A recent Public Safety Committee meeting in Pine Bluff saw residents voice a range of concerns, from street lighting to communication issues with city departments.
The meeting, hosted by the city, began with ground rules emphasizing respectful discussion. “We won’t be answering any questions tonight,” said Susie Powell, a former police officer and meeting moderator. “We’re going to take note of anything that you have tonight and we’ll go back as a committee and try to address those.”
One of the most prominent issues raised was the state of street lighting. Pine Bluff resident Janice Roberts emphasized, “It is so important that we have proper street lighting and that when they are out, they are marked and replaced.”
Pine Bluff Mayor Vivian Flowers acknowledged the issue, explaining the complexities surrounding street light maintenance, including budget cuts and changes in departmental responsibilities. “A lot of people don’t know that there was previously a public safety tax that became a forever tax that is still collected to this day,” she said. “That money used to go to the street department and then…I’m not sure if it goes now to the general fund.”
Flowers went on to explain that the street lights were something that was under the purview of the Police Department and then it came under the street department. Over those years, the capacity in terms of the number of people employed as well as the actual budget of the street department has been cut in half.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Communication between the city and its residents was another significant point of discussion. Flowers mentioned an Entergy app for reporting street light issues but admitted, “people don’t know that and so that has to do with how we manage our own communications in the community.”
Council member Lanette Frazier touched on broader communication issues, such as informing citizens about available services and activities. “Everybody ain’t on social media, everybody is not listening to the radio,” she noted, advocating for a multi-faceted approach including “Word of mouth, knock on door-to-door” to reach everyone.
Concerns about the Police Department were also raised, with a focus on salaries, quality of life for officers and negative publicity. “Part of the issue is not just the salaries; it’s also about the quality of life and the quality of education, and the negative publicity that we keep getting,” said Frazier.
“Sometimes it’s coming from out the mouths of our own citizens so there’s some things that we can do as individuals that can help turn some things around,” she said.
Also mentioned were efforts to address youth violence through intervention programs and collaborations with schools. “We are reaching back out to the school well to the parents of those students that the school has referred, they are not in the system but we’re trying to reach them before they get into the system,” said Jauwana Jackson, 6th Division Circuit Court chief juvenile officer.
Jackson explained they met with school officials who provided them a list of names of students and parents who could benefit from their services.
The purpose and role of the committee itself was questioned by Pine Bluff resident April Davis, who asked, “Can you give us some insight as to what this committee is, and what is the purpose?”
Powell clarified that the committee was formed to address key priorities outlined by the Flowers, including youth and public safety. “Mayor Flowers basically gave us an outline of things that she wanted us to look at, you remember when she campaigned, youth was in one of her top three things in public safety,” she explained. Powell said the committee’s work involves gathering data, identifying challenges, and making recommendations to the mayor.
Flowers added that she created a transition board and created committees based on the top 10 areas that needed to be addressed.
“I’m sick of us meeting to have a meeting about meeting just to give these ideas about what to do,” Pine Bluff resident Tramell Howell said, expressing frustration with perceived inaction and emphasizing the need to move forward with a plan.
“We have so many plans. There are so many plans. We pay for master plans. We have other plans, other things that are on the books from other mayors,” Flowers said, highlighting the challenges of transitioning into new roles and the lack of existing standard operating procedures in some departments. “There is no process for onboarding anybody, especially the mayor,” she said.
A recurring theme throughout the meeting was the perceived lack of public knowledge about city operations. “It’s the same people that always show up for a town hall meeting, but then other citizens say we’re not doing nothing or whatever, but they don’t come to the meeting to get informed,” Frazier said, pointing out the discrepancy between complaints and participation.
To address this issue, she urged citizens to take initiative. “If you want to know, call us. If you want to know, come to the meetings. If you can’t come to the meeting, get on social media, watch it or watch it later if you at at work, but to be informed you need to be informed for yourself and not hearing that second hand from someone that’s just going to tell you their version of what they heard at the meeting. You need to learn it for yourself,” she said.
Progress within the city was another major point of discussion. “There are things that we are doing as we move our city forward, it’s not like we standing still. Things are moving, it might not be moving as fast as we wanted to, we all can agree to that, but we are doing some things,” Frazier said.
Expectations and citizen engagement were also highlighted and the importance of transparency and accountability was stressed, with Flowers stating, “When we talk about transparency and accountability, it is the job of the city, the mayor’s office, the police department, the fire department, the street department … everybody.”
“Our budgets need to be available, our processes, our minutes, videos to be taken online, so if people who are uninformed all of a sudden for whatever reason want it, the information is there,” said Flowers. “It’s their information, it’s their tax dollars to make it exist.”
Flowers gave an example of someone she described as “extremely successful” who had given in the past to the city of Pine Bluff and had not seen where those dollars were spent. Flowers said when the city sets a new standard, people will have faith and will be more engaged.
“People will believe. If we need a new tax because we’re going to get two new fire trucks, we’re going to get all the rest of those cameras for Chief Richardson, it’ll be a different conversation,” said Flowers, who said she came into office with the city in debt.
“I came into office with eight new contracts or lease agreements last year, after increasing salaries, which is why it’s so critically important for us to do things that’s going to help us grow our economy,” Flowers continued. “When we grow our economy, we won’t have to beg anybody to place a grocery store on the East Side.”
Passionate in her speech, Flowers stood up to address the mentality of Pine Bluff.
“When we talk about changing our mentality, when we talk about changing our rhetoric as a city, it cannot be about charity,” she said. “If we keep talking about charity and donating, that’s what we’re going to get.”
Instead, Flowers said investment and using one’s own assets are the way to go and not look for anybody to “come save us and go back to the way things used to be.”
“We can do better than the way things used to be,” she said.
“We are not the only ones dealing with blight. We are not the only ones dealing with workforce issues or crime, and guess what, crime is worse in several other cities in this state,” said Flowers.
Flowers said the city is working on a communications manager and a constituent service director to tell their own stories and “challenge these ridiculous lists that we’ve been on that are still on the internet.”
“We’ve got to stop leaving important work that needs to be done for one person to do two or three different jobs and expect that that job is going to get done well,” said Flowers. “Let’s move into a perspective of investment.”
The meeting was attended by Police Chief Denise Richardson and numerous police officers as Assistant Police Chief Kelvin Hadley expressed concerns about negative portrayals of the city and the Police Department on the radio, urging attendees to “promote Pine Bluff” and highlight the positive aspects of the community.
“It’s sad when you have to hear small business owners and other officials go on the radio and you demote the city of Pine Bluff and you attack the Pine Bluff Police Department because of something that you were not satisfied with,” he said. “There are a lot of things that we do well.”
Hadley pointed out achievements such as the city not having a juvenile homicide in over 400 days and a reduction in homicides from the previous year. Additionally, it was mentioned that the Police Department is about to be accredited, a first in its history, under Chief Richardson’s administration.
“We’re not looking for change. All we’re asking for is for the community to be patient with us and allow us to do our job and we will continue providing the best possible service for the city,” he said to applause.
The Gun Violence Intervention program was also discussed. Under the leadership of Circuit Judge Ernest Brown Jr., GVI is credited with contributing to the drop in homicides, particularly juvenile homicides.
Flowers and her staff were also commended for their efforts in compiling information related to the city’s challenges as they indicated a commitment to addressing these issues and working towards a more effective and responsive city government.