The intrepid Kelly Daniels sat down with Marnita Henderson Friday. The interview is here.
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I think all you have to do to understand the difference between the two candidates is read each response to the question regarding the CAO. It’s clear that Marnita doesn’t even understand the job description of said position less than a week from the general election. That should concern voters.
But she does know what to do when a beautician is in the middle of giving a perm, and the water goes out or the drainage backs up. She is ready for that. Parker doesn’t understand that, since he is one of those in the “long string of bald men.”
Nice lady and an excellent citizen. However, so is my grandmother, and neither have any business being mayor of a town of 23,000.
Ditto! Well said MIADawg and MSDawg. I am tired of talking about all of this stuff. If people cannot judge from the two side-by-side interviews in the paper…we are in worse trouble than I thought. Hopefully bald heads will prevail tomorrow.
MIA…what’s clear is that Mrs. Henderson knows that if she were to need a CAO, it wouldn’t be the one that’s in place now because that would be continuing business as usual and I thought we wanted change?
MS…your comment shows that you’re grasping for something intelligent to say, and it didn’t work.
Jeremy…if being bald is a sign of knowing what you’re doing, then I think I’ll keep my hair.
Amazed–If that’s what she meant she should have said it. If what you say is correct she does a really poor job of expressing herself, which is equally as bad of a trait for a mayor to possess. I think it’s pretty clear she thinks the COA is nothing more than an “assistant” to the mayor. At least Parker’s answer to the same question can educate those who really didn’t know what the job description is, and I’m sure there are many citizens who fall into that category as it seems a person who attends every BOA meeting doesn’t know…
In all honesty, Marnita is the candidate in this race that would benefit the most from a quality COA since that person could bring some city management knowledge to the office. Again, one candidate has that knowledge and still thinks there needs to be a full-time presence in City Hall dealing with those issues. The other isn’t interested in a full-time “assistant.”
MIA, I guess one of my concerns is that Parker intends to practice law and be a part time mayor. That doesn’t convince me he has Starkville’s best interest at heart.
Let me clarify something. I talked to Marnita about the CAO comment. She is very aware of what the CAO does in the Camp administration. There are many- and she is one of them- who view the CAO as a stand-in for Camp so he can attend to his day job. Camp was the first mayor to have a designated “CAO.” The two mayors prior had people who did some of what Spruill is doing now.
Marnita wanted to stress her position as a fulltime mayor. In all fairness, I expect Parker to be one as well if elected. He did refuse to rule out completely giving up his law practice. I do question how an elected official can practice law as a fulltime mayor. Will he refuse to take any cases that might directly- or indirectly- impact the city? I would be more comfortable if had said he would put his law career on the back burner while he is mayor.
Marnita did allow- and encourage- the possibility of additional management help- more in line with a traditional city manager. I saw her comments as allowing for someone who is hired to do some of what Spruill is doing, but retaining some of those duties for herself as mayor. She specifically mentioned grant-writing as something that needed to be filled.
Also remember, that it is up the Board to hire and fire the CAO. If they want one (or don’t want one), neither Parker or Marnita can do anything about it. The real power lies with the Board in this form of government.
I would expect some type of board-hired administrator in either city hall.
Amazed, its called sarcasm. Your right, obviously it did not work.
Amazed, Parker Wiseman would be more effective at only 10 hr/wk than Mrs. Henderson at 168 hr/week (essentially her campaign pledge). However, I find the accusation you and Mrs. Henderson have propagated that Parker will only serve part time to be baseless. Mrs. Henderson, on the other hand, has been 100% retired for some time. What assurance do we have that she is ready to re-enter the workforce full-time? Based on her responses to questions during the campaign process it appears she’ll face a pretty step learning curve if the citizens of Starkville are short sighted enough to elect her. It seems pretty obvious that she would be wise to employ this assistant she constantly asserts she doesn’t need along with a CAO. Not that she would know the difference.
Jim-
You can argue the qualifications of any candidate all you want. The “not that she would know the difference” was beneath you.
You may not like her or vote for her, but you have to respect what she (and Parker) have done. You can’t be an idiot and make it this far.
I admire ANYONE who has the guts and thick skin to put their life on parade for anyone to take a potshot at.
