MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Frayser residents invited the seven people hoping to be considered for the vacant District 7 seat to speak at a forum Tuesday night, but only three showed up.
The seat opened when Lee Harris quit after he was elected to the state senate.
Folks at the meeting said they wanted to talk to the applicants so they can make recommendations to the council.
Because it’s an open seat, there won’t be an election. Instead, the council will make the decision.
“I didn’t get any clear answers on too much of anything in there,” Bobbie Henderson, a District 7 voter, said.
Henderson was one of the nearly three dozen people who showed up to the forum at MLK Prep. They came to hear from these seven applicants: Bryan Carson, Barbara Swearengen Ware, Berlin Boyd, Curtis Byrd Jr., Audrey Jones, Charles Leslie, and David Pool.
Only Swearengen Ware, Jones, and Boyd showed up.
“It shows that four people are not interested in holding this position, that’s for sure,” Henderson said.
He and others in the audience submitted questions to the three candidates about hot button issues in Frayser and downtown Memphis.
“Blight, crime and kid programs. These kids need something to do,” Keith Dunning, another District 7 voter, said.
“Taking the resources in the neighborhood and adding on top of them,” Jones answered.
She wants to add more tech-programs for kids.
Swearengen Ware also applied for the spot. She was on the council for more than 16 years, but told WREG she quit for health reasons, not because she was indicted for bribery charges in 2010. She said the council will look past that.
“That is a dead issue, and anything dead should be buried,” Swearengen Ware said.
Swearengen Ware said she wants to develop more programs for kids in elementary and high school, and also wants to rehab blighted buildings.
Boyd took over Ware’s seat and hopes to serve the city again.
“I want to be that voice. I want to be that advocated for those who are voiceless,” he said.
Boyd said he wants to create a task force with different agencies to tackle crime.
Those in the audience said they took something away, but wish they could have heard from everyone wanting to serve them.
“I learned a little, but not as much as I expected to,” Henderson said.
Before the council chooses someone to fill the seat Tuesday, January 20, they will find out which of the applicants actually qualify for the seat Thursday.
So far, Swearengen Ware and Carson are the only two who have qualified.
