How many more times will Jimmy Cunningham have to dance?
We’ve sorta lost track of his past performances, and no telling how many more there are to go.
There was that time late last year when he had scores of fans with him and explained in great detail to the Pine Bluff City Council what his Delta Rhythm and Bayous Cultural District would look like. He had broken everything down, showing where the money would be spent and how, based — not on pie-in-the-sky estimates but the analysis of outside experts — on what the city could expect in its return on investment. That ROI excited council members since many of the projects being pushed by Go Forward Pine Bluff lack such detail. We’re thinking Main Street buildings here, but feel free to fill in your own exaggerated accomplishment or event.
Then later in 2022, he had to dance again at the podium, pleading with the council not to siphon off the $2 million they had promised him as they handed it to the Urban Renewal Agency, Go Forward’s little sister agency, where it would supposedly be given to him as he needed it.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
And now he’s dancing again. He’s ready for at least some of the money, close to $600,000, and he had to beg for it all over again at a city council committee meeting last week where Mayor Shirley Washington weighed in in a rather pitiful way and said she would make a budget adjustment so that Cunningham could have the money and that the city would try its darnedest to find the rest next year. A budget adjustment? Why would a budget adjustment be necessary if the money is sitting there waiting for Cunningham to use it?
There’s been a lot of debate about the lack of transparency in city government and with how Go Forward operates, but what seems crystal clear is that Cunningham’s project is being held hostage, and Cunningham, his supporters and Pine Bluff citizens are being punished because the extension of the Go Forward-inspired sales tax failed.
Oh, you wanted the Delta Rhythm and Bayous plan to proceed? Well, you should have voted for the sales tax. See, without the renewal of the sales tax, cool stuff like Cunningham’s project goes poof.
Never mind that when the $2 million was promised to him, there were no contingencies. No one said, you’ll get your money if we can afford to or if there’s not something else that we’d rather spend money on, like buying more dead buildings downtown. No one said well, we’ll be needing to extend the sales tax and only if it passes will you get your money.
Nope, none of that. Council Member Bruce Lockett, who believed what Go Forward and the mayor and Urban Renewal said last year, now seems to have had the scales fall from his eyes and he can now see the peril he put Cunningham’s project in by voting to send the $2 million to Urban Renewal.
One of the excuses for holding Cunningham’s money back is that other projects are now expected to cost more than they originally did. As Lockett said, that shouldn’t mean that only Urban Renewal projects get the green light. As we’ve noted before, that agency, other than tearing down some wasted houses, has spent some $1.3 million in acquiring downtown properties and to date the agency doesn’t have a dime of revenue to show for it. How about we give Cunningham a shot at his project, which is actually expected to make money?
And don’t you imagine Cunningham’s $6 million project has turned into a $7.5 million project because of inflation? Did you see him coming to the council crying about needing more than the $2 million he was promised? No, we didn’t either.
Had Go Forward been smart, they would have come forward in a public way to grandly present Cunningham with the money he was asking for, but in this game, they hold all of the cards and have been silent on the matter, willing to let the mayor do the grumbling about giving Cunningham his due.
There’s still plenty of opportunity for mischief in this matter. No doubt Cunningham will have to do a lot more dancing to get the rest of his money. He might want to invest in some different footwear, though. He always wears those nice work boots, but they look heavy. Maybe he’d be better off in some high-top Converse so his legs don’t tire out.