to the school system and the city are the best qualifications for the job.

Shankles said she was qualified because she worked in education for 23 years. She said she spent the majority of her career with SCS. She said by working in other districts she was able to see a different perspective when making educational decisions. She said she went in to education to serve and make a difference for the life of a child and serving on the board is a natural progression and extension of what she already does every day.

For City Council, the first question was, “Concern has been expressed about the condition of some of our recreational facilities yet a large sum of money has been spent and another large sum of money has been proposed for pickle ball courts. What are your thoughts on this?”

Incumbent, Ralph Dawe said it was a true statement and with the ballfields in disrepair, he felt like the $400,000 should go to Bynum Park.

Challenger, Terry Thomas said even with the popularity of pickle ball, the money needs to be spent to fix Bynum Park. He said in the future, funds could be budgeted for pickle ball courts but right now fixing what we have is more important. 

Challenger, Paul White said he didn’t think the money should be spent on pickle ball and that the money should go to fix the ballfields and other parks as well as the Rec*Com.

The next question was, “With our landfills filling up so rapidly, what do you propose as a possible solution to this ongoing situation”

Dawe said each landfill costs $4-5 million just to get it installed. He said to close it, there’s even more money spent. He also said it is expensive to run it with all the equipment used to bury trash. He said the city is looking into purchasing an incinerator.

Thomas said an incinerator is super expensive but Huntsville uses one and uses steam to make power. He also suggested recycling.

White said, the landfills cost a lot of money to close and open a new cell. He also used Huntsville’s incinerator as an example of generating power. He said it would make sense to put in an incinerator and use it to make steam power.

The next question was, “What is your plan to address personally-owned property within the city that could pose a safety issue?”

Dawe said that the city already has a system in place to take care of that and he would like the city to be more proactive about enforcing it. He also said there are people who are disabled and can’t take care of their homes. He said in those cases, the ordinance officer could help people find community services that can help them. 

Thomas said there are properties in disarray and pose a safety threat. He said the ordinance officer needs to issue a notice to the owners. He said the officer could help the people who can’t get out and mow their yards. He also said there needs to be a better way of reporting the issue and handling it.

White said the city needs to do better at enforcing it and not do demolitions on the taxpayers dollar. He said there needs to be at least one more ordinance officer.

The next question was, "The need for affordable housing has been raised on numerous occasions, what is your opinion on how to address this concern?

Dawe said we need more homes in Scottsboro. He said without adequate population, Scottsboro can’t bring in Big Box stores. He said he’d like to see the population of Scottsboro grow.

Thomas said, nobody wants to see Scottsboro grow at the expense of existing neighbors. He said that the city has six undeveloped subdivisions that don’t have a single house on it. He said Scottsboro has an ordinance on subdivision development that doesn’t damage existing neighborhoods.

White said affordable housing depends on the income of the individual and there needs to be a variety of housing. He said it would help develop some of the vacant lots around town. 

The last question was, “What do you see as your primary responsibility as a City Council Member?”

Dawe said the primary responsibility is to make sure the budget is balanced and to pass certain ordinances and laws to improve the city and work with the mayor and other city council members to bring business and industries into town. He said now that we’ve been more welcoming to new developers, they’re here. He said it was most important to him to make sure the employees are taken care of so they’ll want to do their jobs and serve citizens better. He said his motto is to keep moving forward.

Thomas said the primary job of city council is the legislative branch of city government. He said the mayor’s branch is the administrative branch.. it’s the council’s job to give department heads the tools they need to do their jobs to support the city. He said the council’s job is to make their job easier.

White said the primary job is managing the budget and trying to get the most bang for the buck out of every part. He said Scottsboro doesn’t need big box stores but instead, local business needs encouraged.

The first mayoral question was, “The weeds on our waterways are continuing to be a huge problem. What do you see as a solution to the issue.”

Incumbent, Jim McCamey, said there was a couple of issues with it. He said it was more than just the weeds. He said there are different individuals cutting the weeds but they’re not harvesting. He said he meets with TVA regularly and asked them to spray more than they are. He said harvesters were put in Roseberry and on the river and Scottsboro sanitation has put roll-offs at Scottsboro City Park, Veterans Park and at the County Park. He said TVA harvests, and Scottsboro disposes the eelgrass. He said TVA has to step up and some of the sprays kill the eelgrass but also kills the fish. He said TVA is working with Mississippi State and Auburn University to develop a solution but harvesting is the best they can do right now.

Challenger, John Moses, said it would be best to continue to work with TVA he said he didn’t know if there was something the city could do. He said since people are here for fishing, definitely don’t want to spray.

The next question was, “What do you see as a potential solution to securing industrial jobs that pay a better living wage?’

McCamy said first thing is to take care of current industries. He said recruiters come to the community to scope the place out without telling anyone they’re here. He said that’s why it’s important to make Scottsboro a welcoming place where they can come and grow while we work to support our local industries.

Moses said it’s something he needed to check on and he didn’t know.

The next question was, “Why do we have such a large surplus of tax revenue and how can that surplus be used to benefit the citizens of Scottsboro reduce the strain on citizens placed on them by the current economy.”

McCamy said he wasn’t sure what kind of large amount he was talking about and that the City Council does a tremendous job on budgeting. He said when we have increased sales, the money goes to purchase equipment like at the landfill. He said the money does help the citizens of Scottsboro through service. He said the excess sales tax is good—it means we’re growing but it also means the Council is budgeting well.

Moses said, he said he didn’t have an answer for that. He suggested to get employees what they need to do their jobs.

“Why does it appear that the paving of our roadways has stopped and what is your plan for paving city streets and how can we do more to improve our roadways?

McCamy said the streets are in bad shape and the budget has increased the amount of money for paving from $265,000 to $2.3 million and the milage from 1.07 mi. to 13.1 mi. He said while they can’t pave them all, if the WSG has any improvements, they have to take care of those first.

Moses said a committee needs to be made to look into it and figure out which streets need to be paved first. He said something needed to be put in place.

The last question for the mayoral candidates was, “What are the biggest obstacles we face moving our city forward?”

McCamy said finances, and workforce participation were the biggest obstacles. He also said housing and more multifamily homes were needed. He said the streets needed work and there is not one silver bullet to fix everything because it takes them all.

Moses said Scottsboro needs paving and to encourage people to work.

After the questioning session, each candidate was given two minutes to give closing comments.

The forum was streamed live by Southern Torch’s Brian Anderson on the Jackson County Sentinel, 98-3 Wild Country and 107-7 The Torch’s Facebook pages. Replays are available on those Facebook pages for anyone who missed the live stream.

The Scottsboro election will be held Aug. 27. If a run-off is needed, the run-off will be held Sept. 24.