Rock Hill’s Ward 5 runoff: What to know about the two candidates before Tuesday’s race
Rock Hill residents living in the city’s fifth voting district need to head back to the polls next week.
Incumbent Nikita Jackson, who was first elected in 2017, and youth football coach Perry Sutton will face off in a runoff Tuesday.
The city held elections for Wards 4, 5 and 6 last week. Jackson, Sutton and newcomer Kenneth Harris ran to represent Ward 5, which includes East Main Street and the southern part of the city.
Neither Jackson nor Sutton secured a majority, resulting in a seven-point difference, according to official results.
In Ward 5, 644 total votes were cast. Jackson received 317 votes, or 49% of the vote. Sutton got 310 votes, or 48%. And Harris earned 17 votes, or 2%, according to official results.
Out of the ward’s 12,517 people, which is the second-highest population of the six wards, 8,684 are registered to vote, according to the elections office. The ward, made up of about 66% Blacks and 26% whites, also has the highest minority population, according to the city.
Rock Hill’s city council voted several months ago to delay the three ward races, which originally were scheduled for October, until city officials could redraw its six voting districts. Redistricting is required every 10 years based on new census data.
The Herald sat down with the three Ward 5 candidates ahead of the city’s Feb. 8 election, and asked all three the same five questions.
Here are Jackson and Sutton’s responses. Some answers have been edited for brevity.
Polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Write-in ballots are not allowed. Voters can find information on precinct locations on the county’s elections office site.
In order to vote in Ward 5, residents must live in the ward. Residents can find more ward information on the city’s website.
Q: What is the biggest issue facing Ward 5 and how you plan to address it?
Jackson: To me, there are two issues that are important. There’s infrastructure, and then there’s economic growth and development. If you don’t have a good infrastructure, then how can you build on something? We really need to work on the infrastructure in Ward 5, and I can truly say that I have done that since being on city council for the last four years.
I have people who call me all the time and talk about ‘Ms. Jackson, there’s flooding in my yard. I’ve been trying to deal with this for eight years. I met you six months ago, and now the problem has been fixed. Now, I don’t have all that runoff into my yard that’s causing my foundation of my home to be broken.’
If we want to bring in economic growth and development to our side, we’ve got to make sure that the roads are in great shape. ... What you don’t want to have happen is you bring in a business, but the infrastructure is not there to support it.
The other thing I’ve done for infrastructure is the (Tax Increment Financing district). We passed a $225 million TIF for the south side. That, right there, is going to be the great economic engine to help build up our infrastructure, to help build up our roads, to create curb and gutter, to help with the stormwater drains and help with the stormwater issues.
Why break what’s working? I am very proud to say that I was very instrumental, and that didn’t come by just me. It came from people in the community who said, ‘Hey, we need to see some type of growth and development to happen on the south side of town.’
People in the city of Rock Hill, on the south side, came together and we met every month for 24 months to talk about what does economic growth and development look like on the south side? We worked very hard, bringing up ideas. Some of it worked and for some of it, we had to go back to the drawing board.
Any time you plan for something, you’re going to have an idea, but you’re going to have to also go back to the drawing board to make sure that it’s going to work. ... That’s what the Clinton ConNEXTion has done for the last 24 months.
Sutton: It changes. The night before last, we just had a drive-by shooting, and it was right across the street from where I live. They found 10 casings in the road. We’ve got cameras of a car coming by and shooting at one of the neighbor’s houses.
That’s been going on in the neighborhood on our side of town and nobody reports it. Nobody knows about it. It’s a big deal because we’re ducking bullets. ... It’s something that we don’t want to become numb to or get used to. We don’t want this to become Chicago or Detroit.
Right now, and it changes, but at this second, that is the biggest thing.
It’s not anything new. If you look at my video that we put out, I talked about how I’ve lost some of my football players to gun violence. What happens is it’ll go to the forefront and then go back down, but it’s a major issue.
That can be included in the issue of mental health. ... Affordable housing is a big one. On this side of town, especially in the College Downs area, it’s flooding. This place has been flooding, not for years but for decades. People say that they’ve done stuff about it. Nobody’s done anything about it. When it rains, they still have problems over here, and same thing with the Flint Hill area, and over in the Chestnut area.
I was talking to a constituent the other day on Midvale (Avenue), and his house has flooded twice. Stormwater is a big problem. And we’re paying stormwater fees, but we’re not getting our money’s worth out of it.
