Flint City Council Lineup Includes Convicted Murderer, Violent Offender + More

Residents of Flint made their voices heard at the voting booth this past Tuesday. Apparently, those voices were saying "we need a bunch of ex-cons and people with serious financial problems running this city."

MLive is reporting that some serious red flags were overlooked by voters in the November 5th elections. Clearly, the most glaring of which is the election of 5th Ward City Council member Wantwaz D. Davis, who was convicted of second degree murder in 1991 and served 19 years in prison. Davis was 17-years old when he fatally shot 27-year old Kenneth Morris on Grace Street in Flint. "He went and reached in his pocket, so I reached in my pocket and I shot him," Davis said of the murder on November 6th. "When I found out he later died, I turned myself in. I never intended to shoot Mr. Morris. To this day, I am very remorseful." In an interview with ABC 12, Davis says the man he murdered sexually assaulted his mother. He gives his account of what happened in the video below.

We're not saying we don't believe in accidents, unfortunate circumstances or second chances, but Flint has enough problems with murder as is. You would think that oversight would be the only one to slip by voters -- you'd also be wrong.

Rounding out the rest of our all star City Council is 1st Ward Councilman Eric Mays, who was convicted of felonious assault in 1987, and two others -- 2nd Ward Councilwoman Jackie Poplar and 7th Ward Councilwoman Monica Galloway -- who've both previously filed for bankruptcy. That's one hell of a lineup!

You could make the argument that someone who's committed murder has a unique perspective on the issue and may be able to apply that experience to solving Flint's murder problems. The same could be said about the two Councilwomen with bankruptcies in their past and having unique knowledge of how to solve Flint's financial troubles. I, however, would not make those arguments.

Perhaps it's time that we start taking a closer look at who we're casting our vote for as oppose to just blindly filling out the ballot based on political party affiliations or name recognition. Then again, I've been guilty of that in the past -- so I know how that goes. Not everybody has time to investigate everyone running for an office in local elections: we all have busy lives. But I believe that if we are ever going to get our act together as a city, we need the right people in the right places. It does not look like that is the case after the recent election.