The two Democratic candidates for Leflore County tax collector both say they want to make the office an accessible place focused on serving the people.
Annie M. Conley of Itta Bena will face Gerone Hearn of Greenwood in Tuesday's primary. The winner will face incumbent Sara Kenwright, an independent, in November.
Conley, 45, has lived in Leflore County all her life. She graduated from Leflore County High School and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Mississippi Valley State University.
For the last 1-1/2 years, she has served as office manager for the Deep South Network for Cancer Control in Greenwood. Before that, she spent 12 years as an administrative secretary at Leflore County High School.
She was a corrections officer at the state penitentiary at Parchman from 1984 to 1989.
She said this diverse background has helped her in "being able to cope with different situations, different people, different backgrounds and being able to communicate."
She said her job at Deep South is "to make sure that everything is going smoothly" - and she takes a hands-on approach to doing that.
Conley said she has focused on public service at Deep South and would do the same as tax collector. She wants to make the tax collector's office a "public-friendly" place that is convenient to deal with.
She intends to let people know where they stand with taxes and counsel those who are delinquent so they don't miss deadlines again. She also would like to add a payment dropoff site in Itta Bena and explore offering online payment.
Conley has two sons - Limbrix, 26, and Nitro, 20. She is a member of New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Itta Bena.
Hearn, 48, a native of Carroll County, has lived in Leflore County for 31 years. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, with emphasis in accounting, from MVSU. Beginning in 1977, he spent six years in the university's fiscal affairs office. They faced state and federal audits each year and passed them all, he said.
From there, he went on to run the MVSU bookstore for 20 years, with an annual budget of $1.5 million, and passed all the audits there, too.
For the past five months, he has worked as inventory control manager at Wal-Mart.
He retired from the bookstore job Jan. 31 but soon got tired of sitting at home. Already a member of the Greenwood-Leflore Airport Board, he became interested in serving the whole county in some way.
"I like what I do on the airport board, so it opened up other possibilities for me," he said.
Hearn said the tax collector's office also should be accessible to the public as well as accountable to the state and federal governments.
"Some people, when they get a job, you don't see them anymore," he said. "I'm a person to be there and be accessible. Anybody can come by and see me."
He and his wife, Elvia, have two sons, Gerone Cartier Hearn, 22, and Camden Dante Hearn, 15.
He is a deacon at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Itta Bena.