I have a 12-point agenda of all the things that we need to fix. Mental health, the crime, the shootings, and affordable housing — those are at the top of the list but not in any particular order.
Q: Why do you think you are the best candidate to represent residents in Ward 5?
Jackson: I listen to what the people of Ward 5 have said. When I ran back in 2017, I went out and knocked on doors. I talked with people. I was at every event that you could possibly name that happened in the city of Rock Hill and listened to what the people said. That’s what elected officials do. We work on behalf of the people and the people said we haven’t seen any type of growth on this side of town in 30, 35 years.
I worked hard to get those things moving and started, and we see evidence of my conversations. We see evidence of me speaking up for the people because the TIF was passed.
There were several people in the Flint Hill community that came out and complained about standing water in their yard — one importantly, Ms. Jhett. She lived on Frank Street. She literally had to have 1,000 gallons of water pumped out of her yard at one given time. She said, ‘Ms. Jackson, I can’t do this. I need some help.’ She came to citizen hearings and addressed her concerns to council as a whole, and because of that encouragement by me, she brought other people along with her and they talked about their issues with the flooding in their yards. In July of 2021, the Pennies for Progress people held a meeting at Flint Hill Baptist Church to ... work toward getting those areas fixed.
My motto for this campaign is, ‘We’ve got to move forward together.’ In order for us to see progress in Ward 5, we have to set our differences aside and move forward together.
Last night, at the city council meeting, we passed a resolution to allow members of our employee staff to go down to Columbia to study what it entails to bring retail development to the community. I supported that resolution wholeheartedly and I supported it because the Municipal Association (of South Carolina) is where I learned what being an elected official is.
You don’t learn it sitting up there saying, ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ You learn it by going to classes. I am happy and proud to say that I’ve graduated from the advanced elected officials class. In the course of four years, I took 10 classes to learn what being an elected official is all about. I have the foundation of what it takes to be an elected official. That within itself makes me the better candidate because I already know. I don’t have to go and learn. I already have that information in me.
Sutton: Well, first of all, because of the longevity that I’ve had here, the things that I’ve done in this community, working with the youth, working with the elderly.
I’ve been working with everybody through the different organizations, whether it’s through my church or as a community leader.
My background in leadership in the Coast Guard — I spent 30 years in the Coast Guard. It taught me leadership skills, which will really be an asset. And I worked for the government, so I understand that.
Q: Rock Hill has experienced significant development, but the south side of the city has not seen that same level of growth. How will you work to ensure residents in Ward 5 are not left behind?
Jackson: If you see me at any city council meeting, I’m always speaking on behalf of the citizens. Believe it or not, I receive at least five to 10 phone calls a day regarding something with the city of Rock Hill, and I’m available to the citizens.
I’m available to the people that I serve because that’s what they put me here for. They didn’t put me here to just go along to get along. They put me here so that someone can advocate for them. That’s what I do. I hear the people. I listen to the people. I am the people. I live in this community. I see what our community is facing and I’m working very hard to get those things resolved.
It’s going take not only myself, but it’s going to take my colleagues to understand what issues are facing Ward 5. It’s going to take us working together collectively as a body of city council members to make sure that the south side continues on this path that we’re on. We’re moving forward.
We’re having the conversations. The TIF has been passed. The Clinton ConNEXTion group has been working. The Saluda Corridor Business Association has worked very hard to improve the Saluda Corridor because that’s a major thoroughfare into our downtown area. That’s been something I’ve been advocating since I’ve been on council.
These are the issues that need to be addressed to make sure that the south side of Rock Hill has and looks just as great as the north side of Rock Hill.
Sutton: The south side of Rock Hill — if you look at the last 30 years — I think only has had three new buildings built. So, it’s been neglected and everybody agrees we’ve been neglected, but nobody has done anything about it. That’s one of the reasons I’m running.
If you look at the way council runs now, the incumbent is fighting people and not getting anything done. I have the ability to get things done. I have the ability to work together with people, so we can make a change.
I will make the change. Everything I’ve done, I’ve been successful and it’s because I put in the hard work. I have the time. Other people are working. I’m retired. I have the time to put in, and I have the ability and I have the know how.
Q: What is your vision for Ward 5 over the next four years?
Jackson: My vision for Ward 5 is truly economic growth and development, beautification, affordable housing and home ownership. Those are the things that we need on the south side of town. The foundation has been laid. We have the $225 million TIF that has been approved by the city of Rock Hill.
