Jackson Free Press

The Jackson City Council will fill the empty seat left by recently elected Hinds County Supervisor Kenneth Stokes today after voters in Ward 3 select their new council member.

There are eleven candidates competing for the spot in City Hall. The winner will finish Stokes' term, which expires in 2013. Stokes represented Ward 3 on the council for 23 years.

During a council meeting Monday, Ward 1 Councilman Quentin Whitwell encouraged voters in Ward 3 to not overlook the special election. Joking, Whitwell added they should take more than one turn at the poll.

"I ask everybody in Ward 3 to vote early, and often. Just a joke, but I do hope we have a good voter turnout," Whitwell said.

Beneta Burt, who the Jackson Free Press endorsed for the position on Monday, has said she helped bring more than $5 million into Ward 3 as the executive director of the Jackson Roadmap to Health Equity Project.

Also among the candidates is Stokes' wife, LaRita Cooper-Stokes.

Darla Palmer, a criminal attorney, said she hoped to bring change to a ward that "lacks unity." Albert Wilson, founder of the Genesis and Light Center, has said he will bring a working-man, roll-up-your sleeves approach to the seat, which he ran for in 2009. Harrison Michael II is also back from a defeat in the 2009 election for another attempt at the City Council.

Other candidates include minister-in-training Patricia Williams, former educator and city planning commission member Joyce Jackson, Jackson Public Schools teacher Gwendolyn Ward Osborne-Chapman and Zachery Williams, a local businessman and member of the Farish Street Festival Board.

Williams said if he is elected, he will make Ward 3 better one house at a time.

"I would implement a One House at a Time program. We would work with the home owners' association and take one house and renovate it, then another. It would increase property value and improve the neighborhood," Williams said.

Restaurant owner Sameerah Muhammad and the Rev. John Taylor, Jr., a Belhaven University student and employee of Baptist Hospital, round out the large, diverse candidate pool.

Nine of the candidates participated in a forum Feb. 7. Cooper-Stokes and Taylor did not attend.

When asked if it is fair for the council to meet and vote without a Ward 3 representative, Whitwell said they must take care of the people and business until Ward 3 elects a new representative.

"Hopefully the new councilperson, whoever that may be, will understand that we've got to follow the law. We can't disregard the Constitution," Whitwell said. "So, hopefully, the next councilperson will be pro-business and will follow the Constitution and the law."

The newly-elected Ward 3 representative will join a council busy with budget, rules and legislative issues. The next regular city council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.