For Funding the Fayetteville Arts Festival

Last year, the Fayetteville Arts Festival drew about 9,000 visitors to our city to explore and enjoy the wonders of local artists -- poets, painters, performers, and many more talents. Most of us enjoy the arts and the festival for the experience and because they are an essential part of what makes Fayetteville unique. That should be enough, but it is not. Despite the tremendous volunteer effort to produce and promote the Fayetteville Arts Festival, it is in danger of dying because of a lack of funding.

Last year, the Advertising and Promotion Commission awarded $35,000 for the arts festival; this year they gave it nothing. This seems like exactly the type of project the A&P Commission should be supporting. It builds on our image that they are charged with marketing, and it brings in visitors and their dollars for the local economy. It is more important than buying a building, expanding the size of the staff, or hording millions in reserve.

Alderman Lioneld Jordan is sponsoring a Resolution requesting that the A&P Commission contribute to funding the Fayetteville Arts Festival at the same $35,000 level as last year. It is on the agenda for the City Council meeting on May 20th. If you have an opinion about continued funding for the arts festival, you can contact your Aldermen or show up at City Hall next Tuesday to speak to the resolution.

Regardless of the vote of the City Council on Jordan's Resolution, Marilyn Heifner, executive director of the A&P Commission, said it will be up to the commission whether any funding is granted for the festival. The seven commission members who will make the final decision are Dan Coody, Bob Davis, Robert Rhodes, Neal Crawford, Tim Freeman, Maudie Schmitt, and Pat Gazzola. Here is their contact information (except the city website still lists former commissioner McGeady) if you wish to talk with them and let them know your views about supporting the arts in our community.

If the City Council and the Advertising and Promotion Commission will not support spending $35,000 to help the Fayetteville Arts Festival survive, that will be an indication of how serious they are about doing anything to support expansion of the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.

It's Only Perjury If You Lie Under Oath

Politicians are not held to the same standards as common citizens, so they sometimes get used to playing loose with the facts to fool the people. It looks like Ronald Williams, the former Wal-Mart lawyer, has a running start on whoppers even before he gets elected to anything. Now he has been found out by a good newspaper reporter and called out on it by a sitting judge.

Lawyer Williams, trying to make people believe he had some experience, said during a candidate forum last month that he tried an average of three felony cases a month when he was a deputy prosecutor. Circuit Judge David Burnett, who was the Prosecuting Attorney at that time, said that Bob Thompson was actually the Deputy Prosecutor and he did not recall Williams prosecuting any felony cases for his office. None. "I don't want to get involved in a political race in Northwest Arkansas," said Judge Burnett, "I'm just telling you the facts. He never tried a criminal case while I was prosecutor."

Lawyer Williams told a reporter that he and Judge Burnett have "different recollections" of his service at this point in time. I guess it depends on what the definition of "trying three felony cases a month for three years" is.

What Happened to Jose's?

Just five years ago, Jose's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina on Dickson Street ranked No. 4 in Fayetteville restaurant sales with $2.7 million in 2003 by some accounts. Soon after Joe Fennel sold the business to Neal Crawford in November 2004, it disappeared from the Top Ten list of Fayetteville restaurants in terms of sales. That could have been because Fennel did not report separate sales figures for Bordino's.

Lately, Jose's is not ever to be found anywhere among the most popular eating establishments. Nor do any of the Mexican restaurants operated by Hispanic owners show up on the most recent Top Ten list of eateries paying the HMR tax. Nor does Bordino's, although it has in the recent past. The Chick-Fil-A on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which just opened in January and is closed on Sunday, has already left Jose's in the dust and is ranked No. 6 among all restaurants in the February Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion tax receipts.

These sales figures are based on voluntary self-reports made by each restaurant that collects the 2% Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant tax that goes to fund the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission and our city parks. Neal Crawford, owner of Jose's, is on the Board of the A&P Commission, so it must be particularly troubling for him that Jose's is no longer among the sales leaders.

NWA Times Opposes Light Rail

We don't need no stinking feasibility study of a future light rail system in Northwest Arkansas. Today's Northwest Arkansas Times lets us know that their editorial board has already done a study and concluded that it is "ill-advised."

They profess to know so much more than the late John Lewis, who first proposed it; Ron Goforth, President of Beta-Rubicon; John Bradberry of Greenway LLC, Steve Luoni, director of the UA Community Design Center; Steve Rust, President of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council; and Alderman Lioneld Jordan, Chair of the Street Committee. Jordan and Steve Clark both stresseed in their announcement speeches for Mayor the need to study the future of light rail in Northwest Arkansas, and Walt Eilers had a brief mention of it in a position paper.

The editors strain to make the perfect the enemy of the good. "In our perfect world, communities would be designed around strong mass transit options that made routes functional and the time commitment not much different than driving one’s personal vehicle. Workers in one community, in our perfect world, would be able to hop aboard light rail, quickly speeding to their morning or evening destinations with ease. Dreamers in Northwest Arkansas really enjoy talking up that last option. ...We hate squashing daydreams, but such notions are powerfully impractical."

On Tuesday, one of the editors had a column complaining about how people riding bicycles irritated him and got in his way while he was driving a car. Now, today we are told that any other environmentally-sensible options are also out of the question -- that the bus system has "limited route options," that scooters are "not the most sensible or safe," and that while walking is cheap, "community designs don’t always lend themselves to traveling by foot."