The 22 people who declared to run may not get your vote, but they ALL deserve your gratitude for volunteering to run. That includes Camp, Cox, Wiseman and Henderson.
SNeditor, Marnita has had ample opportunity to explain her point regarding the CAO clearly and has not. I have been harping on this issue (because it is so ridiculously simple) and I hope by now that someone has explained the role of the CAO to her. It is no secret she has a personal problem with the way Mr. Camp has run his administration and Ms. Spruill. But this cannot be used to explain away that she doesn’t understand what the CAO does. Nor should it make any reasonable person believe she could manage the office of mayor better without a CAO or with a “city manager” instead. If she cannot articulate her vision for how the office of mayor will be structured how can she be expected to articulate her policy ideas. The present administration may not have performed as well as many of us would like (see primary results) but it has been far and away better than previous administrations. Is her idea of change is to take us back to the Mack Rutledge era (your assertion)? Really? Regression may technically be change but if that is what the majority of Starkville wants I have serious doubts Starkville will ever reach it’s potential.
P.S.
SNEditor, you obviously don’t know me very well if you think that comment was beneath me but I’m glad to see you hope for the best in people.
I believe that Wiseman is a very qualified candidate. However, the attacks made by his supporters is a big turn off.
“You can’t be an idiot and make it this far.” Did MH not run unopposed? If that’s the case then it’s rather easy to get this far. I’m not in any way insinuating that she is an idiot but that’s not a good argument. As for PW it is a little disconcerting that he is considering keeping his Law Practice open. Just look over the past years how many meetings Perkins had missed or been late to because of his job.
Amazed,
I didn’t understand your “if being bald is a sign of knowing what you’re doing, then I think I’ll keep my hair” comment. Do you not want to know what is going on? Sorry, just didn’t get it. You are obviously a Henderson supporter. Can you please enlighten us about why you feel that Henderson is the right person for the job? No one has been able to explain that to me so far. People only talk negatively about Parker, but can’t seem to explain why Mrs. Henderson is more qualified. (*Any other Henderson supporters please weigh in because I am really interested to understand your point of view…SNEditor included)
SNEditor,
You can try to defend Mrs. Henderson all you want, but that is not what she meant by her multiple CAO comments. She sees the position as an assistant to the mayor (See Wiseman/Henderson forum and SDN interview). I realize that she has a problem with Ms. Spruill and that is probably the basis for her stand on the issue, but that is NOT how she explained her answer.
ko,
Many of the Wiseman supporter “attacks” came after Mr. & Mrs. Cole’s article in the SDN. His personal, false accusation about Parker was the main reason Jim and I wrote our letter. So Mrs. Henderson’s campaign has done their share of stone throwing in this election too.
Scott,
I totally agree…100%. I commend Marnita for campaigning as hard as she has, but she has not proven anything yet. You can easily make it this far when you are unopposed. SNEditor, using your logic the Honorable Vice Mayor Your Lordship Mister Roy Perkins is a political genius for making it this far.
As far as Parker’s law practice. He has made it very clear that he will continue to practice law AFTER his job as mayor is complete. He will be a full-time mayor with a law practice on the side. Robbie already explained that we do not pay our mayors enough. I have no problem with Parker practicing on the side for some additional income as long as it does not interfere with his job as mayor. Law practice or not, he is the most qualified person to lead this city forward.
Jeremy-
I don’t disagree with you. I was trying to add in some additional info.
I think they both need a CAO-type of person, regardless of what it is called. Lynn Spruill is probably one of the most qualified people for that spot we have in town, personal feelings aside.
Just remember. the Board will decide on that post, not the next mayor.
And I should have said “You can’t be an idiot and run a campaign this close this late.” Would have been more accurate.
No one wants to explain why they are supporting Marnita?
Just a side note…I think that it says alot that Parker’s friends are willing to come from all over the city and the state to help him hold signs and campaign today, but Marnita is paying people to hold her signs. I am not spreading rumors, I heard it first hand. And before anyone says something about Parker’s out-of-Starkville friends, one of the guys that I met today graduated from Starkville High, but now lives in Oxford. He graduated high school with Parker and came back in town just to hold a sign and help his friend.