Hopefuls for mayor differ on approaches

Jordan faces three challengers Nov. 3

FAYETTEVILLE — The candidates running to lead the city’s administration have distinctly different views on how to do the job.

Mayor Lioneld

Jordan is seeking a fourth term and has three challengers. Two of them, Tom Terminella and Ron Baucom were his opponents in 2016. Newcomer William Harris also is running.

Jordan won the 2016 election with 22,803 votes. Terminella received 8,935 votes, and Baucom garnered 1,067.

Jordan said he wants to continue to oversee millions of dollars in bond projects voters approved last year. He was first elected mayor in 2008 and said his experience dealing with a devastating ice storm and an economic recession positions him to best handle the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the local economy.

He wants to add to the acreage of urban green space his administration has helped preserve and to promote sustainable energy measures. Jordan said he also wants to continue a partnership-based approach to local government.

Terminella, a longtime real estate broker in the city, said it’s time for a change in administration. He wants to reduce the permitting processes and fees developers and business owners pay to set up shop.

Terminella also said a blanket policy of promoting infill development is not right for the city. He emphasized the need for the city to focus on essential services during the pandemic and to support local businesses. Homelessness also needs to be more effectively addressed, he said.

Baucom, a self-employed financial adviser, described himself as a Christian conservative and a staunch believer in the U.S. Constitution. He serves as a volunteer with Bruce and Betty Baucom Christian Ministries, where he spreads the word of the Gospel, especially for those experiencing homelessness, he said. Baucom said the city government needs an audit of all of its operations and to prioritize spending on needs, not wants.

Harris, who is retired from the oil industry and jobs in food service and trucking, said he wants to serve one term and give Jordan a “vacation.” He wants to create library annexes to serve different parts of town and to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Harris spent time in prison in Ohio from 1970-1976 on convictions for malicious placement of a bomb and assault with intention to rob. He also served 14 years at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary from 1984-1998 for second-degree arson. Harris said his imprisonment stemmed from his time as part of a Communist revolutionary group he has since renounced, and he wrote a book about the subject. He described himself as a “political centrist.”

Arkansas state law says any municipal candidate, “must never have been convicted of fraud, embezzlement of public money, bribery, forgery or other infamous crime.”

Only a circuit court judge can rule whether a candidate is eligible to run or hold office after someone files a lawsuit challenging the candidate.

The mayor serves fouryear terms and it is a nonpartisan position. The base salary for the mayor is set at 5% more than the average salaries of each chief and department head reporting to the mayor. Jordan makes $131,352 annually.

Election Day is Nov. 3. Early voting begins Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 2. The deadline to register to vote is Monday.

Voters can request an absentee ballot application by calling the Washington County Clerk’s Office, or download an application from the county’s website.

HERE, TOGETHER

Terminella said the city’s insistence on infill development, fees and laborious permitting processes is driving up the cost of homes. Infill development refers to building on vacant or underused land within a city’s urban core, often at higher density and with a mix of commercial and residential uses. The intent is to avoid urban sprawl on the periphery.

“If you want to be a part of that kind of community, with those kinds of setbacks and lot lines and things of that nature, there’s absolutely a place for it,” Terminella said. “But, you don’t do it in the middle of established neighborhoods and residential areas that have been there for a generation.”

Terminella said he’s heard from a number of residents who feel their neighborhood is being encroached upon with smaller or multifamily housing. He also said he’s heard from developers who didn’t want to pursue such projects, but were pushed into it by city officials.

The result has been more divisiveness in the community, he said.

As far as divisiveness, Harris said he wants to bring the homosexual and church communities together. He wants to introduce a philosophy of governance called “faithbased humanics.” He said he believes homosexuality is not an inherent trait but a “universal temptation” and the result of bad luck. Conversely, he wants to inform faith-based communities of that idea, and bring the two groups together.

Harris also said he believes building an Olympic-sized swimming people will help bring young people together. He recalled having access to a large pool when he was a kid in Oklahoma in the 1950s, and children of different backgrounds interacted as a result.

“I want our kids in Fayetteville to have the same thing,” he said. “I know it’s a much bigger town, so we’re talking about a lot more kids, and the social scene here is much different from what I experienced in the 1950s in a small town. But, kids are still kids.”

If racism really is a public health crisis, as the City Council declared this year, having a proper swimming pool could help solve that problem, Harris said.

Baucom said the city needs an operational audit and to engage residents better. Decisions should be based on what’s best for a majority of residents, he said.

Oftentimes, elderly and low-income residents get lost in the shuffle of city business, Baucom said. Many residents don’t have access to the internet or aren’t able to make it public meetings to provide input on issues, he said. He proposed sending out a regular survey with residents’ water bills informing them of happenings in local government and to gain input.

