Effingham voters will make many choices on June 9

Voters in Effingham County have a lot more than presidential candidates to ponder when they go to the polls June 9.

They will consider education funding, filling the late Jack Hill's state Senate seat and choosing two school board members and a Superior Court clerk.

Education

A question on the ballot asks if the school district can issue bonds for $100 million to pay for a new elementary school, middle school and performing arts center. The bonds also would fund more classrooms at South Effingham Elementary School, more classrooms and strength conditioning facilities at the high schools and technology and transportation improvements.

Voters also are being asked if the education penny-per-dollar sales tax should be renewed for another five years.

No competition

Some of the candidates in local races will be re-elected without opposition, including Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie and county commissioners Wesley Corbitt, Forrest Floyd and Reggie Loper.

Also re-elected without competition are: Linda McDaniel, tax commissioner; David Exley, coroner; Vickie Decker, school board member; Scott Lewis, magistrate court judge; and Beth Rahn Mosley, probate court judge.

Jack Hill's state Senate seat

In a special election on the June 9 ballot, voters will choose among four people running as Republicans and one independent to fill the rest of Jack Hill's term in the state Senate in District 4. Hill died April 6. The term ends Dec. 31.

Running as Republicans for the remainder of the term are: Scott Bohlke, Billy Hickman, Kathy Palmer and Neil Singleton. Running as an independent is Jared Sammons.

Also on the June 9 ballot, voters will choose from the same four Republicans to determine who will fill the next term of the District 4 seat, which begins in January 2021. As an independent, Sammons was not allowed to run for the next full term of Hill's seat; he would have had to qualify in March, before Hill died.

Bohlke, 55, a physician, has lived in Brooklet for 21 years. He is married with four children, all of whom have graduated or is about to graduate from Georgia Southern.

"Through my work as a rural family physician I have witnessed the struggles that families face across our district, and I know firsthand what is important to people," he said. "Our families want accessible healthcare, quality educational systems, fiscally responsible government and support for our agriculture community."

He said he would support using some of the state's reserve funds to fill gaps of essential needs and "certainly education of our students would qualify as essential." He said he would not support furloughing teachers.

Hickman is a Statesboro businessman and certified public accountant. He was past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Southern University Foundation, president of the Statesboro-Bulloch County Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the board of East Georgia Regional Medical Center.

He and his wife Jo Ann have been married for 45 years and have two sons and five grandsons.

Hickman said balancing the budget after the hit the economy has taken because of the coronavirus is something he would be qualified to help do as a businessman with decades of experience.

"I would support using some reasonable percentage of reserves as well as leveraging federal dollars to protect our priorities like education as well as healthcare and law enforcement," he said. "But we must be strategic in using reserve funds as we must be prepared for what lies ahead and protect Georgia's AAA bond rating."

Palmer, of Swainsboro, has been a Superior Court judge in the Middle Judicial Circuit for 20 years, serving presently as chief judge. She announced she will retire from the bench at the end of her term on Dec. 31.

She has served as president of the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia, chairman of the Board of Directors of East Georgia Healthcare and president of the Swainsboro/Emanuel County Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband Danny live in Swainsboro and have two sons and two grandsons.

She said a lot of the state's reserve fund will be used to finish up this fiscal year and the balance could supplement the budget next year. "I am very optimistic that the economy will recover at a fairly rapid pace although it may take years to return to the booming economy we enjoyed before COVID-19," she said.

Sammons recently graduated from Washington and Lee University law school. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia and worked for Lockheed Martin in Marietta.

While at Washington and Lee, he worked for the Small Business Administration and was class president his second year.

"I learned how the law and the political system impact people's daily life in law school, and that impact is greatest at the state level," he said. "I'm home again and want to help the people and places that gave so much to me, especially in these uncertain times."

Sammons said he would scrutinize tax incentives and tax expenditures for effectiveness and repeal them if they are not "creating exponential growth as their supporters claim."

He said he is remaining in the special election for the rest of Hill's term even though he can't run for the next full term because he wants voters to have a choice.

