Editor’s note: This is the first in a series in which The Post plans to interview all six candidates for mayor before early voting begins on April 12.
Businesswoman and entrepreneur Lisa Williams-Lyons is one of the six candidates running for City of Jackson Mayor.
Williams-Lyons was born in Jackson, but raised in St. Louis. She calls herself a “serial entrepreneur,” with degrees from Georgia Southern University and University of Notre Dame. She has worked as an accountant, teacher, travel agent, food truck owner and in the windmill tower industry.
“People should vote for me if they are looking for a better Jackson, not to say that Jackson isn’t a good place to live, because it is. I actually enjoy living here. I could live in many other cities, and I choose to be here. I believe that it has so much promise and so much potential. I believe I’m the best person, based on my travels, based on the many other cities that I’ve lived in and seen resources used well in those spaces, based off my knowledge of numbers and my accounting degree, based off being a mother and having compassion for people.”
Williams-Lyons has visions of helping all of Jackson succeed.
“I want us all to win. All of us deserve the basic necessities of life. All of us want our children in good schools. All of us want clean neighborhoods,” she said. “All of us want certain things. It’s not just North, South, East or West. It’s something that everybody in Jackson can have and can attain. It just has to be done intentionally.”
Williams-Lyons moved back to Jackson in 2021. She said that’s when she started to get involved in politics by attending City Council meetings and East Jackson Community meetings. During her interview with The Jackson Post, she addressed several concerns about the way the City of Jackson is currently run.
“When I came back to Jackson, I began to notice some inconsistencies on the way some things are handled,” Williams-Lyons said, “I started going to City Council meetings the first Tuesday of every month. The information that we were getting here in our community, versus what was actually going on in City Hall was totally different stories.
“I could see money being moved around very haphazardly. When I went to city council meetings, not much oversight, not much accountability. A lot of people overseeing themselves, which usually doesn’t work really well.”
She has also expressed concern on Facebook with the grant program “Love Your Block,” funded by Cities of Service. The program is in conjunction with Johns-Hopkins University. She said she has been to all of the community meetings and questions the amount of money put into the program.
“So if it’s a $200,000 grant, why is only only $13,500 actually made it to the community? That definitely could have been handled better. I mean, if we’re going to try to help a community then let’s actually be helpful,” Williams-Lyons said.
According to the City of Jackson website, Love Your Block has been granted $100,000 to cover two years of service, equaling $50,000 a year with $30,000 of that toward a salary while $20,000 is toward mini-grants, supplies and programming.
Williams-Lyons says her platform is “Equity, Education, and Communication,” touching briefly on each of those subjects.
Equity: “All of Jackson can grow, all of Jackson can prosper, we can all win. We don’t have to exclude anybody. It can be a better place to live,” she said.
Education: “You can’t have somebody graduate from high school at a third grade reading level and expect them to be successful. So education of our youth. Our teachers being underpaid,” she said, “We do way more work off the clock than we do on and we don’t get paid for. So increasing teacher salaries and just for instance, in some parts of town, like in over in this area.”
It was pointed out that the City of Jackson is not required legally to fund the Jackson-Madison Co. School System, as that is considered Madison County’s responsibility. While the City of Jackson did enter into a public-private partnership to build the new Madison Academic on the University of Memphis-Lambuth campus, that was a unique situation. The City also does contribute to the Education Foundation based on tax revenue.
“It does not sound surprising to me, based on how I’ve seen things work that LANA can get resources not otherwise available,” she said in response.
It was then pointed out the new Madison Academic was built in conjunction with remodeling Jackson Central-Merry Middle and High School in East Jackson, which was funded by the County. Williams-Lyons said she was not well-versed in either project.
“I would have to look them up and see what the actual process, and how the money moved, and where it moved from,” she said.
Communication: “I would love to sit down and have a conversation with everybody so that everybody has the right to be heard, feel listened to and be a part of the plan moving forward,” Williams-Lyons said.
Candidates for City of Jackson Mayor are the following: Ray Condray, Scott Conger (Incumbent), Daryl K. Hubbard, Paul Sherrod, Lisa Williams-Lyons and Jerry Wayne Woods.
Election Day for the City of Jackson Municipal Election is May 2. Early voting is April 12-27.
Julia Ewoldt, julia@jacksonpost.news
When a black Democrat says “equality” they mean all the handouts should go to a black community.
For instance, the “love your block” program gave every penny of the money to East Jackson’s crime ghetto! The people in public housing and pay zero profit taxes which is want pays for our schools!
Why doesn’t she complain about the MILIONS being wasted building more sports stadiums and football fields in East Jackson?