Perhaps the Northwest Arkansas Times, the Chamber of Cowbirds, and the Northwest Arkansas Council of Corporations and Wealthy Business Executives will be able to elect public officials who love more concrete, have a plan for us to build and pay for a beltway for the convenience of the trucking industry, and will put an end to this idle chatter of dreamers who envision planning a more sustainable future transportation system.

You Be the Judge

For Fayetteville voters, the only race on the ballot in next Tuesday's election is a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, but that is more than enough reason to be sure you and all of your friends vote. The candidates are Courtney Henry and Ronald Williams. It is an example of those non-partisan judicial races that everyone thought was so keen that you amended the Arkansas Constitution to take politics out of the election of judges. It didn't work out that way.

This week former Senator David Pryor and former Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt hosted a reception for Courtney Henry at the AQ Chicken House here in Fayeteville, and Tim Hutchinson, Ronald Williams' son-in-law, sent out a press release that said, : "Ron Williams has not engaged in partisan politics." Opinionated Columnist John Brummet had a piece about this campaign last month, and he revisits the contest today with a column in The Morning News about how important his previous column was in the shaping the campaign. It does pull back the curtain on the charade of non-partisan judicial elections.

In addition to the support of Pryor and Hammerschmidt, Courtney Henry has been endorsed for good reasons by The Morning News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Ronald Williams has been endorsed by Jim Holt, who was paid for his services, and Asa Hutchinson, uncle of his law partner.

There is no excuse not to vote in this election. It is important.

Common Sense from Council Committee

Last month, Mayor Coody sent his staff to a Water and Sewer Committee meeting with a consultant's report that no one understood and none of the staff employees could explain. Although other questions remain, there is no argument that water and sewer impact fees can help pay for system expansion due to growth. They might even have been applied to reduce the impact of the mismanaged $63 million cost overrun debacle on the new wastewater treatment facility.

Water and sewer impact fees on a new single-family residence are currently $1,143. Duncan and Associates, the Texas consultants hired by the city to study the problem, recommended that the combined rate should be $5,585 and somewhat higher for commercial property. Of course, those out of state consultants don't have to sell the deal or live with the consequences.

Alderman Lioneld Jordan, with support of committee chair Kyle Cook and member Bobby Ferrell, suggested that the increase be implemented in stages over a three-year period with annual review to determine if the rate should be raised or lowered based on cost experience. It looks like common sense might prevail and reduce the sticker shock of cost to new homeowners and businesses.

These are the same three Aldermen who earlier did the heavy lifting and forged the new water rates that encourage conservation and give some rate relief to the low-income elderly and all of us who use less water. Thanks to each of you-- Jordan, Cook, and Ferrell -- for your common sense, good work, and collaborative attitude to solving the thorny problems in providing essential public services.

Fayetteville Square Lookin' Good

OK. The renovation of the Fayetteville square looks good and is an improvement. Rob Merry-Ship and Helen Lewis have said so in serial letters to the Northwest Arkansas Times, and I agree. The end result is good, and it is a hospitable public space that we can use and enjoy.

That doesn't mean that I think the "no bid" contracts were appropriate. That doesn't mean I think that the commitment to match almost half a million dollars with no idea where that amount might be found in the city budget was prudent management. That doesn't mean I think that failing to share the full scope and plans for the renovation with the city council was wise administration. That doesn't mean I think it was at all helpful for an Alderman to write a letter to the editor attacking other council members who sought information and answers about the project. But, I do think the square is looking good these days, and I'm glad it turned out well.

Government Channel Changers

One of the comments posted yesterday touched on the firing of City Cable Administrator Marvin Hilton and suggested that Mayor Coody could now use the Government Channel as "a 24 hour propaganda machine." Somehow I doubt that, but there does seem to be considerable email chatter about recent events at the PEG Center down at Rock 'n' Block.

Telecommunication Board Chairman Richard Drake maintains an interesting blog called Street Jazz and has been all over this topic for the last few days. He knows as much or more about such things as anyone except those Media Mandarins on the city payroll, so his comments will be of great interest to people who have great interest in such things. Drake also predicts that the Telecommunication Board meeting this Thursday will be an interesting one. Somehow I doubt that, too.

I hope that they get it all worked out and that we will continue to have the state's best cable line-up of public access, educational, and government channel coverage.

Citizen Quote of the Day

"Congressman Boozman's attacks on traditional American values have been relentless: He supports the needless war in Iraq, turning America into a police state (by supporting, for example, both Patriot Acts and the military trials bill), dictatorship (by supporting, among other things, Bush's 'signing statements'), and, contrary to his mendacious denial, torture. All of us who seek to conserve traditional American values can surely be better represented in Congress than we are by Boozman."

Thomas Atwater, "Traditional Values Not Represented," Letter to The Morning News

Fumo Bianco?

Rumors are circulating that there might be another entry in the Fayetteville mayor's race. It might be only wishful thinking, but it would not be surprising. It might be that the Northwest Arkansas Times was right. Does anyone have solid information about this?

UPDATE: Matthew Petty posted here first that the latest candidate is Bill Ramsey. In an email, he said, "It's Bill Ramsey. I have it from a very good source. All of the chamber officials and past officials voted unanimously to support him today."