THREE-DAY FORECAST

TODAY

High

81Low

68

TUESDAY

High

77Low

63High

81Low

58

WEDNESDAY

SPORTS

Find out howMississippi State andSouthern Miss. faredSunday in theHattiesburg Regionalclarionledger.com

M O N D AY , J U N E 5 , 2 0 1 7 C L A R I O N L E D G E R . C O M

Vol. 178 No. 97

Copyright 2017

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Advice 9AComics 9ADeaths 5AMetro/State 3A

Opinion 6APuzzles 10ASports 1CWeather 2A

INDEX

On Tuesday, Hattiesburg residents will head tothe polls to choose the mayoral candidate who willlead the city for the next four years.

The general election ballot features three may-oral hopefuls: incumbent Mayor Johnny DuPreeand independent challengers Shawn O’Hara andRep. Toby Barker.

The Hattiesburg American takes an in-depthlook at each candidate and his goals for the city.

Johnny DuPreeDuPree, a Democrat who was elected in 2001, is

seeking his fifth term in the post. Before becom-ing mayor, he served on the Forrest County Boardof Supervisors and the Hattiesburg Public SchoolDistrict Board.

During a recent debate, DuPree said maintain-ing and improving education for children wouldbe among his top priorities if re-elected. To thatend, he would continue services like the LittleFree Libraries around Hattiesburg and the read-ing initiatives at Burger King and O’Charley’sRestaurant & Bar.

“We want to make sure that every child has a

positive future,” he said. “Every child needs tolearn not only inside the classroom, but outsidethe classroom.

“We just won an award for helping childrenlearn outside the classroom — to make sure thatthey know how to read, to make books available tothem.”

DuPree said to help move that along, he’s in fa-vor of recruiting more teachers to the area.

“My daughter’s a first-grade teacher, and atthe beginning of this school year she had 32 chil-dren in her classroom,” he said. “Now, how areyou going to teach 32 children with one teacherand an aide in the classroom?

“You can’t do that, and that’s why we need torecruit counselors and teachers.”

Juruthin Woullard, a retired teacher who has

In a state where most cities voteconsistently Republican or Demo-cratic, competitive general elec-tions are few and far between.

The one Tuesday is no excep-tion.

Many cities in the Jackson-met-ro chose their new leaders in theprimary. Brandon, Clinton, Madi-son, Flowood and Ridgeland all re-elected their mayors in the Repub-lican primary and they face no gen-eral opposition.

Others, like Canton, Pearl andJackson, ousted their incumbentsin the primary, the winners ofwhich are likely to be elected in thegeneral.

The Jackson mayor’s race mayhave the largest general ticket ofany municipal election. Chokwe

The city of Jackson is settling a law-suit by the Justice Department by allow-ing group homes for people recoveringfrom drug or alcohol abuse.

City and federal lawyers on Wednes-day jointly asked U.S. District JudgeHenry T. Wingate to approve the settle-ment.

The Justice Department sued in Sep-tember, saying Jackson was discriminat-ing against disabled people by trying to

shut down a group home run by UrbanRehab.

The city will pay $100,000 to UrbanRehab owner Philip Massey, $35,000 tothe federal government as a civil penal-ty, and $50,000 to a settlement fund tocompensate anyone else who may havebeen harmed. Jackson has agreed to re-vise its zoning code and ease other re-strictions, as well as to train city employ-ees, appoint a fair housing complianceofficer, and make reports to the JusticeDepartment.

The city forced Urban Rehab to closein 2014, saying that its ordinances didn’tallow unrelated people with substanceabuse diagnoses to live together. Thefederal government swiftly intervened,noting Jackson had agreed to a consentdecree allowing group homes for peoplewith disabilities in 1997, and had laterbeen found in contempt of that consentdecree in 2002.

City politics have been roiled over al-lowing group homes for recovering ad-dicts in recent years. Most scrutiny had

focused on another operator, Maryland-based Oxford House, which became thesubject of protests after opening a housein an affluent Jackson neighborhood in2015.

In 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant asked thestate Department of Mental Health tostop providing seed loans to OxfordHouse after a state senator got involvedin the dispute. Secretary of State DelbertHosemann ordered Oxford House to

Jackson settles suit over discriminating against group homesASSOCIATED PRESS

See Homes, Page 5A

2017 HATTIESBURG ELECTION

ELIJAH BAYLIS/THE CLARION-LEDGER

In this May file photo, Jackson residents sign in to vote at Precinct at 68 Wilkins Elementary School for the May 2 primary election. Jackson voters and othervoters in the metro area go to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the general election.

Generalelectionssee littlecompetitionANNA WOLFETHE CLARION-LEDGER

See Elections, Page 4A

THREE CANDIDATESFACE OFF FOR MAYORHASKEL BURNSAMERICAN STAFF WRITER

Barker DuPree O'Hara

See Mayor, Page 4A