Boozman Gets a Golden Mouse

“I am very honored to have my office recognized with the Gold Mouse Award, as it affirms my commitment to the constituents in the Third District,” said Congressman John Boozman (R-Pinnacle Gated Community) when his website was one of 104 Web sites commended in The 2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill. That's good.

"The Internet has the potential to transform the connection between citizens and their representatives. While it is clear that the Internet has played an important role in mobilizing and informing voters, most Members have not seized the day. Surprisingly few Member sites offer much content on where the Member stands on the issues of the day," said Dr. David Lazer, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Program on Networked Governance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"The most important reason we give the Mouse Awards is to highlight best practices and inspire and motivate other offices to improve their sites by learning from those doing a good job," said Beverly Bell, Executive Director of the Congressional Management Foundation. The report details six elements of what makes an effective website for elected officials. Let us hope that our city and county officials might download the report and give it some attention. It couldn't hurt; it might help.

Erasing Fayetteville

It has been ten years since the Northwest Arkansas Council wiped out commercial passenger service at Fayetteville's Drake Field with the witting support of Mayor Fred Hanna and Steve Ward of the Fayetteville Chamber of Cowbirds. Now there is a campaign to eliminate the unspeakable word "Fayetteville" from any connection with their XNA airport serving Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville.

I don't think this is directly related to our "community leaders'" efforts to brand everything XNA. If it is, they've recruited Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Robert Smith to lead their campaign to quit saying that XNA is in Fayetteville. At the suggestion of UA Engineering Professor Jim Gattis, travel guru Smith enlisted the help of Congressman John Boozman (R-Pinnacle Gated Community) to make the airlines stop mentioning Fayetteville.

Boozman's staff said he was too busy fighting health care, education, and efforts to end the occupation of Iraq, that he didn't have time to draft a bill to prohibit saying Fayetteville, but he did send a letter to the Air Transport Association asking them to have their member airlines to be more accurate and eliminate the confusion by calling it Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

Fayetteville city employee Ray Boudreaux, who is paid half time to be in charge of the Drake Field airport, was not mentioned in the article, but it must have been another blow after losing the multi-million dollar trailer storge project to the Hope Airport and the multi-million dollar aircraft assembly plant to the Rogers Airport. Now this.

The other half of Boudreaux's handsome salary is for being the city's director of economic development. Public opinion of his effectiveness was recently undermined by Mayor Coody's admission that Boudreaux had no worthwhile economic development strategy. Today the Northwest Arkansas Times ignored him completely and called for the city to "put Fayetteville Economic Development Council President/CEO Steve Rust in charge of finding a notable buyer" for the empty Tyson Mexican Original building, one "with the potential to produce jobs [and put the building] back onto the property tax rolls." Bad day for Ray.

Mayor's Gone Wild

Mayor Dan Coody had two entries posted on his Mayor's Blog last week, a veritable surge of information after total silence since last September. It includes nifty photos from his recent Grand Tour of Paris, Germany, and Amsterdam, and visits to Washington, DC and Seattle, where he says he was "championing the many attributes of Fayetteville and learning from local, national, and international leaders how we can improve as a community."

The Mayor's Blog was launched last May 4th when Coody promised, "I’ll be posting regularly to this site beginning later this week," and "I intend to use this space to discuss current issues that I believe will be of interest to our citizens." He had a total of only 13 additional posts the rest of the entire year. A majority of the photographs posted showed Mayor Coody with Bill Ramsey or other Chamber of Cowbird employees breaking ground or cutting ribbons for public works projects paid for with taxpayer money.

One might have hoped for discussion of more important matters. Like maybe an explanation of the $63 million sewer cost overruns, what he plans to do about road impact fees, his thoughts on pricing water and sewer services, how the Crossover Road project can be salvaged after costs were so far off the estimate, why so many out-of-state consultants are necessary, or how he would have balanced the city budget that was resolved by the City Council while he was in Paris. The "official" blog doesn't have a feature allowing citizen comment and suggestions, but maybe that is just as well.

Academics are still debating whether citizens will ever have the ability to demand accountability of government through increased public information available on the internet. Local citizens are awaiting access to relevant public information and online documents that would let them settle the question for themselves. Mayor Coody's blog and the City's website could both be more helpful and less boastful.