“Let the public be more involved in the decisions than they ever have been, because they’re the bosses,” Baucom said. “They’re who we serve. That’s who we’re accountable to.”

The city needs to act as better stewards of taxpayer dollars, Baucom said. He described moves such as the city’s $3.1 million commitment in 2017 to help build the Theatre-Squared building as wasteful spending. He said he would take a pay cut if elected mayor and consider cutting or dissolving the chief of staff position.

Baucom said stewardship was a principle instilled in him by his late mother. He said he’s been poor his whole life, and advocated for more living wage jobs.

Jordan said he wants to help residents get better-paying jobs to be able to afford homes. He wants to focus on a workforce development program in which residents could learn trades such as carpentry, plumbing, electricity work, coding and similar fields.

Jordan said he understands a neighborhood’s opposition to a project, and, when forced to break a City Council tie on a rezoning vote, takes each situation into consideration

for its unique circumstances. He said he comes to meetings prepared to vote on issues if necessary.

He said his administration has worked to streamline the city’s permitting and development fees such as implementing new planning software. He would be open to reexamining fees, such as the impact fees developers pay related to a new project’s strain on city services such as water, sewer, police and fire, he said.

Jordan said he wants to promote good development while maintaining environmental stewardship. He said the city has preserved about 1,300 acres of urban forest in the past six years, and he wants to add to that in the next four years.

Terminella said the city has higher impact fees and more development regulations than other cities in Northwest Arkansas, and that’s pushing projects away.

Jordan said the city has higher standards for development than other cities in the region, and building permits for commercial and residential projects have been on the rise for several years.

“If nobody wanted to build here and nobody wanted to live here, we wouldn’t have these building permits going through the roof,” he said.

Revenue from building permits is projected to increase 7% to about $1.6 million next year based on collection this year.

Terminella said he has spent years trying to broker deals for major projects that wanted to set up shop in the city but went elsewhere in Northwest Arkansas because it was less expensive and onerous. As a Fayetteville resident of 50 years, Terminella said it hurt him to see that.

“We’ve got to understand the consequences of changing these codes, making it more difficult and creating these additional layers of expense is costing us business,” he said. “It’s costing us amenities. There are so many people who want to be here.”

PROJECTS

The covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly will take a toll on the local economy. However, Jordan said he believes the more than $200 million in bond projects voters approved last year will serve as a foundation to keep the city strong for the next 15 to 20 years.

“If you build a house, and you build a proper foundation, you can build that house any way you want to,” Jordan said. “No matter what kind of storm hits it, it’s going to be OK.”

Voters approved nearly $74 million for transportation, nearly $7 million for trails, nearly $16 million in drainage improvements, about $26 million for parks, nearly $37 million for a new police headquarters, nearly $16 million for three new fire substations and equipment, nearly $32 million to build an arts corridor downtown and about $3 million apiece for economic development projects and energy efficiency improvements at city buildings.

The first phase of about

$135 million in projects over three years is under way. The plan is to spend the entirety of the total $226 million in bond issues in three, threeyear phases.

Managing those projects and keeping them on budget and on time is a monumental task he wants to oversee for the next four years. Cost overruns can decimate a project, he said.

Jordan said his goal is to keep the city working with its people healthy.

“That’s easy to say and maybe hard to do, but I believe we can do it,” he said. “We went through a recession and an ice storm years ago, and we’re going to get through covid-19.”

Baucom said nonessential projects the city subsidizes should rely on private fundraising, not taxpayer dollars. More money should be put toward decongesting car traffic, he used as an example. Baucom said he felt people use sidewalks and trails more for recreation than for transportation.

If Gov. Asa Hutchinson were to lift the emergency declaration to the pandemic, Baucom said he would want the city administration to allow the local economy to open as much as possible. He said having a mask mandate infringes on peoples’ rights, and questioned their effectiveness. He said China is to blame for the virus, and that he felt especially sorry for the elderly and people with underlying health issues who are the most vulnerable.

“I think we need to continue to call on all of our citizens to get out and try to do for the people who are shut in, and try to volunteer as much as possible,” Baucom said. “We’ve got a great volunteer base here in Fayetteville on a lot of things. That’s one of the things I really love about this city.”

Harris said Fayetteville should strive to be a bigtime city rather than a quaint town. He said he disagreed with having wide sidewalks that take up space in lanes for cars. He said there should be more library branches than just the one downtown, even with its expansion set to open later this year.

Harris said he wanted to see library annexes on the north side of town near the Northwest Arkansas Mall, on the eastern side near Mission Boulevard and Crossover Road and possibly a third one in the western section.

He envisioned the material being mostly donated, with volunteers working in existing buildings.

