Century To Consider These Three Citizens For Vacant Council Seat

July 6, 2020

The Century Town Council is expected to appoint a new member to a vacant seat on their board tonight.

Ben Boutwell resigned from the council in order to run for mayor. That put his Seat 3 position on this year’s ballot, and allowed the council to appoint a new member for the rest of the year to fulfill the remainder of his term for the remainder of the year.

Three citizens expressed their interest in the seat:

  • Jessica Coleman – currently pursuing her degree in nursing with an anticipated graduation date in August. She was a Family Dollar team member for just less than two years and was a shift manager at Church’s Chicken for two years.
  • Brenda Spencer – a Century native who retired in 2012 after 21 years as a legal secretary and co-office manager for the Escambia County attorney and deputy attorney. She has previous experience as medical secretary and was secretary to the plant manager at Wayne Dalton Corporation in Century from 1980-1988.
  • Jackie Johnson - a longtime resident with over 20 years of customer service experience. She has worked as a fraud investigator and in account services at Navy Federal Credit Union for eight years and has previous experience as a medical record specialist and other customer service positions.

The person selected by the council will be sworn in on July 20.

Last month, Council President Ann Brooks nominated Mary Bourgeois for the seat.

Bourgeois ran for a council seat in 2016 but was defeated by James Smith. She owns a local business and is president of the local chamber. But the problem with Bourgeois for council member Luis Gomez, Jr. was the fact the she is campaign treasurer for Shelisa McCall, a candidate for the seat. Gomez said the appointment might make it appear that the council is biased toward a particular candidate.

Mayor Henry Hawkins noted that Bourgeois is also chairperson of the town’s Charter Review Committee, and that would be a conflict of interest.

NorthEscambia.com file photo.

Comments

10 Responses to “Century To Consider These Three Citizens For Vacant Council Seat”

  1. Jessica Coleman on July 7th, 2020 10:10 am

    I really appreciate the messages posted here of support. This simply was not the time for me, but as a resident of Century, we can all still offer our energy and our experiences to The Town of Century to improve in the ways that matter to you and to me as individuals.
    I would love to extend a warm congratulations to Ms. Brenda Spencer. Ms. Spencer is clearly the most qualified candidate for the position, and I look forward to working with her and the entire counsel from the perspective of a community member. I would also like to thank Ms. Spencer for volunteering her time, energy, and expertise. Thank you, and congrats again, Ms. Spencer.

  2. Toni W on July 7th, 2020 9:32 am

    Please for the love of all things Holy, pick the fraud investigator!!! Lol

  3. Citizen on July 6th, 2020 10:27 pm

    Please chose based on content of character and experience.

  4. Susie Q on July 6th, 2020 8:06 pm

    Brenda Spencer is a hard worker. She is more than capable of doing this job well.

  5. IMHO on July 6th, 2020 3:42 pm

    Best wishes to each candidate, but I’m ready to take bets on who they choose. I bet Jessica.

  6. Century resident on July 6th, 2020 3:31 pm

    Brenda Spencer is the best fit from what I know and can see.

  7. just sayin on July 6th, 2020 3:11 pm

    You can tell a lot from a FB page. Jessica seems to have a heart of gold and her head on straight. I hope she is a strong consideration.

  8. chris on July 6th, 2020 10:14 am

    ” worked as a fraud investigator ” yea she would be a good fit for Century.

  9. tg on July 6th, 2020 9:09 am

    Fraud Investigator might be able to do some internal work.

  10. John on July 6th, 2020 7:59 am

    I say y’all need to put Jackie Johnson in the seat she will do a good job

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Archive