Mayor submits new candidates for police chief, attorney

Hattiesburg City Council will be asked next week to consider 11 nominees submitted as department heads or Municipal Court positions by Mayor Johnny DuPree.

Seven of the candidates are renominated holdovers. The other four, including nominees for police chief, city attorney, public defender and one of two judge pro-tem slots, will replace current members of the city's administration and court.

DuPree said he would have preferred to bring back all his department heads, but was concerned about their ability to be confirmed by a majority of the council.

"The staff I have now, I'm fully satisfied with," DuPree said Wednesday night. "I believe they've done a great job for a long time, and they served the citizens of Hattiesburg well.

"But through direct conversations with at least one council person and innuendos from others, it seems the four were going to have difficulty getting passed."

DuPree's nominees include former Vicksburg Police Chief Mitchell Dent to replace Frazier Bolton as police chief, Charles "C.J." Lawrence III to replace his father, Charles Lawrence Jr., as city attorney and Catouche J.L. Body to replace Alethea Shaw as public defender.

DuPree also nominated Crystal Wise Martin, the widow of the late, prominent Jackson attorney Precious Martin, to replace Carol Jones as Municipal Court judge pro-tem.

City Council President Kim Bradley said he only had just seen the list of appointments Wednesday.

"(The four), they're all new to me," Bradley said. "I guess we'll need to find out who they are. We'll just need to see."

The seven other nominees would be holdovers, including:

•Director of Parks and Recreation Clemon Terrell

•Director of Urban Planning Pattie Brantley

•Municipal Court Judge Jerry Evans

•Municipal Court Prosecutor/Post 1 Sally O'Flynn

•Municipal Court Prosecutor/Post 2 Alexander Ignatiev

•Municipal Court Clerk Ines Faye Hicks

•Municipal Court Judge Pro-tem Jonathan Farris.

The candidates are expected to be discussed during the council's Monday work session and could be considered for approval Tuesday.

If approved, that would leave only one more opening to fill, city clerk.

DuPree said he did not have a timetable for filling that slot.

"I've already tried to fill it twice," he said.

Hattiesburg has been without a full-time administrative director since longtime City Clerk Eddie Myers resigned in September. Myers had been told that he had lost support among the council and would not have been confirmed if he had been brought forward for reappointment.

DuPree had tried to fill that spot, but in March, the council rejected his nominee, Jackson Assistant City Clerk Kristi Martin Moore.

During a council meeting late in 2014, DuPree said he another candidate for city clerk, but was told by Bradley that the council would not act unless all nominees were brought forward at the same time.

Since being re-elected to a fourth term in September 2013, DuPree had submitted candidates for six of the 17 positions, which by state law, require his nomination and council's approval.

Of the six, five have been approved, including Larry Barnes, Department of Public Works director; Chad Frierson, Department of Water and Sewer director; Paul Presley, fire chief; Lamar Rutland, city engineer; and La'Keylah D. White, Department of Federal and State Programs director.

Bradley and Councilman Carter Carroll filed a civil complaint in 12th District Circuit Court in November, asking that the mayor be required to bring the remaining nominees forward.

DuPree said next week's nominations had nothing to do with the complaint.

"I have been bringing them," he said. "I brought five in March and they voted four. Brought another, city engineer, in May. Started with the holes that we had (in some departments) and started working through the process.

"And that's what I'm still doing."

If you go

•Hattiesburg City Council meets at 4 p.m. Monday and 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 200 Forrest St.