Mayoral candidate Vivian Flowers, a Democrat, is up against John Fenley, a Libertarian, with the race to be decided on Nov. 5. Early voting started Monday.
Flowers has been a state representative for five terms, but she became possessed with the idea that a sixth term was not really in the cards for her, even though she had already gone public with the idea of running for reelection to the state post. She then turned her attention to running for mayor, and during the Democratic primary in the spring, she got into a runoff with incumbent Mayor Shirley Washington, going on to easily beat her in the head-to-head matchup.
Flowers’ platform is simple, focusing on the youth, the economy and public safety. And her overarching philosophy is to be transparent.
As you may recall, she was against the Go Forward Pine Bluff-sponsored sales tax in 2017, when Go Forward had put together a potent coalition of support for the tax. She was also against the tax both times it was up for renewal last year. One of her biggest problems with it, well, there were two, actually: the lack of accountability and lack of transparency in matters regarding the tax. In many ways, she saw the problem with the Go Forward tax before many others did.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
If, as she said during a recent interview, another tax is sought, it will be more along the lines of a penny-for-progress tax (think former Mayor Carl Redus), where distinct items are promised if the tax is passed.
If she’s short in knowing the ins and outs of city government, she comes to the job with extensive knowledge of government in general, what with her ample time in the legislature.
Fenley, during a separate interview, admitted that he didn’t really want to be mayor. We could stop right there in this opinion piece, given that if he is unsure at this point about the job he registered to run for, far be it from us or the public to change his mind.
That said, this would not be the first time a politician has run for a position with little chance of winning it and is only on the ballot to remind voters that there is another way.
Fenley leans into the idea that Pine Bluff is stuck in the past in terms of technology, and that the city’s red tape is so immense that it keeps would-be entrepreneurs from actually becoming entrepreneurs.
One of his beefs, and certainly not the only one, is that he has been denied not once but twice now in his attempt to put in a go-kart track on his vast property, which is an old manufacturing plant. We wonder how, if he can’t navigate the city’s paperwork hurdles to put in such a track, why should the public trust that he can navigate the job of being mayor?
The thing about gadflies, and Fenley is one, is that sometimes they are dead right about some things, pointing out that improvements need to be made. But a person in a position of public authority has to be able to see a bigger picture and manage people and programs and hold true to a goal of making things better.
Therein lies the easy-to-define difference between the two candidates with the obvious choice of Flowers to be the city’s next mayor. The world needs John Fenleys, even if they are regularly exasperating to the powers that be, because, in their own way, they keep the powerful on their toes. In the end, though, gadflies are not cut out to be elected leaders. Even John Fenley knows that.