Election results for city council and school board races in Phenix City, Smiths Station
Phenix City residents turned out Tuesday to vote for their first elected school board after switching from having city council representatives appoint the board.
Phenix City also elected a council representative Tuesday as Smiths Station voted on two city council races.
Phenix City’s new seven-member school board will have two representatives from each of the city’s three voting districts, plus an at-large representative elected by all voters in the city.
Here are Tuesday’s election results.
School board at-large
Vying for the citywide board seat were Florence Bellamy and Kendyl Sumbry Tarver.
In final but unofficial returns, Bellamy got 1,048 votes to Tarver’s 921, or 53% to 47%.
Bellamy served for 25 years (1989-2014) on the board, including as the board’s first Black president. She also served as president of the Alabama Association of School Boards.
Bellamy, 62, is director of the Helping Families Initiative of Russell County. She retired from the State of Alabama after working nearly 32 years as the child support coordinator for the Russell County District Attorney’s Office and later in adult protective services with the Russell County Department of Human Resources.
Bellamy graduated from Smiths Station High School. She earned an associate’s degree in secretarial science from Chattahoochee Valley Community College and a bachelor’s degree in human services from Troy State University.
Tarver, 32, is an early childhood education instructor at Columbus Technical College, where she has worked for the past year. She worked for eight years in Phenix City Schools, including as a long-term substitute for sixth-grade reading and social studies at Phenix City Intermediate School, a second-grade and kindergarten teacher at Meadowlane Elementary School and a third-grade and second-grade teacher at Ridgecrest Elementary School.
School board District 1, Place 1
The candidates for the District 1, Place 1 seat were the Rev. J. Brady Baird and Marilyn Brannen.
Baird got 389 votes, or 61%, to Brannen’s 249, or 39%.
Baird, 34, is the only current member of the appointed school board running to retain his seat on the elected board. He has been on the board for four years and the vice president for two years.
He is the pastor of Seale United Methodist Church. He also is rental manager for Heavy Yellow Equipment.
Baird graduated from Oxford (Ala.) High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from Spring Hill College and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Alabama.
Brannen, 73, is retired after 44 years as an educator. The first 30 were in Phenix City Schools. She taught family and consumer science at South Girard High School. After transferring to Central High School, she helped design and became the director of the New Beginnings Parenting Program to keep parenting teens in school.
She also was a guidance director at Northside and Jordan high schools in Muscogee County for a combined 14 years.
School board District 2, Place 1
The candidates for the District 2, Place 1 seat were Steve Franklin and James Elliott “Eli” Patrick.
Patrick got 370 votes to Franklin’s 125, or 75% to 25%.
Franklin, 69, is retired. He worked in maintenance at Lakewood Golf Course and was a substitute teacher for Phenix City Schools.
He is a member of the Phenix City Historical Preservation Commission. Franklin graduated from Central High School.
Patrick, 49, is a specialty healthcare representative in pharmaceutical sales for Pfizer. He taught health and physical education and coached basketball for seven months at South Girard School before being selected for active duty in the U.S. Army in 1994.
He served two years active duty and has continued to serve in the reserves for the past 24 years, including one year in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a colonel and brigade commander in the Army Reserves.
Patrick taught and coached for seven years in DeKalb County, Georgia, then joined Pfizer, where he has worked for the past 17 years.
Patrick graduated from Spencer High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Florida A&M University and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Regent University.
School board District 3, Place 1
The candidates for the District 3, Place 1 seat were Katrina Collier-Long and Likitca Thomas-Ligon.
Collier-Long got 480 votes to Thomas-Ligon’s 387, or 55% to 45%.
Thomas-Ligon, 40, is a military student transition counselor and a consultant for the Russell County School District.
Thomas-Ligon graduated from Central High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Tuskegee University and a master’s degree in teaching language and literacy from Kaplan University.
Collier-Long, 43, has been principal of Reese Road Leadership Academy since 2017. She was assistant principal of Fort Middle School (2010-17) and a special-education teacher in the Muscogee Count School District (2007-10).
She also has worked in Phenix City Schools as a secretary and bookkeeper (2004-07) and at three local banks: Columbus Bank and Trust (2002-04), First Union Bank (2000-02) and Phenix Girard Bank (1996-2000).
City council District 2
Phenix City also held a council election for District 2, for which the incumbent was Vickey Carter Johnson. The challengers were Jasmine Lawrence and Floyd Teasley.
Johnson got 301 votes or 60%. Teasley got 106 or 21%, and Lawrence got 94 votes, or 19%.
Johnson, 52, is a substitute teacher in the Muscogee County School District. She previously worked for more than 20 years in the financial services industry as a platform trainer and business system analyst.
Johnson graduated from Central High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management from Troy University.
She has been on the city council since January 2018, winning the runoff against Baxley Oswalt in a special election after councilor Johnnie Robinson died.
Lawrence, 33, is unemployed and receives federal disability income. She is president of the Frederick Douglass Homes public housing complex residents council and a member of Phenix City’s planning leadership team for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a redevelopment program funded by federal grants.
Teasley, 70, is retired after more than 40 years in various management positions in counseling and construction. He returned to Phenix City in October after living on boats in the Gulf of Mexico the previous 10 years.
Smiths Station
Smiths Station election officials said one race there could go to a runoff, but that was yet to be determined.
City council Place 3
The candidates for Smiths Station council Place 3 were Kamarcus Adkins, Steve Lansdon and William Spear. The incumbent, James Moody, isn’t running for re-election.
Lansdon got 137 votes to Spear’s 97 and Adkins’ 95, indicating Lansdon got 42 percent, or less than the majority needed to win outright. But the tally is unofficial, so far, so that has not been decided.
City council Place 5
The candidates for Smiths Station Council Place 5 were Victoria Green and Diane Holman-Stein. The incumbent, Dick Key, isn’t running for re-election.
Green got 206 votes to Stein’s 134, or 60 to 40 percent.
This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 9:17 PM.