Let’s work on cleaning up our community. I work with a group called “Men on a Mission.” ... Since March of 2021, we have gone in various communities in the city of Rock Hill to clean up the trash. People look at us and think we’re just picking up trash. We’re providing hope. So, let’s continue to keep the trash away. Let’s continue to work toward those improvements to make this community better, to make the community look good.
We passed that resolution last night to allow our employees to study what it takes to bring retail business to the city, and that’s what we want on the south side of Rock Hill. We want retail business.
I’m excited because that’s just another feather in the hat for the south side.
Sutton: First of all, I want to bring the pride back into the neighborhoods. Even us just going around picking up trash has helped. The owner of this business right up here, he was out here the other day, and I was helping him. We were picking up the trash in front of his business, so little things like that help.
Also because we’re a food desert, I want to bring in different types of ways for us to get food — and not just to the traditional grocery stores. I’m looking at something like Amish food conglomerate. ... That’s just an idea that I’m looking at.
I’m going to find businesses and bring them in because of my connections with the NFL guys, who want to bring money back into the community. I have the ability to bring them in and we have ideas of some things that we want to do. The south side that you see now, once I get in, won’t be the same south side in four years.
I guarantee it will be a much better place.
Q: How will you address growing concerns over violent crime in the city?
Jackson: Crime is everywhere, but what we can do, as far as a city, in getting a grasp on crime is continue to do those things that we’re doing now — policing our community, encouraging our citizens that when you hear something say something, letting our citizens know that you don’t have to always call 911 to report something. You can call the anonymous line at the city of Rock Hill. You don’t have to identify yourself and you can let us know what crimes are happening in your area.
I also want to add that when you report a crime, be as specific as you can. I talk to our police officers quite often and they tell us, ‘Sometimes, they give us vague information. We understand that they’re nervous and scared during the time, but the more information they provide to us, there’s a better chance of us being able to pinpoint what’s going on.’
We can police our own communities. One thing that I wanted to start when I first got elected to city council is to have street captains — someone who’s not afraid to report what’s going on in your community. ... We’ve got to have that individual or those individuals who are willing to step up and say, ‘No, we’re taking our community back because we don’t want to hear this.’
I received a call two weekends in a row. ... She said, ‘Ms. Jackson, we can’t take it anymore. We’re tired of the gun violence. We’re tired of the shooting.’ Those are things that we need to address as a whole, so I’ve been working with our police department to beef up patrol in the south side of Rock Hill. People say, ‘Well, we don’t want to see the police,’ but that’s one way we can curb crime is just having a better police presence.
We also have the community police officer who rides in our community. He walks the community and he talks to the people in the community. That’s another way we can curb crime because we have a police officer who’s willing to get out and be a part of the community — not just riding in his car. He wants the citizens of Ward 5 to know that you can contact him and have that one-on-one conversation.
At the George Floyd rally we had here in the city of Rock Hill, that was put on by Apostle (Norma) Gray and Pastor C.T. Kirk, they had the microphone in their hand and they turned around and said, ‘Ms. Jackson, would you support a citizen review board?’ I said on that day, ‘Yes, I would support a citizen review board.’ And guess what we have in the city of Rock Hill right now?
They’re not fully functioning yet, but we have an active citizen review board that is going through the proper training, laying the foundation of what a citizen review board should look like. I have people that say, ‘Ms. Jackson, we’ve been wanting this for 20 years. We didn’t get it, but since you’ve been on council, look what has happened.’
And again, why stop the progress? Why stop the momentum? Everything that people have been asking for for the last 20, 35 years, we’re getting because they elected me as their city council representative, because I’m listening to what the people say.
Sutton: One of the things I can say is, the police chief and myself, we get along really good. We graduated high school together. The other part is, in the United States Coast Guard, I was a federal law enforcement officer for 30 years, so I can give some insight, and because I’m in the community, I can give insight on ways of helping police.
We need to get back to community policing, so that everybody knows the police officers, but also recruitment of candidates who live here.
When I grew up, I wanted to be a police officer in the city of Rock Hill. That was my plan, but it went higher. I became a federal law enforcement officer for 30 years. For some of these other kids, you want to change the image, so they know that this is a great job to have and we can start recruiting some people from the community to work in the police department.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 2:23 PM.
