Jackson Free Press

John Jones is probably one of the most scientifically versed candidates to ever run for mayor of Jackson. Jones' resume is longer than some small-town Mississippi phone books, with experience in electronics training to field engineering, and from air-traffic control to RADAR engineering. Jones served as dean of computer information and communication technology at West Virginia Northern Community College and director of telecommunications at Jackson State University.

Jones may have achieved true "nerdvana," but his name recognition is low. His racy ideas on repopulating the crumbling inner city will, no doubt, cause irritation, but Jones has lived his life as a guy who makes electronics do magic—not the guy who wins popularity contests.

What are you hoping to accomplish as mayor of the city?
I'm hoping to use technology to change a lot of the things that's wrong with Jackson. I notice all of the candidates are talking about increasing the police force to the recommended 650 officers, or whatever. I'm definitely in favor of reducing crime in Jackson, but I don't think throwing human power at it is what's going to reduce crime. We're going to have to apply technology.

One of my suggestions is a metropolitan area wireless network. That would allow police to communicate more effectively, and allow us to use surveillance—with cameras that could be watching certain high crime areas, or any area, for security and safety.

Another thing is the way that police are deployed. This past Monday, on the same street as my campaign headquarters, young people drove by, shooting guns. This is Heather Lane, and they drove by and let off 10 or so rounds from an automatic weapon. The police can't be everywhere, but we could definitely have electronic surveillance in areas that have been identified as high-crime areas, or areas where people are asking for more monitoring.

Any area could be open to surveillance.

It seems like the Legislature hasn't taken kindly to the city's use of technology to issue traffic citations to red-light runners.
I know. I won't go into bad-mouthing the Legislature, but that was a bad call. We're in the 21st century, and we're still trying to police a city using 20-year-old technology. Most of our police officers have been on the force for 15 or 20 years. They're only going to use the technology that they know. We need to get some new people, some young people, who are computer literate. We need databases that would allow the precincts to communicate instantly with the other precincts. If something happens in Precinct 3, Precincts 2 and 4 don't immediately know about it because our communication system isn't set up to interact with one another to share that information.

But renovations cost money.
Everything costs money. You have to prioritize how you're going to budget your money.

Your opponents might say that putting money into this will mean taking money out of other aspects of the budget.
That's what good management is about: deciding on your priorities and acting upon them. It's about having a strategic plan. I've been involved in higher education for the last 20 years, and you don't get anything done by doing it the same way. Unless you can come up with some new, innovative ways to do things, they're going to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome—the definition of insanity.

What are your plans to fix streets?
I have plans, but I don't think streets should be considered our highest priority. Our highest priority is economic development—the development of the neighborhoods, getting people working, and getting dilapidated housing removed and getting people to move into the city of Jackson. We need better tax incentives to get people to move into the city rather than moving out because they're afraid of crime and bad streets.

How would you encourage people to relocate their residences or businesses into the area?
The best way to do this is through tax incentives and allowing them monetary grants. I have a real problem with our schools in certain areas being 100 percent black because the demographics of that neighborhood is 100 percent black. We should have incentives for white people to move back into the city. We should have incentives to have Hispanics to move into an area. We have an impressive Hispanic population in the city of Jackson, but the black leadership has a mentality that could be considered exclusivist. I'm in favor of inclusion and diversity. We can't just use 60 or 70 percent of the available talent in the city to run the city of Jackson. We need to be inclusive of everybody in the city, and that doesn't mean that they necessarily have to be black.

Pulling whites into the city won't be easy. Many don't want to live with blacks. They want to be surrounded by people who look just like them.
Racism will always be with us. I commuted between Jackson, Mississippi, and Wheeling, West Virginia, for 10 years. Wheeling has a 5 percent black population. That's the highest in the state, and we still had segregated neighborhoods. They were all black or all white. They had the same problem. Racism is not exclusive to Mississippi, and it's not the culprit of all our problems.

You have to admit, though, that it would take a lot to coax many citizens of Rankin to move to Jackson, right?
I don't think so. The incentive is if you're living in a trailer in Rankin County you might appreciate the opportunity to live in a house in Hinds County. I'm not talking about single moms. I'm talking about families. If you had an opportunity to improve your economic condition by moving into a designated area of the city of Jackson where we are trying to uplift that whole neighborhood, I think people would move there.

Do you think the new population would actually mix with the rest of the population, or would it just be a colony producing kids who'll move on after they become adults?
I don't think colonies will be the case. You can look at planned communities and bring in the people you want into those communities. It's possible to have pleasant, racially mixed communities if the people in city planning choose to do something like this. I'm saying some things that probably will work against me getting elected, but these are things that need to be said to move this city forward.

I understand you have a background in technology.
I served 10 years as the dean of technology and communications technology and information technology at West Virginia Northern Community College. Technology is the cornerstone of the vision that I have for the city. I think we need a metropolitan area network, which would be free for all Jacksonians.

You mean a citywide wireless network?
Yes, a citywide wireless network. That would be a good incentive to move to Jackson. Right now I'm paying about $49 per month for Internet access for my home on Heather Lane, and it's still not nearly at the bandwidth that it should be. The city of Jackson already has the towers to make this happen. It's a matter of having the technology and the know-how to put the radios on those towers to provide free Internet access to everybody inside the city limits.