Quote of the Day

"When is eight greater than 728? When you are The Morning News it seems.

"On Nov. 29, Judy McDonald and Laura Underwood presented a letter with eight names of past Fayetteville Board of Education members to the current Board members, complaining that they should restart the already failed negotiations with University of Arkansas for the sale of the FHS property. This "story" received front page coverage in The Morning News. When Janine Parry, leader of the group BuildSmart presented the signatures of 728 Fayetteville residents urging the Board to build a new high school on the current, centrally-located FHS site, The Morning News did not cover the story at all.

"It is clear where The Morning News's sympathies lie. It is far more interested in giving press to elites who desire building a mega-school on the edge of town, while ignoring the concerns of the overwhelming numbers of district patrons who prefer to keep FHS in Fayetteville."

Bill Schreckhise, "School Coverage Needs Balance," Letter to The Morning News

Local Preacher Man Mentored Huckabee

"Of all the right-wing figures who have promoted Mike Huckabee's extraordinary political rise from a backwater church to the national pulpit of a presidential campaign--and there are many--perhaps none know the former Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential front-runner better than Jay Cole. A Baptist minister based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with a right-wing radio talk show of his own, Cole has been instrumental in inspiring Huckabee's rise over more than two decades," so says a forthcoming article in The Nation.

Reverend Cole says that in 1980 he helped young Huckabee start his own television show, Positive Alternatives, which became his vehicle for statewide recognition, and in 1989 he engineered Huckabee's election as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Then, according to the article, "When Huckabee leveraged his popularity in the Baptist community into a political career, declaring a run for lieutenant governor in 1993, Cole urged his listeners to vote for him, helping deliver him a narrow victory in the heavily Democratic state." Few knew that Jay Cole was the power behind the throne.

Cole, who says he helped produce the infamous anti-Clinton propaganda video The Clinton Chronicles, "claimed without evidence that a vindictive Clinton and his surrogates had framed [Wayne] Dumond and had possibly orchestrated his castration as well." With his puppet Huckabee finally in the governor's mansion, we learn that "Cole pressured his pal to act on a cause he had championed for almost a decade--the release of Wayne Dumond, accused of raping a 17-year-old cheerleader who happened to be Bill Clinton's distant cousin." Then follows more details of how Huckabee dutifully set free Born Again Dumond to rape and murder again.

Throughout the article detailing the close relationship between Huckabee and Cole, he also reveals that we are approaching the End Times, that Mormons are worse than the Ku Klux Klan, and that Muslims are "just not human." Then there is some weird stuff.

Reading About Rates

With apologies to Robert Fulghum, all I know is what I read in the newspapers. I try to be an informed citizen, but my problem is that sometimes I have to read an article several times to get it right and am not always sure that I do. A recent article about Alderman Kyle Cook's comments on water and sewer rates during a Ward Two meeting this week is a case in point, and I don't know whether it is my poor reading comprehension, poor reporting by the newspaper, or poor communication by a public official.

"Sewer rates could go up by 20 percent, and water rates could increase by 15 percent over the next few years, [Cook] said." Okay. Does that mean that is the amount of additional revenue that will be needed for the city to cover operating expenses and/or to cover construction cost overruns? Does that mean residential rates and industrial rates will each increase by the same percentage? There are also missing assumptions about cost-of-service pricing, flat rate, and increasing block rates that might make this more clear.

"The Fayetteville Water and Sewer Committee will discuss reducing rates for low-income elderly customers at a meeting next week. Alderman Kyle Cook, committee chairman, said the cost of reducing the rates for elderly residents would be absorbed by the residential customers." Why is that? I favor a lifeline rate for low-income elderly residents, but why does Cook want to assign the cost only to other residential customers? Don't businesses have an equal responsibility for assisting the less fortunate? Why not have a reduced rate for the first 2,000 gallons per month for all customers and make it up by adding a few cents per thousand above 10,000 gallons per month? There might be reasons against that, but the article does not mention them or that they might have been consider or discussed by Alderman Cook.

