Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of stories in which candidates for local offices will answer questions about a variety of issues. The Vicksburg Post sent each candidate a questionnaire with 10 topics, and they were asked to provide their responses. Today, the candidates for Warren County Supervisor for District 2 — William Banks and Michael Gates — give their answers to the following questions:

1. Name
2. City/Community of Residence
3. Current occupation
4. What office are you seeking?
5. What is your assessment of the previous or current occupant of this office, and, if elected, would you keep it in the same direction or change course? – OR – How would you grade your success to this point in this office? Do you plan to keep things going in the same direction, or change course?
6. How would you address transparency and accountability in this office?
7. What are the most pressing issues in this office and how would you address them?
8. How would your role in this office improve Vicksburg and Warren County?
9. What are your reasons for seeking this office and why should voters elect you?
10. Please share any family /personal information you’d like to include.

 

William H. Banks Jr.

1. Vicksburg, MS 39183
2. Supervisor, District 2
3. Supervisor, District 2
4. I think the current board is doing a good job, and there is nothing that needs to be changed. We work hard each week to meet the needs of the community. We are presently working on the county jail. I would like to speed up the jail progress, but we have to wait on finances.
5. All county meetings are on TV and in the newspaper weekly. Any person can always contact me if they have any questions. 
6. Getting the jail completed and finished, paving the roads and streets.
7. I am always positive and work well with others in the community. I am always willing to listen and work positively with each citizen.
8. I will continue to push for and initiate programs to improve the social and economic conditions of District 2 and Warren County.
9. I am married to Marian Cecile Banks. She is a retired nurse. All of our children are grown and did attend Warren Central and Vicksburg High School.

 

Michael Gates

1. Sky Farm Avenue Neighborhood
2. Entrepreneur
3. Supervisor, District 2
4. I think the difference is, between the two candidates are two different ideas. My idea is to look at today and go back and think about what I did yesterday. I like looking at the situation we are in today and seeing what I can do to move past today and into tomorrow. Yeah, I’m just it’s time for change. We had yesterday; it’s time for today.
5. I’ll be seen. When our children are in trouble, I’ll be there. I’ll be there before our children are in trouble. I want to travel into these troubled areas where our troubled youth are coming from, and I want to make myself visible to them, especially being a minority because it seems like sometimes the minority children are getting into more trouble. Children are getting into more trouble and committing homicide against one another more. People and children alike need to know that elected officials are just not elected to take care of the roads but to prepare a path for a better way.
6. One of my biggest concerns is an area I’m going to visit soon, Eagle Lake. I’m concerned about the farmers and investors and the vision for this great recreational resource we have there. I’m afraid that if we ignore the recreational and possibilities of Eagle Lake, it will be one of the greatest tragedies in Warren County.
7. For years, we’ve stayed with the status quo. We’ve been on the “Good Ole Boy” system. But we’re in a new era now, and we need to come out of this system. Whether it’s Black or white, we’ve got to get out there and look at the best candidate, someone with some ideas. That’s the only way to move forward. And then, we’ve got to tell the truth about where we are now. 
8. I’ve always been involved with community affairs; I’ve always cared about the young, about the future. And I’ve always lived a life respectful of our elders, growing up doing volunteer work for them. I have a passion to see life get better for our elders, and for young people to feel free. I just feel like Vicksburg is an ideal place for a candidate like me, because there’s so much history and so many ideas that are asleep here. And I just want to wake up to ideas that we should have been working on.
9. I have four daughters, a son and two granddaughters here in Vicksburg, and as a family man, I just say that I just enjoy life. As a businessman, I enjoy serving people. And, you know, and I believe in work ethic and I believe in Christianity, I believe that I believe in worship and I believe that we all have a spirit that God gives us that leads us, and I think that we have to understand our spiritual mind as well as physical, and in the spiritual, we have to be obedient. I prayed about (running for office) and it’s one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made.