Some people say they don't need Internet access, but they don't realize how bad they need it. If I have problems with my Internet access, I have to talk to some one in the Philippines or India. That same technology could be used here in Jackson to provide jobs for people, and you don't have to have an engineering degree to read a script to follow a troubleshooting procedure.

There must be a reason that other cities haven't embraced this idea.
There are reasons, and most of them deal with putting Capital Cablevision or Verizon out of business. They would be competing against the city. This is a lack of vision for the capital. Buck Flynn used to be telecom director for the city of Jackson. Buck, a formal cable TV operator, wanted to put radios on those towers, but the people in power said, ‘No we can't do that,' because they were in the pocket of the telecommunications companies. Our metropolitan area network could provide incredible capability to any house inside the city limits. We could even sell them their own computer. There are netbooks, Internet-dependent laptops with low-end components, which sell for about $25. There's no reason I should have to go out and buy an $800 laptop.

It's a shame, really, when you think about it—all that money they invested in burying underground fiber optics in Jackson. The future was on the city towers all along. I was manager of telecommunications at JSU for four years when cables were going under the campus. That was millions of dollars we wasted.

What about network safety?
It's as secure as the fiber. You can use encryption; the police could have their own separate bandwidth—all of this is in the realm of possibility today. Most people think I'm crazy, but it's all possible.

What kind of experience do you bring to the mayor's office?
I've been a professional administrator for the last 20 years. I've managed large budgets. While at Jackson State, I managed communications there and managed distance learning at the University Center. I managed all the technology at three campuses at West Virginia Northern Community College in Wheeling, West Virginia. Other than personnel, technology was the largest budget at the college.

What kind of police chief are you looking for?
I would do like we do in higher education: We recruit nationally, and we would not recruit someone who's got 20 years experience of doing the same thing, using police brute force to accommodate a 21st-century problem. I would need somebody who is not afraid of technology, somebody who's computer literate, because just putting a computer in a police car isn't going to accomplish much if the police don't use it. I need someone who knows that police need to use the camera in their police car to file their reports and do the paperwork. I need someone who's willing to embrace the technology, not resist it.

Furthermore, we've got to get rid of the idea that nobody is ready to lead until they hit 50. What's wrong with getting a young person who hasn't necessarily been in the system for 20 years? If Jackson State or Millsaps were looking for a president, they'd search nationally. They wouldn't just advertise in the Jackson area. That's what we need to do for almost any office in city government.

What should be the turn-around time for information requests?
It should be almost instantaneous most times. You should be able to get most of what you need from the city's Web site. I went to the Jackson city Web page recently trying to find information about the different department heads. The part of the Web site talking about Frank Melton is pretty good, but if I needed to know something in detail about what roads are slated for repair, I'm out of luck. They have a Web presence, but it's not what it should be. If I were mayor, I would bring in technology and expertise from anywhere I could to get us where we need to go.

Do you have an opinion on employee pay rates?
I believe that if you pay peanuts, you get peanut work. That's just the way it is throughout the world. You get what you pay for. The employees we have choose to work for peanuts, and that's a problem because we get what we pay for. I'm for hiring quality people and paying them a quality wage. I'm also for holding them accountable and getting the job done. I don't want excuses. I've never accepted excuses.

One of the other issues I'm concerned with is a tax for people who commute between the city and the suburbs.

You'll need legislative approval for something like that, or we'd have it already.
The Legislature is willing to let us tax ourselves up to 8 percent, which will drive businesses away.

I imagine our taxing ourselves hardly impacts them negatively.
Yeah, but those are people who are part of the problem. They live outside the city, but they come in and use city resources. If we were to charge each person who is not a resident a $5 fee—which used to be an inspection sticker—we could raise Jackson up to what it needs to be.

Again, you would need legislative approval for something like this.
Of course. Machiavelli said it best: Power cedes only to a greater power. Unless we can rally enough people to say, ‘We need to make those people using up the city's resources to support us', we'll never get anything done. I don't think it will take a crowd of people with flaming torches marching on to the state capitol. I think it needs leadership with the vision to approve something like this. Of course, they'll try to protect the interest of the counties they represent. That's their job, but they also have a responsibility to the capital of the state. How does it reflect on the state of Mississippi if the capital city is the most dilapidated city in the state? Is that any incentive for someone to move to Mississippi?

See http://www.jfpelectionblog.com for more candidate interviews and breaking election news.

Previous Comments

ID

146077

Comment

Well, Maybe free internet could spur economic development in Jackson, but I think that better streets and lower perception of crime would be a more immediate and practical help. Though, he is right on in mentioning that white flight and residential segregation can be addressed through city planning policy. I am glad he is putting this issue on the table. blackwatch!!!!!

Author

Renaldo Bryant

Date

2009-04-20T09:47:52-06:00

ID

146078

Comment

Very impressive interview. Too bad the name recognition is so low.

Author

QB

Date

2009-04-20T10:47:23-06:00