Has Alderman Cook not considered alternatives? Is he insensitive to his constituents who, the article reports, "said they think all water users, including industrial and commercial users, should contribute to the cost?" If so, he has an obligation to his constituents to explain why he wants residential customers to bear greater burdens and responsibilities than business customers for lifeline rates and the overall cost of water and sewer services. Perhaps he did, and the reporter failed to share that information with the readers.

Whatever the case, Alderman Cook and the Water and Sewer Committee that he chairs should make clear why certain customers are treated differently and charged more than others, what policy objectives are advanced by charging different rates, and why they think that is a good idea and a fair one. They owe that much to the citizens before jacking up their water and sewer rates by 20%.

The Water and Sewer Committee will meet at 4:30 next Wednesday. If it is on cable Channel 16, I'll watch the last part of it after I get home from work and hope to read a clear account of the discussions in next Thursday's newspaper. Then I will hope that my aldermen will give more consideration to my views than Alderman Cook was "reported" to have given to those expressed by citizens in his ward.

Hard Times for the Country Club Crowd

The true leading economic indicator for Northwest Arkansas, how many country clubs have been served with Business Closure Notices this week, is at Two. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration frowns when businesses fail or refuse to remit sales taxes for the third time.

Declared tax deadbeats by state officials this week were the Golf Club at Dawn Hills, 13890 Turnberry Lane, Siloam Springs, and the Valley View Sportsman Club, 11520 Clubhouse Parkway, Farmington. What they did with the sales taxes they collected from customers is not known, but that could be one explanation why recent sales tax revenues are down in Benton and Washington counties.

Maybe these economically distressed golf courses could be declared "blighted" areas now and would qualify for million dollar TIF Districts taken from public school revenue and other corporate welfare from the paychecks of working families who do pay their taxes. I expect the Chamber of Cowbirds to call for new "business friendly" incentives to support "economic development," which must have nice golf courses and country clubs to do business deals.

Reflections on John White's Departure

Yesterday's news, or at least yesterday's newspaper fare, was all about the "resignation" of University of Arkansas Chancellor John White. Mostly, it was reprinting the press release and selective events compiled by the UA Office of University Relations. The Northwest Arkansas Times story ignored any academic assessment but quoted Bill Ramsey saying, "John really stepped up for the chamber." There were some snippets of the various interviews White granted to frame his side of the events, and he swore on The Bible for a reporter that there was no pressure from anyone for him to resign.

Now that the smoke is starting to clear, we're starting to get some analysis of events that goes beyond the press release and ventures into more sober public speculation. Well, not from the Northwest Arkansas Times, which today had a hard-hitting editorial about how people should pay their dues to rural volunteer fire departments, but from major newspapers and minor bloggers.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial today said the whole Houston Nutt episode, from the email to the $3.6 million going away gift was embarrassing. "John White was left looking like a sucker, maybe because he had been." And, lest anyone forget, "There was the messy firing of Nolan Richardson, and John White’s first embarrassing, disastrous and of course futile attempt to have Frank Broyles retire. It ended with The Coach saying, I don’t think so. After that encounter, it was all too clear who really called the shots at the university. And it wasn’t John White.

"The chancellor’s stumbles extended beyond the athletic department. His early effort to do away with the University of Arkansas Press was finally abandoned, thank goodness. But he went through with the closing of the university museum. And he never hesitated to get rid of old campus landmarks in order to make room for parking lots. A preservationist he wasn’t, neither of the printed word nor architectural history. For a chancellor at a major state university, Dr. White had a remarkable anti-intellectual bent. . . .

"There’s actually much to admire about John White’s career at the University of Arkansas. That’s why it’s all the more disappointing that he allowed the bog of athletics to suck him in and even define his tenure. But all too often, the chancellor’s clumsy efforts left him looking, shall we say, less than straightforward. Also, weak and dithering."

A new blogger in town, the amusing Fayetteville Flyer, put it this way: "My interpretation of this recent news is that whoever holds the reigns of Mr. White’s paycheck was about to cut him off the payroll entirely and make him out to be the fool. Or maybe White was was given an ultimatum – step down as Chancellor, and we’ll retain you in a bullcrap position, with pay, to keep you from speaking about how f’ed things were around here. Either way, he messed up and the UofA didn’t want him dipping his fingers in their business anymore."

