Janice Lomax (Shari Belafonte)

Mayor Janice Lomax is a fictional character on the soap opera General Hospital. She has been portrayed by actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona since May 23, 2012. She made brief guest appearances in May 2012, August 2012, March 2013, January 2015, May/June 2015, and most recently in August 2015.

In December 2015, it was revealed that actress Shari Belafonte is going to replace Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Mayor Janice Lomax. It is not yet known when Belafonte's scenes will begin airing.

History
Mayor Janice Lomax first appears in May 2012, in order to terminate Mac Scorpio from his position as police commissioner, citing the unsolved deaths of Cole Thornhart and his daughter Hope, as well as the actions of corrupt detective Ronnie Dimestico, as her main reasons why. Lomax also expressed concern following the conviction and imprisonment of Mac's daughter Maxie Jones in connection with the murder of Lisa Niles, and the potential negative publicity it could bring the police department, and by extension, the mayor's office. Lomax subsequently pursues Anna Devane to succeed Mac, a job which she ultimately accepts despite some early reluctance.

Lomax resurfaces in August 2012 to appoint John McBain, while Commissioner Devane was away in Europe, in charge of the police investigation into a terrorist act committed by Jerry Jacks, whereby he contaminated the water supply with a dangerous pathogen.

In March 2013, Lomax appears again to figure out what to do with the escape situation aftermath of Lucy Coe, John McBain, and Rafe Kovich, Jr. escaping with the help of Molly Lansing-Davis to save Sam Morgan and Danny Morgan from the deraigned Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay. Anna Devane tries to resign from the police commissioner position, but Mayor Lomax can not let this happen. She says that would impact her image too much and tries to figure out what to do with the fugitives. She says that if they release them, they would be encouraging vigilante, but if they press charges it would cause problems too. She goes to the media in the PCPD main room and says that they the three fugitives were acting in accordance with Police Commissioner Anna Devane and are going to be released.

She was said to officiate the wedding between Laura Webber and Scott Baldwin, but she was too booked and Lesley Webber steps in.

In January 2015, Lomax tampers with the mayoral election votes with the help of Agent Kyle Sloane and Nikolas Cassadine to win the election against Felicia Scorpio. Immediately after "winning" the election, Lomax fires Anna Devane and replaces her with Sloane. In May, Lomax tells Nikolas that she plans to run for governor against Govenor Richard Gatling. She then fires Sloane as commissioner and replaces him with Jordan Ashford. In August, Lomax forces Scott Baldwin to step down as District Attorney because his son, Franco, was charged for murdering Silas Clay. She replaced him with Ric Lansing as Acting District Attorney.

Crimes Committed

 * Conspired with Kyle Sloane and Nikolas Cassadine to tamper with electoral votes, thus causing her manipulated mayoral win against Felicia Scorpio [revealed Jan 13, 2015]