Tough talk was on the menu but it was seasoned with a good measure of sympathy and understanding at Thursday night’s Pine Bluff mayoral forum.
The nine candidates offered some blunt, uncompromising responses to several questions on how to fix problems within the city, but were also empathetic and compassionate in regard to commonly shared issues.
Alderman Steven Mays suggested that should he win the post, there will be plenty of reorganization – and possibly some personnel changes – at city hall.
“Fifty percent of our department heads don’t have a vision on where we need to go,” he said, further suggesting that some lower-level city employees actually do more work than supervisors.
He called for an evaluation of city jobs with a focus on educational qualifications as he believes some current workers and applicants with college degrees are being “overlooked.” Mays said students are “our greatest asset” and the city’s increased hiring of Southeast Arkansas College and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff graduates would help in the city’s retention of such achievers.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We need our SEARK and UAPB graduates to stay here and help us build for the future, instead of moving on to somewhere else and helping in someone else’s development,” said Mays, who earned a degree at UAPB.
Peter F. Daniels Jr. said he has a solution to easing job stress among Pine Bluff’s police officers, firefighters and department heads.
He said he would re-establish a civil service commission “so police and firefighters won’t be worried about their jobs,” and organize a trained committee to oversee department heads so “they wouldn’t have to worry about me” interfering with their duties.
But the newspaper publisher had a stern warning for those employees who might not be meeting city standards. “If they’re unqualified, fire them,” he said.
Debe Hollingsworth said a step in Pine Bluffians “getting our house in order” is recognizing that education must be their “No. 1 priority” and is paramount to a “healthy, productive city.” Saying that the level of poverty here is “unacceptable,” she believes, “We owe our children the best education they can receive.”
She proposed community forums involving the Pine Bluff, Dollarway and Watson Chapel school districts as well as SEARK and UAPB as a means of communicating ways in which students can be better prepared in formulating the type of workforce needed in attracting better-quality, higher-paying future jobs. She said the city needs to be steered into a new direction, and looking at old problems in old ways won’t produce new advances.
“I’m not a traditional thinker,” she said after stressing her business background. “I think outside the box.”
Alderwoman Thelma Walker believes that small businesses are sometime lost in the shuffle of industry recruitment because the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County – which she termed “a good organization” – primarily puts its spotlight on large concerns.
A small business owner herself, Walker said smaller firms are the “backbone” of commerce. She believes efforts in helping to start small businesses should be as strenuous as those aimed at netting “the big businesses.” She said if the city is to grow, it “must have jobs for parents and recreational opportunities for children.”
Walker maintains that the cost of providing the city’s youth with support efforts such as after-school programs must be shared by all. “If people who have money would give, it would help,” she said.
John James Jr. thinks that when it comes to job creation, the city needs a booster shot to increase its energy and likelihood for success. A former Marine who fought in Iraq, he called for a “jobs campaign” to enhance the current efforts to attract new industries and businesses.
He wants the endeavor to have as much vigor as a political crusade, complete with “T-shirts, bells and whistles.” But he believes that if the movement is to be triumphant, it must be combined with an “aggressive image campaign” fueled by a continuing dedication of individuals in deepening their community involvement.
Tim Whisenhunt promoted partnerships with the county and White Hall and Redfield governments as a means of garnering additional employment possibilities for Pine Bluff residents. A big number of persons who live in Pine Bluff enjoy above-average salaries with jobs outside the city under employers such as the Pine Bluff Arsenal near White Hall, the National Center for Toxicological Research near Jefferson and Entergy’s White Bluff electrical generating plant near Redfield.
Whisenhunt said the combined efforts of three mayors and the county judge would benefit everyone. “We have to work together,” he said.
Kent Broughton, who is attending the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, is also displeased with the city’s negative image. “I want to make Pine Bluff a place where everyone wants to come,” he said.
He figures that in order for Pine Bluff to be attractive to persons from elsewhere, residents’ confidence in the city has to rise to a point that it becomes evident to others.
His formula for meeting that goal is inclusive of several elements, but primarily re-establishing citizens’ trust in the police department and ensuring positive, on-going youth activities.
Clarence Davis, a minister, said one of his chief aims is to help give Pine Bluff residents what they most need – “hope.”
He said crime isn’t a new concern and “has been around since Adam and Eve.” He thinks the real battle may be in touching lives, saying leaders must replace the “bad in people’s lives with good” so that their resulting new attitudes will key a positive change in the city’s image, thus enhancing the future.
Davis figures the best investment the city can make is in its young people, adding that everyone should assist in mentoring children here.
Incumbent Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. boasted of betterments city employees have experienced during his eight years as mayor. He said that when he first assumed command, the workers hadn’t had a pay hike in five years. And to make matters even worse, he said, some banks wouldn’t cash city payroll checks because the municipality was on the brink of insolvency.
Since, Redus said, the city has become financially stable and while most employees have received nearly 11 percent in salary increases over the past six years, the lower-salaried workers have received raises of over 25 percent.
The mayor said productivity and morale have naturally improved and turnover rates have steadily decreased.