Balancing Professional and Political Life

WINONA, Miss. (WCBI) – The mayoral race in Ackerman is days away, and residents are wondering how candidates will balance their full-time jobs with the position they’re running for.

The town’s former mayor was retired, so that position was his main job, but it’s not like that in many places.

Most mayoral positions are part-time in Mississippi and many of those have full-time jobs.

Winona is one of those cities, where the mayor has been juggling his roles in city government and his full-time job for nearly thirty years.

Mayor Jerry Flowers has been in a city government since 1993 and has run his own accounting firm since 1991.

Learning how to balance both jobs has been something he started out doing early on his career.

Most people start their day walking into one office, but that’s not the case for Jerry Flowers.

He walks into his city hall office and his office at Flowers Accounting every day.

“I’m not an employee. I own my own business, so I can come and go. A lot of times, I’ll go in early at work at Flowers Accounting, and then I’ll come here, later on in the day, but I’m here every day, on and off, in and out,” says Flowers.

It’s been that way for over two decades.

Flowers took over his father’s firm in 1991.

Two years later, he was elected alderman, putting him on a path of juggling professional and political life.

Then, fast-forwarding to 2007, he decided to take on more and has been serving as mayor ever since.

“It’s kind of in my genes. My grandfather was the chancery clerk here. My father was an alderman here for many years and I was elected alderman in 1993.”

A man of many roles is something Lexie Flowers has always known her dad to be.

“I’ve never known him never to be at Flowers Accounting, or going to a board meeting the first or second Tuesday of the month.”

Lexie says her dad has always got it together and although he works hard at two different jobs, he’s never failed to be there for her.

“In high school, he never failed to be at my sporting events. Big things that I was in, because I was involved in everything, and he never failed to be there, so despite how busy he was, working life, he never failed to be at the things that matter the most.”

Mayor Flowers says he has one word of wisdom for the winner next week’s race in Ackerman.

“I feel like if you’re not working for yourself and you have the restrictions of a 8 to 5 job, I mean that’s tough. The main thing I would tell them, you get some good people that you trust working underneath you.”

Mayor Flowers says he’s a blessed and fortunate man to be able to do both jobs and says it’s all possible because of God, his family, and the people he works with and for at city hall and at Flowers Accounting.

He also says being a good manager of time is always key to do both roles.