Greenwood City Council candidate Sammy Foster says he’s running because there’s a need.
“I see a town that’s dying,” Foster told 11 listeners at the Greenwood Voters League’s meeting Wednesday night.
Foster, an insurance agent who served on the Greenwood Leflore Hospital Board from 1998 until 2019, is running as a Democrat for the council’s Ward 4 seat in Tuesday’s primary.
He was the only candidate whose name will be on the ballot Tuesday to speak at the meeting. His opponent is the Ward 4 incumbent, Charles McCoy, produce manager at Greenwood Market Place.
Foster said the city’s decision not to reappoint him to the hospital board in 2019 was actually a favor since it allowed God to give him another place to go — in this case, running for City Council.
Foster said he’s concerned about crime and the police.
“Look at our crime; it’s rampant,” he said, adding he’s saddened by all the young men who have been killed.
Foster also questioned why city leaders decided in January to appoint Terrence Craft as chief of police while reappointing Jody Bradley, the former police chief, as an executive administrator for the department. Bradley’s new role includes managerial duties that previous police chiefs would have handled.
Mayor Carolyn McAdams said in January that Bradley and Craft would each have a salary of $60,000. Foster asked why the city had to pay salaries for two men rather than give Craft a higher salary and assign him the managerial duties.
Foster said the community needs to rally behind the public school system. He said he would have no issue paying increased taxes to help the district since education can help deter crime.
“We need to come together. The businesses need to go back to supporting the school system,” he said.
Of the hospital, Foster said, “a hospital is very important to a community,” and better health care can increase the chances of attracting industry.
“It’s time for a change, and that’s my slogan,” Foster said. “If I’m elected, I’m going to be a councilman for all of Greenwood ... north Greenwood and south Greenwood.”
Dorothy “Dot” Glenn, a Democratic candidate for the Ward 6 City Council seat who is unopposed in the primary Tuesday as well as the June 8 general election, was at the meeting but declined an offer by David Jordan, the Voters League’s president, to speak.
She also declined to comment after the meeting other than to say that she owns a convenience store in town. She said she would provide a statement in the near future.
Jordan, who currently represents Ward 6, qualified to run for reelection but withdrew just before the deadline on Feb. 5. He said he pulled his name so someone else could have a shot at representing Ward 6 but disputed any perception that he did so to give the seat to Glenn, who was a student of his when he taught science at Williams Elementary School.
“It’s amazing one of my students will take my place,” he said Wednesday. “I think she’ll do a good job.”
Jordan said the Voters League will begin meeting weekly again sometime later in April.
He said he intends to have Dr. Carey Wright, the state superintendent of education, and Tyree Irving, the chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, speak.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
