A Columbus attorney hoping to be chosen for a municipal judge position was asked to donate to a councilman’s campaign fund last week.
Joshua Clemons, a local attorney, said last Thursday he was contacted by someone claiming to represent the election campaign of Joseph Mickens, the Ward 2 councilman currently running for Lowndes County circuit clerk. The caller asked Clemons if he would donate to Mickens’ campaign.
“It was a woman who did not identify herself other than being with the Mickens campaign,” Clemons said.
Earlier that day, Clemons had been interviewed by a city committee for the municipal judge post. The call from Mickens’ campaign came at 2 p.m. and Clemons declined to make a donation.
At 5 p.m., Clemons said, the city’s human resources director, Pat Mitchell, called and told him that the committee would be recommending another applicant for the municipal judge post be chosen.
Clemons does not believe Mitchell’s phone call to him was connected to him declining the request from Mickens’ camp. However, the situation — a member of a councilman’s campaign team asking a city job applicant for campaign funds — struck Clemons as strange.
“It would have been a totally normal fundraising call under any other circumstances,” he said.
The Dispatch on Wednesday called the number from which Clemons had been contacted. A woman answered and confirmed she worked for the Mickens campaign. She declined to give her name or comment further.
Mickens did not respond to multiple messages.
The interview committee Tuesday recommended to the city council that another applicant for the municipal judge post — local attorney Gary Goodwin — be hired. He was approved with a 5-1 vote. Ward 5 councilman Kabir Karriem was opposed.
The Dispatch asked Goodwin on Wednesday if he had been asked to donate to any political campaign.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
Selection process
Three people applied for the municipal judge post, which was vacated by Nicole Clinkscales this summer after she chose to run for state office. The applicants were Clemons, Goodwin and Walter Zinn, a Pontotoc attorney who recently ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
Mitchell on Wednesday explained Goodwin was the only candidate the interview committee fully approved of. She also noted members of the council often do not know who have applied for open positions. Mitchell said the committee’s choice was not a nomination, but a recommendation to the council.
“What we normally do is once we interview, and we try to get the position filled for the upcoming council meeting,” Mitchell said. “We will discuss credentials when we interview. We will rate. And after we did, it was a unanimous decision to go with the other candidate.”
Explaining why she called Clemons on Thursday to let him know he would not be recommended by the committee, Mitchell said, “For fear that it got out in the media, I contacted all three applicants.”
Mitchell said the council could have voted to not hire Goodwin.
“If they did not agree with the position of the committee, we would have advertised (the position) again,” she said.
Mitchell said the council typically allows the human resources department to make calls when it comes to hiring.
“The council generally does not make that decision, even when we do police chief, fire chief or executive positions, even lower level positions,” Mitchell said. “When I interview with department heads and applicants, based on qualifications, based on background checks if that’s required. After that, based on the applicants, we will decide. Generally, council doesn’t know all of the applicants anyway.”
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