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."

Times Change, So Can Candidates

Weekend Glory

They move into condos
up over the ranks,
pawn their souls
to the local banks.
Buying big cars
they can't afford,
ridin' around town
actin' bored.


If they want to learn how to live life right
they ought to study me on Saturday night.

-- from "Weekend Glory" by Maya Angelou

My advice is to stay away from the University today. There will be too much traffic and too many people celebrating academic achievement -- or having avoided it and still getting a degree. There won't be as many fans celebrating graduation as would attend a football game, but it will still be wise to plan your travel route across town. Watch out for bicycles, too.

There are lots of other things to be doing elsewhere, starting with the Farmers' Market this morning. Thanks to the great local blog Life Plus Kids, families always know all the fun things going on in our area.

Today is also the Washington Elementary School's annual Tour of Homes from noon until 5:00 o'clock. Homes featured on the tour: Bryan & Laureen Benafield-217 E Sutton; Bill & Carol Eaton-412 E Lafayette; Dale & Marilyn Green-1035 N Park; JF & Cindy Meullenet-303 E Sutton; Steven & Melissa Rogers-40 W Prospect; Tom & Tammy Smith-847 N Park; and Rolf & Ceri Wilkin-318 W Ila. Reception & Refreshments at French Metro Anitques 200 W Dickson.

You'll find plenty to do in town this evening, from the Songwriters Round on Mt. Sequoyah to crawling Dickson Street to TheatreSquared's fine new play My Father's War at the Nadine Baum Studio on Spring Street. I'm headed to Eureka Springs for a political science lecture this evening. Former Texas goobernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman will speak at the City Auditorium on his latest book, You Can Lead A Politician To Water But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments For Texas Politics.

Have a glorious weekend.

The School Survey and the Civic Slacker

Much ado was made this week about a 300-sample telephone poll, paid for by Joel Nunneley, asking allegedly "involved voters" about selling off Fayetteville High School and whether they would vote to raise property tax rates to pay for building a new high school. “I paid for it on my own and commissioned it on my own, but I’m releasing it through Students First,” said Nunneley, who was described as "one of the three main leaders of Students First," a group that wants to sell the high school.

The press release from Nunneley's group was a bit misleading, claiming that the survey showed a “clear majority of involved voters” wanted to sell the high school to the University of Arkansas. Their own figures, from the poll he bought, show only 36% like that idea. The six percent margin of error means it could be as low as 30%, hardly a majority of voters, involved or otherwise. No more convincing to anyone except Greg Harton than the silent majority Nunneley asserted before.

Another of the questions respondents were asked was "Will the decision to sell the high school impact your decision to support the millage increase?" On that question, yet again, we are told that exactly 36% of the "involved voters" will support a property tax increase to build a new high school wherever it might be located. The so-called Students First website claims this means "there is strong support for a millage increase," although there was no measurement of intensity of these "involved voters."

Joel Nunneley tells us that "involved voters" are those "likely voters based on historical voting data." Fair enough. That does not include Joel Nunnelley. He is a registered voter in Wheeler Township, but the County Clerk has officially designated him an "inactive voter" based on historical voting data. Now, he didn't vote for the millage to support our wonderful public library, or the sales tax to improve our sewer-street-trails infrastructure, or the road impact fee to deal with sprawl, because he doesn't live in Fayetteville and cannot vote on whether we have to pay city taxes to support such things. He and his family, of course, still can borrow books from our library, drive on our streets, and use our trails for free.

But Joel Nunneley was eligible and did not vote in the last at-large school election, where "involved voters" elected John Delap to the School Board. And more telling, Joel Nunneley did not vote in the last school millage election, the one that failed to get "involved voter" support for only a small increase in property taxes. What a guy. What an "uninvoled voter." What a hypocrite.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to blog reader Mr. Dooley for emailing the voting history of all the "involved voters" in Mr. Nunneley's little group that wants to sell our high school to the University of Arkansas, which would pay for it by increasing student tuition for the next 30 years.

Whiter Our Local Watchdogs?

I don't care what everyone else says, I think Mike Masterson still has some good days, and today is one of them. He opens with a vignette about the nearly-departed UA chancellor who will not pass up the state-funded moving expenses and the chance to spend an expense-paid month in an 11,800-square foot, $2.8 million mansion on three prime acres. Then he goes from exposing pride and pomposity to a serious discussion of the failure of local media to do their jobs.

No one any longer expects serious journalism from television news, but Masterson took advantage of a noontime speech to the Harrison Kiwanis Club to explain what he believes every local newspaper should represent in its community. As he tells it:

I believe those good folks actually understood my ramblings as I relayed the critical need for papers to produce relevant (and often controversial ) stories that disclose truth wherever it leads. My problem is that the majority fail to even come close. Instead, they offer simple feature stories or accounts of meetings and boring bureaucratic processes rather than digging beneath the surface of pressing issues. There exists great reluctance to seek and report truth even when it screams to be freed.

The result, sad to say, is that every community without an assertive and reliable paper remains largely uninformed and unenlightened—except by word of mouth and the Internet—about matters that demand careful thought and action. Shirking responsibility is not why we have a First Amendment. I believe that this constitutional provision expects the Fourth Estate to be a watchdog that questions and ensures the public’s best interests are upheld.

