By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
District 4 Atmore City Councilman Shawn Lassiter, who is slated to take over as interim mayor on June 1, announced this week that he will seek the office on a permanent basis in the August 26 municipal election.
“I know it’s early, but I wanted to go ahead and get it out there, let people know that I intend to run for mayor,” Lassiter said during a March 3 meeting with local reporters.
Lassiter, who was born and reared in Atmore, is in the fifth year of an extended council term. He said his council term hasn’t allowed him to do as much as he would like to improve the quality of life for citizens of his native community.
“As a council member, I’m limited to what I can do, as far as trying to develop anything,” he said. “Being mayor gives me the opportunity to step out and do more things to make things better for the community.”
He plans to implement several programs that will improve safety across the city, as well as to heighten transparency within city government.
“My biggest concern is safety,” he said. “We have four cameras — one helped solve a homicide — but we need more. I’d like to work with the council to get grants and make that happen. If it’s not safe here, who wants to move here?”
He also vowed to do everything he could to improve the city’s infrastructure, specifically its streets and ditches, and to work with several local organizations to bring more industry and jobs to the city.
Lassiter also vowed that there would be changes to council meetings, beginning while he is interim mayor. Such meetings currently run less than five minutes, with little or no discussion of various actions.
“The council meetings are going to change, starting after June 1,” he promised. “They will be structured a little differently, with the department heads and everybody involved. We’ll have updates from everybody.”
Lassiter’s other plans include more public meetings, like the recent one to discuss a possible gun-violence-spawned curfew, that provide residents a voice in how they are governed.
“I thought the curfew meeting was good, so I’d like to see more public meetings, get more community input on different topics and let the people voice their opinions.”
Lassiter’s announcement indicates that at least two people will seek to become the city’s next mayor, as American Red Cross representative and community activist Sandra Gray has already announced she would run.
When Lassiter steps into the mayor’s office on an interim basis on June I, the remaining city council members will have 60 days to fill the District 4 vacancy that will be created on the council. The fill-in council member will serve only the unexpired portion of Lassiter’s council term, which ends November 3. A permanent district representative will be chosen by district voters in the August 26 municipal election.
All five council seats will be up for grabs in August, too. When contacted recently, neither District 1’s Webb Nall, District 2’s Jerome Webster nor District 5’s Chris Harrison were willing to say yet whether he would seek re-election. District 3’s Eunice Johnson, the first black female to serve on the council, announced that she would seek another term.
Atmore City Clerk Becca Smith said qualifying for mayoral and council candidates will begin in her office at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10, and will continue until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24. The qualifying fee for each of the six city offices is $50.