A retired phone company employee is ready for his phone to ring a lot over the next eight months or so.
That’s because Tommy Posey, 72, of Laurel was appointed to serve as Jones County Beat 5 Supervisor for the remainder of the year. At the Monday morning meeting, Supervisor George Walters nominated Posey for the position and the other three members agreed, unanimously choosing him to finish the first year of the second term of Travares Comegys, who resigned this month amid charges of fraud and embezzlement that were filed after an investigation by the State Auditor’s Office.
A special election in November will determine who serves the remaining three years of the term.
During the public interview process last Wednesday, Posey distinguished himself from most of the other seven candidates by telling the board that he didn’t plan to run for the position after serving out the interim period. He retired from BellSouth after 38 years with the company and is the current Beat 5 commissioner for the Jones County Soil and Water Conservation District.
“I can assure you I’m not going to run for it,” Posey, 72, said with a chuckle after the meeting. “I’ve been retired for 13 years and don’t want the extra stress for that long.”
During the interviews, he described himself as a “man of few words” but “a man of substance,” and he lived up to that while talking to a reporter just after the meeting. He agreed that his promise to not run for the position was instrumental in the board’s decision to appoint him then let the voters decide who fills the majority of the term.
“I believe I’ll be able to handle things,” he said. “I’m open-minded and not going to make any major changes. I’m going to see what may can be improved on and go from there.”
Asked if he was prepared for phone calls and complaints at all hours, he smiled and said, “That was a big part of my decision” to just seek the job for the short-term.
Supervisors are paid an annual salary of $50,000.
Laurel City Councilman George Carmichael and ex-Councilman Stacy Comegys — the ex-supervisor’s brother — and Derrick Barber, who lost to Travares Comegys in the last election, also participated in the public interviews, as did perpetual candidate Marian Allen. The latter was the only other candidate who told the board she did not plan to run for the position in the special election. She made the same promise when she asked the board to appoint her to fulfill a spot as justice court judge in recent years, but she was not chosen then either.
The board’s next meeting is set for 9:30 a.m. Monday, April 1 at the Jones County courthouse in Laurel. Posey is expected to be sitting in the Beat 5 chair with the board on that morning, but he begins serving the district — made up of most of Laurel and Ellisville — immediately. He was scheduled to be sworn in Monday afternoon, after the LL-C’s deadline.
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