That would be nice. It is also unlikely. The Prime Directive for chain newspapers is to maximize advertising revenues and to minimize salary expenses for good reporters. Serious investigative reporting of the type advocated by Masterson could actually reduce advertising revenue from the offended interests. All of that high-minded stuff about about freedom of the press only surfaces when someone suggests repealing the special sales tax exemption granted to newspaper advertising.

Time for a Stormwater Utility

Following heavy rains in 2004, the city’s Street Committee commissioned a study of storm-water drainage in a portion of the Scull Creek watershed between College Avenue and Mission Boulevard and from Lafayette Street to Cleburn Street. The city has not yet received the final report from the engineering firm, but the preliminary information suggests that costs could run as high as $1.5 million to improve the storm-water system in that area and reduce the frequency of flooded basements of homes in the neighborhood.

City Engineer Ron Petrie and Sarah Wrede, staff engineer and flood plain administrator, will make recommendations among alternative solutions for fixing the immediate problems, but the larger questions about storm-water must be addressed. There are consequences of building on our topography, of removing topsoil and replacing it with red dirt, and generally of trading absorbent wetlands for impervious surfaces. There are also policy decisions to be made on implementing best management practices to reduce storm-water run-off and to comply with the Clean Water Act and the EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program. More contentious perhaps, we also have to decide how to pay for improvement, maintenance, and expansion of the existing system.

Fayetteville can no longer rely on general revenues to solve the problem. We must consider a storm-water utility funded by impact fees applicable to new development and construction, as well as an annual system maintenance assessment for all property. Hundreds of other cities have adopted this approach since 1990, so our city can draw on their experiences to develop a model ordinance and equitable fees based on the amount of impervious surfaces on the property.

At least one Alderman has announced support for storm-water impact fees, so citizens should contact their aldermen and encourage them to support such a program. The city council has no staff to draft ordinances, so also contact Mayor Coody and ask him to direct city staff to begin work on drafting a model strom-water utility impact fee ordinance -- as soon as they finish drafting the revised road impact fee ordinance that was requested months ago.

Otherwise, the alternative will be continued flooding in neighborhoods, red dirt debacles like the unfinished Aspen Ridge project, the destruction of Red Oak Park due to developers' negligence, and other consequences of unaccountable development that does not pay for the problems it creates.

Unfriendly to Business?

“You can’t be trusted as a public servant to tell the truth,” shouted developer Gary Combs, “and I can get contractors from here and all over the country to come in here and say the same thing.” He called Planning Director Patsy Christie a "liar" at the Springdale Planning Commission's meeting last night, then continued, "You tell us we have your support and then you do this. You tell us one thing, do another and throw us under the bus. Every developer in Northwest Arkansas would agree with me. I've got the guts to say it."

That's a new approach, calling Signdale unfriendly to developers. But it worked in this municipal morass that neglects downtown, loves billboards, and considers a truckstop the very essence of smart growth economic development. After his outburst and without having seen a final plat they trust him to file later, the Planning Commission approved a commercial rezoning of 23 of the 46 acre "travel plaza" and a truck repair permit for Diesel Downs, the gigantic truck stop planned at I-540 and Wagon Wheel Road. Since Chickenopolis doesn't have a tree ordinance, he didn't have to worry about getting permission to strip the land and cover it with red dirt.

Gary Combs will be all set when the proposed Regional Mobility Authority gets our tax dollars to build that Springdale Bypass the trucking industry is demanding and will surely get before anyone even considers funding mass transit.

Tuesday's "Two on the Taxpayer's Tab"

By now, many voters know that Steve Clark, candidate for mayor of Fayetteville, was convicted of theft by deception. He claims that there were "only" 43 instances of abuse; the Arkansas State Police affidavit documented at least 56 times that Clark took taxpayer money to maintain a lifestyle beyond his means. Some of the false claims were also quite humorous, including the two featured today.

This week's installment also reveals that Clark had a good sense of humor while bilking the taxpayers. Carrie Christie, who was a law student at the time of their romantic involvement, testified in court that Mr. Clark dated her, asked her to marry him, and later got back his engagement ring during more than a dozen meals and trips to San Francisco, New Orleans, Washington, and Atlanta, all charged to the taxpayers.

On his first date with Ms Christie at an Atlanta restaurant, Clark actually reported that he was discussing a fraud investigation. Pretty funny. He reported that his dinner companion that evening was Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers, who at that time was basking in national attention for having successfully defended the Georgia criminal statute on sodomy.

On an August evening the following year, Mr. Clark and Ms Christie shared another state-paid meal at an Atlanta restaurant. It was then that she broke off their marriage plans and returned the engagement ring he had given her. Making light of being dumped and turning the table, Clark reported that the dinner with Christie was a discussion of "low-level waste."

Clark has admitted his criminal misdeeds, paid his debt to society, changed his ways, and by all accounts has gotten his life back together and on the right track. That's good. It is also good to see that he hasn't lost his sense of humor, running for mayor and all.