“We’d want to manage that as low-budget as possible,” Harris said. “That way, we could squeeze a little bit of it out of the city budget, or perhaps out of the main library budget.”

The city’s sales tax revenue was about the same as last year for March and went down in April. Revenue was higher than last year in June and July. The city’s chief economic officer projects economic losses the last quarter of the year.

Terminella said the city

needs to take a more proactive approach to the pandemic’s impact on the local economy. He said he viewed six essential aspects of city government — police, fire, water, sewer, sanitation and transportation — with budgets that need to remain largely untouched.

“All the other things beyond that, in my opinion, aren’t essential,” Terminella said. “They’re feel-good.”

The bottom line is the city needs to meet its budget, Terminella said. That may require wide-ranging cuts, including personnel or important, but nonessential, programs. Any department that doesn’t provide a direct service to residents is nonessential, he said.

“Nowhere do I see Lioneld and the administration leading,” he said. “They’re being reactionary. They’re not being proactive.”

Jordan said the city has sufficient reserve money to get through an economic emergency. There should be a $13.5 million reserve balance at the end of the year, which includes an $8 million emergency fund.

The reserve money, plus the return on investment from pumping millions of dollars into the city with the first round of bond projects, will help the city, Jordan said. He expects the cultural arts corridor to transform downtown, for instance. He also expects a boost from internet sales tax. The bond debt was structured to be paid off in 16 years. With no annual salestax revenue growth, it would be paid off in eight to 10 years. With growth, it would pay off sooner, he said.

Terminella said although he disagrees with the validity of special elections, the voters approved all 10 issues and the projects are baked in the cake. He would, however, revisit the way the projects are prioritized.

Terminella said the city needs to keep its reserve money and stay within the budget. He criticized the cancellation of major events such as Bikes, Blues & BBQ , the annual Christmas parade and others that would otherwise boost sales-tax revenue.

Events can still be held safely during the pandemic, he said.

“Social distance, mask up, but you can’t quarantine yourself into insolvency,” he said. “There won’t be anything left. You have to find a happy medium.”

SERVING AND PROTECTING

The city’s community development program helps people find homes and provides assistance to low-income residents with bills, home improvements, transportation and other needs. The city also provides about $113,000 to 7 Hills Homeless Center annually.

Jordan said he wants to take a preventive approach to homelessness while helping those who have already found themselves on the outs. He said the number of veterans and children experiencing homelessness weighs on his mind. He said he understands if residents feel apprehension about people in tents on public property. Police patrol the trails and are instructed to handle people compassionately if there are any issues, he said.

“We need to address homelessness with compassion and care, and we also need to make sure people are protected,” Jordan said.

Baucom said he has great concern for homelessness in his heart, but he doesn’t have all the answers. He suggested money spent on unnecessary projects could go toward building homes for those who need them.

Terminella said homelessness has become a bigger problem since Jordan took office. He said people don’t feel safe on the trails.

“It’s gotten to the point it’s affecting most everybody in south Fayetteville,” Terminella said. “It’s even affecting people out by the mall.”

Terminella said he thinks the city has stalled on building the new police headquarters at Porter Road and Deane Street. In a workshop this year, City Council members brought up concerns over the site’s proposed layout. Terminella said issues such as building setbacks, walkability and community space should not hinder a project voters overwhelmingly supported.

“It should have been an absolute priority Dec. 8 after Officer Carr got assassinated,” he said. “It still hasn’t, in my mind, become the priority it needs to be.”

Officer Stephen Carr was killed Dec. 7 when a gunman shot him while he sat in his patrol vehicle outside the police station.

Jordan said the police headquarters project is on time and on budget. The plan is to break ground late this year or early next year. He said a new headquarters has been long overdue, and he worked hard with law enforcement and finance officials to get the issue on the bond referendum.

Terminella said the No. 1 issue residents ask him about is support for law enforcement, especially since the council voted this year against accepting a grant to expand the school resource officer program. He said the program should be expanded, and that he supports law enforcement.

Jordan has expressed his support for the city’s police and did so during hours-long meetings about the school resource program and the regional drug task force.

Baucom criticized the speed at which the police headquarters project has gone. Even if it is on schedule, the administration could have put it ahead of schedule, he said.

“I think it’s an embarrassment that we have not even broken ground on the new police station,” Baucom said.

Harris said the city’s police were empathetic and compassionate during a peaceful demonstration that drew thousands of people to the downtown square this summer. Officers deserve the best accommodations the city can provide, he said.

“They’re good, honest policemen and they’re polite,” Harris said. “I don’t think we have any problems with our fellows.”

Harris said he believes Jordan has surrounded himself with people of similar interest over the years. Harris said he would want to hear from a wider variety of voices and serve a wider range of people.