Singleton is retired and is from Collins. He is a U.S. Army veteran of the Gulf War who is 70 percent disabled.

He was a deputy sheriff for five years in Denver before moving to Savannah, where he met his now wife Jill, who is an elementary school teacher in Reidsville. He has two adult children and a 10-year-old stepdaughter.

Over the past 10 years he owned and operated a small hotshot transportation business and a vehicle repossession business.

Singleton said he doesn't support dipping into the rainy-day fund to pay for P-12 education. He would take $665 million from the university system and give it to grades P-12. He believes that would be enough to prevent teacher layoffs or furloughs.

"I believe the university system can weather the storm for a while," he said.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will meet in a runoff on Aug. 11.

Two contested school board races

BOE District 3

On the school board, Lamar Allen, who represents District 3 and is the chairman, will face challengers Ron Graham, Bradley Johnson and Jacoby Jones in a non-partisan race.

Allen has been on the school board for 16 years and has been chairman for 11 years.

He is a retired farmer and owner/manager of Lakeview Retirement Home.

Allen said with budget cuts caused by the coronavirus, the goal would be to avoid furlough days. "Layoffs are very unlikely," he said.

Allen said one of the priorities of the board in the next four years will be to manage growth to best serve families, including building new schools, particularly at the elementary level. Another priority is maintaining or improving the successful student graduation rate and performance on state tests.

Graham is a 1995 graduate of Effingham County High School who has owned his own business, Graham Forest Products, for 20 years. He and his wife, Ali Lee Graham, have three children, two at ECHS and one who starts Springfield Elementary later this year.

He said in a Facebook post that the knowledge from running his own business would be an asset on the school board. "My communication skills and ability to work with others will foster a phenomenal collaborative relationship with the community and our schools," he said.

Johnson, 42, is a self-employed CPA, operating Johnson Financial Solutions. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from Georgia Southern.

He and his wife Kimberly have three sons -- one who has graduated from ECHS and the other two who are students there. He and his wife have been very active in their children's sports, band and school activities since they began school at Ebenezer Elementary.

He said his 20-plus years as a trusted advisor to small business owners and taxpayers gives him the experience to analyze and understand the financial aspects of the school system's budget.

Addressing overcrowded classrooms and planning for growth would be among his top priorities.

Jones, 27, is a business analyst at St. Joseph's/Candler Hospital in Savannah.

He has a master's degree in business administration from South University. He has been a youth pastor for 10 years at Thee Deliverance Church, near Clyo, and has worked as a substitute teacher in Effingham County.

Jones said the school board needs fresh eyes to tackle the ever-changing problems facing educators. He said he would love to develop a way for teachers and parents to submit questions and concerns anonymously to the school board without fear of repercussions.

He wants to close the gap between the school board and parents and ensure everyone is privy to the inner workings of the school system and why decisions are made.

BOE District 2

In District 2 of the Board of Education, incumbent Troy Alford will face challenger Chelsey McNicoll.

Alford, vice chairman, has served on the board for 16 years.

Alford and his wife Becky Bohler Alford have four children and four grandchildren. He has worked in automotive sales for 35 years.

He was public address announcer for the SEHS football team for 14 years before recently retiring.

He said teacher pay needs to be raised and he will fight any furloughs of teachers and staff due to COVID-19 expenses. Alford said to cut costs, he would like to see state testing canceled for two years, no new text book adoptions for two years and salaries trimmed from the top of the state Board of Education and work down the salary scale.

Accomplishments during his tenure include maintaining graduation rates over 91 percent, keeping the schools safe and classroom sizes to a minimum, installing air conditioners and video cameras on all buses that are used on a daily basis and hiring quality and qualified teachers.

McNicholl has a fourth grader and kindergartener at South Effingham Elementary School.

She is a member of the Effingham County Rotary Club and the Garden Club and she is a former Girl Scout, Boy Scout leader. She has a degree in business administration in marketing from Georgia Southern.

