It might have been a genetically-inclined coincidence that prompted Como Mayor Judy Sumner to run for mayor but her father, Horace Mathews, thinks if the town can be fixed, she’s the one who can do it.

The former Panola County District One Supervisor doesn’t take credit for any skills his daughter might have learned or inherited. His wife, Geraldine, quitely disagrees.

And Mayor Judy says, it wasn’t any moral obligation or family influence that persuaded her to get into politics.

“I just saw so much that needed to be done. That was my consensus,” says the first time Como Mayor who first ran in 2001. She ran again in 2005 and after three years, the court finally decided she was the mayor.

Como’s woes

Como is plagued with a litany of financial woes.

She knew it was bad, “She didn’t know just how bad it was,” the elder Mathews said of the state of the Town of Como’s financial situation.

The city owes over $200,000 to the IRS, several thousand to the City of Senatobia for natural gas and several thousands to Panola County for garbage service plus a myriad of smaller bills not to mention ongoing expenses.

“I said if anybody can turn Como around she can,” Como’s First Daddy said with the same confidence as would any confident parent. He attributes her ability to get elected to the years she spent in business at Pointer Insurance Agency where she learned the nature and personalities of the people she is now serving.

“She cares,” Mathews emphasized. Not many would be willing to invest the time and emotion involved in running a municipal government under such dire circumstances, he added.

Elected in 1968

When Mathews was first elected supervisor in 1968 his “beat was broke” and he had no operating expenses. But over time with “two old gravel trucks” Mathews managed the roads in his district or beat and, “Built as many roads as anybody.”

He said the board with whom he served built hospitals, doctors’ offices, a health department, welfare office, county shop and office buildings.

The federal government stepped in along with an aggressive state attorney general and changed the way Mississippi counties did business. Federal Revenue Sharing Funds, monies sent to local government entities from the federal government, were cut back then cut off. Voters then chose the county unit system form of centralized government service over the traditional beat system for road maintenance and the face of local politics changed.

Mathews was an opponent of that change and continues to state that the change from the beat system took closeness away from the elected official and his constituents.

“We could better stay in touch with people,” Mathews noted.

 Although Mayor Judy doesn’t have Federal Revenue Sharing Funds or a large tax base as a safety net, she does have the will to serve and  determination to get the job done.

If you don’t believe me, ask her daddy.