For several candidates in Oktibbeha County’s circuit clerk race, a key focus is on restoring the office to what they say it should be.
Circuit clerk candidates were among those from several races who participated in a Tuesday evening candidate forum the Oktibbeha County Democratic Executive Committee hosted at the courthouse. The forum also featured candidates vying for the chancery clerk, District 1 constable and Mississippi House of Representatives District 38 positions in Nov. 7 special elections.
Five candidates are vying for the circuit clerk position. Former circuit clerk Glenn Hamilton vacated his position when he resigned in July while pleading guilty to a charge of felony methamphetamine possession.
Tony Rook, who currently serves as Starkville’s municipal clerk, said he wants to work to restore and maintain public confidence in the circuit clerk’s office.
“It is absolutely critical that a court maintain the public confidence,” he said. “If you can’t trust a court to do the right thing, who can you trust?”
Sheryl Elmore, who currently serves as a deputy clerk in the office, echoed Rook’s sentiments. She also acknowledged that Hamilton was prone to long absences and said she would strive to improve the office in that area.
“I have to admit I was there during the time when we had a clerk that wasn’t there as often as he should be,” she said. “But we did the best that we could with what we had, and I think we did pretty good. But it needs to be brought back up to a standard we’re all proud of.”
Teresa Davis, who with MSU’s receiving and property control division, said she’d like to focus on improving voter awareness about elections.
“I’m going out knocking on doors and a lot of our people in the community are not even realizing that there’s an election coming up on Nov. 7, nor who’s on the ballot or anything,” she said. “… That’s one of the things where we have to go back to the community — as an elected official, I feel it’s your duty to go back out to the community and inform the community of the things that’s going on in the office.”
Elane Turner , who works at MSU’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, referenced the recent Equifax hack that may have put personal information of more than 140 million people at risk. She said it’s important to make sure the office’s systems work as they should, in a way that reinforces public trust.
“We’ve got to make sure that not only does the public trust us, but the public’s got to trust our resources,” she said. “If we go through everything haphazardly and say ‘Oops, now we’ve got to fix it,’ you’ve opened the door to more failures and more criticisms.”
Candidate Stephanie Morgan Snyder, an engineering and design teacher at Starkville-Oktibbeha County School District’s Millsaps Career and Technology center who is also running for circuit clerk, did not attend Tuesday’s forum.
Other races
House District 38 candidate Cheikh Taylor, who operates the child-centered nonprofit Brickfire Project, attended Tuesday’s forum.
Neither of his opponents — former Starkville alderman Lisa Wynn and former fashion model Narissa Bradford — did.
All three are vying to fill the unexpired term of Tyrone Ellis (D-Starkville) who retired from the Legislature earlier this year to spend more time with family.
All the chancery clerk candidates — Tina M. Fisher, Martesa Bishop Flowers, Margaret Monique Jordan, Sharon Livingston, Barbara A. Mitchell and Hattie Ridgel — attended.
Those candidates are vying to replace Monica Banks, who died late last year following a long illness. Livingston has served as interim since October 2016.
Constable candidates Joe Morse and Shank Phelps were also present for the forum.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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