She noted on her Facebook page that an industrial building has been built directly across a two-lane road from Blandford Elementary School. She said if she is elected, she will propose that all non-residential building permits within 5,000 feet of a school be reviewed by the school board.

She also said she favors more after-school programs and a teen center.

She has a list of things she hopes to accomplish on her Facebook page, including improving traffic around schools, sustaining high-quality education, addressing child safety, keeping property taxes from rising and working with the county to ensure the area has "good and smart growth."

Five vie for clerk of court

Elizabeth Hursey, who has been clerk of Effingham County Superior Court for nine terms spanning 36 years, is retiring.

Five people qualified as Republicans for the clerk of court's job -- Jason Bragg, Barbara Cauley, Audra Battle Jennings, Walt Lawson and Christina Wilson.

The job pays about $63,000 a year. As of June 2019, Hursey was making about $154,000 a year.

Bragg is a sergeant with the Effingham County Sheriff's Office. He has worked in law enforcement for 21 years and has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice administration.

At the Sheriff's Office, he has handled records, the jail and dispatch software and managed a dozen people. He also has worked for Courtware Solutions, a software company that manages courts throughout Georgia.

He said the current clerk's office is working well. He wants to continue that level of quality and seek opportunities for growth and improvement, including more online accessibility.

He said he would look into having kiosks where people can pay tickets instead of coming to the clerk's office and giving people the ability to pay tickets online.

He also wants to move to a paperless office.

Bragg was endorsed for the clerk's job by U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga.

Cauley has worked in the Effingham County Superior Court Clerk's office for 23 years and for the last 11 years has been Chief Deputy Clerk. During that time, she has worked every aspect of the clerk's office.

"The clerk's office is known for its one-on-one personal service and that I do not plan on changing," she said. "I plan on making sure the office runs the way Mrs. Hursey has done, however, technology is constantly changing and updating. We have to change with it."

Cauley said customers can already pay tickets online at:

http://www.effinghamtickets.com.

She was a flight ops coordinator in the U.S. Army and a legal secretary. She has an associate's degree from Lakeland College. Cauley and her husband Keith have two children and two grandsons.

Jennings, an Effingham native and graduate of ECHS, is business systems assistant at Chatham County Superior Court and State Court, working there for 10 years.

She has more than 30 years of experience working in non-profit and government organizations.

"Being part of the administrative staff in a larger court affords me experience that is not easily achieved in smaller counties with less staff," she said. "I also bring the technological experience we need to modernize and streamline our services."

She said as clerk she would work diligently to maintain the accuracy and integrity of both real estate and court records.

"The collection of intangible taxes, property transfer taxes and other court fees are vital to the revenue stream of our community," she said. "I will insure there will be monthly reconciliations and annual audits of all accounts."

Lawson, 36, has 17 years of technology experience as an I.T. specialist and administrator. For nine years, he worked for the Effingham school system and the last eight years he has worked in the county administrative complex, courthouse and Sheriff's Office.

He has been a certified law enforcement officer for the last five years.

"I think if you add all of my experience together, especially with my technology and law enforcement background, I am the most qualified candidate to continue to lead the clerk's office into the future," he said.

The Effingham native graduated from ECHS and from Ogeechee Technical College with a degree in networking. "I would like to make sure the (clerk's) office continues to be adequately staffed to maintain accountability and integrity," he said.

Wilson earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Georgia Southern and has worked as an accountant since 1996. She is employed with Coastal Properties Unlimited Inc.

She worked in the Effingham County Clerk of Courts office for four years under Elizabeth Hursey, learning most of the positions in the office.

"I am the only candidate with a strong accounting background and experience in the Effingham County Clerk of Court's Office," she said.

The only change she knows she wants to pursue is giving customers the option of paying with debit and credit cards. "I think the citizens of Effingham County would benefit from this technology, and traffic court days would run much smoother," she said.

Wilson and her husband Kevin have an 11-year-old daughter. She is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Go to www.savannahnow.com and search for Effingham and election to see sample ballots and more information about the candidates.

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