The blogger's final assessment acknowledged, "I don’t have enough information to base any type of opinion on White and his accomplishments at the UofA, but I dare say that he was the last key to ridding ourselves of bad karma. I wish him no ill will, but he leaves a sour taste in my mouth." That sounds about right.

A Sign of Good Sense

The Bentonville Planning Commission will review a new sign ordinance next week, and it will likely be considered by the Bentonville City Council on January 22. Planner Shelli Rushing drafted the proposed ordinance and said it is intended to reduce the number of signs placed on huge poles and thus lessen visual clutter, especially on major roads in the city such as Walton Boulevard. It also addresses light pollution, electronic signs, and banners.

Ed Clifford, President of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, is enthusiastic about the new sign ordinance because he thinks it will give Bentonville a "classier" look with low-level signs for commercial buildings. "It's a perception or a feel you get in a town," Clifford said. A town with low-level monument signs instead of unsightly signs on tall poles "seems to value its sense of place more."

The Bentonville Chamber's sensible approach to smart growth will enhance the human scale of the commercial areas and make their city more attractive. Even Springdale realizes that it needs to curb the visual pollution of gawdy signs on its major streets if the city is to again become a livable family community instead of serial strip malls.

Only Bill Ramsey of the Fayetteville Chamber of Cowbirds is still advocating huge commercial signs and complaining that Fayetteville's sign ordinance is a job killer that ran off Cracker Barrel and put Fuddrucker's out of business. It's nonsense. Even Chamber officials in Benton County know better. Ed Clifford said straight up that once people get used to looking for low-level signs, it doesn't hinder businesses at all.

Where Do You Stand?

Many Fayetteville citizens will celebrate the life, work, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the annual “Days of Recommitment.” Two weeks of events organized by the University of Arkansas MLK Committee and the Northwest Arkansas MLK Planning Committee are planned on the theme “Living the Dream in the 21st Century: Where do You Stand?”

That's a good question, and we are likely to have an opportunity to answer it next Tuesday. On the City Council agenda is a resolution to change the name of Sixth Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard. Alderman Lioneld Jordan is the lead sponsor, joined by Aldermen Shirley Lucas and Nancy Allen. Already the opposition is forming, and its source is no surprise.

Back on 2002, the City Council named Sixth Street as "honorary" Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Mayor Dan Coody made a big deal of unveiling the new street signs five years ago. The idea was to give businesses time to change the address on their stationery before making the name change permanent. Now Coody says the "honorary" name change is enough to honor King without making it permanent. He sent his finance director Paul Becker to complain that a name change would "put a burden on" businesses that will have costs associated with advertising, alerting their customer base and suppliers of the change, printing costs, and the element of confusion an address change can bring.

It seems to me that five years is enough. I'd be very surprised if any of the businesses on Honorary Martin Luther King Boulevard had a five year supply of stationery laid up, many of the fine establishments on Sixth Street opened after 2002, and the Post Office would continue to deliver to either address for another year. Mayor Coody said the original proposal met some opposition because "there were some people who just did not want to name it after Martin Luther King Jr." That is still the case, but now some cloak their real objections to honoring Dr. King as the terrible burden of printing new business cards or complaining about the process because the resolution did not go through more meetings and notices to let businesses know about something that began five years ago.

John Colbert, principal of Holcomb Elementary School and a member of the MLK Committee, said renaming the street is the right thing to do. “It’s like when they decided to integrate the high school: They did it without court orders because that is just right. Fayetteville is an aggressive city that leads other cities. In a situation like this, I think Fayetteville will send a very strong message. It will show that we, as a community, believe in the principles that Dr. King stood for, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about the man himself; it’s about what he stood for: peace, justice and fairness for all. It’s a symbol that any city would like to show that they embrace. Fayetteville is a place that really embraces that.”

It is the right thing to do, and John Colbert is right that "Fayetteville will send a very strong message." Come Tuesday, we'll see whether our city's message is to proudly honor Dr. King's ultimate sacrifice for justice and equality or to fold under opposition from closet racists in business suits.