I’ve never met a candidate for local office that didn’t love their portion of the Miss-Lou.

It’s the No. 1 qualification needed before running for public office, for sure. But the qualifications, preparations and educations shouldn’t end there.

Loving the community does not mean you are ready to serve.

Monday night’s political forum featuring candidates for Adams County supervisor exposed some of the issues important to the candidates and their constituents, but much more work is needed for voters to truly understand what a candidate might do about those issues.

If you’ve complained about streets, schools, taxes, recreation or even garbage pickup in the last four years, you have an obligation to do some work — hard work — now.

Qualifications

Research the backgrounds of candidates in your district. Have they held down steady jobs? Have they been involved in the community? Have they held leadership roles?

Further, do they understand how county government works? Can they explain the difference in a unit system of government versus a beat system of government?

Have they ever made and followed a budget?

Do they know the powers — and limitations — of a supervisor?

Preparations

What have your candidates done to get ready for this campaign?

Ask how many Adams County Board of Supervisors meetings have they attended. Why did they go to so many, or so few?

Have they looked at the county budget? (It’s public record, and anyone can access it.)

Have they talked to any current or past supervisors about the job?

If they say education is a concern, have they attended a Natchez-Adams County District school board meeting? Visited one of the public schools?

Educations

A college degree is nice, but not necessary for this job. Different voters will place different levels of importance on educational degrees. Vote your heart and mind when it comes to that.

But, be sure you understand what efforts the candidates in your race have made to be educated on the job they are seeking.

Do they know the population of Adams County?

Do they know whether the school board is appointed or elected?

Do they know what Elevance Renewable Sciences is?

Can they explain how Natchez Inc. is funded?

Can they talk you through how property taxes are calculated?

Do they know the history of Adams County?

You decide

It’s a long list, I know. But how you vote is crucial to the future of the community you love and sometimes love to hate.

Some questions don’t have a right or wrong answer, but they must be asked.

Many answers can be gleaned from the printed campaign materials floating around town. Others may require you to invite the candidate who knocks on your door in for a while.

Or, maybe you need to attend one of the sponsored forums during the next month. We’ll publish notice of each forum in the newspaper, so check back for further details.

Unfortunately, the crowd at Monday night’s forum wasn’t large enough to send a message from the community that we care about our future. Instead, the message might as well have been, “Ah, who cares.”

If you’ve complained, you should care. Please, for the sake of your community, do your homework.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.