10 file for mayoral post in Cairo

CAIRO, Ill. -- The list of mayoral candidates grew to 10 Monday as filing for office ended, with another 26 Cairo residents seeking the six seats on the city council.

The most prominent new candidate to file Monday was 12-year council veteran Carolyn Ponting, who immediately drew an endorsement from outgoing councilman-at-large Joey Thurston. Ponting has steered a middle course as the council battled incumbent mayor Paul Farris for the last four years, regularly admonishing her colleagues and Farris for failing to cooperate.

"I have been put through the wringer these last four years, and I am about fed up," Ponting said Sunday before revealing her plans. "It is my hometown, and I love it. You have got to have people who will work with you, and it is such a divided town." After filing Monday, Ponting said she is pleased with the large turnout of candidates. "It shows that people are interested in our town again, and I think it is good people want to get out and be a part of government. That shows we are turning the corner, more or less."

Farris was not available for comment.

City council

Cairo is divided into five wards, which each elect one council member, with the sixth council member being elected in a citywide vote. The number of candidates in each ward ranges from three to five, with five candidates seeking the at-large seat.

The two top vote-getters in the Feb. 27 primary will be the finalists on the ballot April 17.

Of the current council members, only Elbert "Bo" Purchase and Sandra Tarver are seeking re-election in their wards. Thurston is stepping aside, with Bobby Whitaker and Ponting seeking the mayor's post and councilwoman Linda Jackson vying for the at-large seat.

"My platform is, anybody but Farris," Jackson said. "All the people running are good people."

Jackson, Purchase, Tarver and Whitaker have worked closely together in opposition to Farris, regularly denouncing his governing style as dictatorial. At one point the four joined with a promise to stop attending council meetings, which they rescinded after one meeting. Farris responded to their actions by holding back their $800 monthly paychecks and dropping them from the city's health insurance and pension plans.

"It is amazing how one man can create all this havoc," Jackson said. "We need to work together."

Thurston said he's stepping aside partially so he can have a bigger role in the lives of his young children and partially because he is intensely frustrated with Farris.

"We knew when the majority of the council won and he won that everyone would have to give and take," Thurston said. "There has never been any give on his part."

The top priority for the new council and mayor will be to balance city spending to meet revenue and work for new development, Thurston said.

"We are taking pension money and making payroll," Thurston said. "There have to be sacrifices, and we have to live within our means."

Farris on Friday attacked the council as irresponsible for failing to attend a special meeting he called to deal with an agenda to spur development of a 60-million-gallon biodiesel plant. Farris said the council was endangering the deal, but Thurston said Farris is to blame if the plant is lost because he won't listen to members' input.

"I see us losing it because he isn't concerned with much of anything if it isn't his way," Thurston said.

Preston Ewing, a longtime activist who was city treasurer before being fired by Farris, said the sheer number of people running for office is a rejection of Farris. "It is a reflection of how government has been hijacked by the mayor and paralyzed the city," Ewing said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126