PINE BLUFF -- Shirley Washington, entering her fourth year as mayor of Pine Bluff, is asking voters for four more years at the helm of the Delta city that sits near the Arkansas River just over 35 miles south of Little Rock. The 10th largest city in the state serves as the county seat of Jefferson County.
Washington's two opponents, City Council members Steven Mays and Ivan Whitfield, both 58, say she's been there long enough, and it's time to take the city in a different direction.
Both men seek the mayor's position, which pays $87,382 a year and is for a four-year term.
Mays is in his ninth year on the City Council, making him the longest tenured council member currently serving on the city's legislative body, and Whitfield, elected to the council in 2018, served 35 years with the Pine Bluff Police Department, his last year as chief before he retired.
Both men have said they want a change of direction for the city and both have accused the mayor of being too cozy with business interests in the city, and both are particularly critical of Washington's support of Go Forward Pine Bluff, a public/private partnership that is funded partially through a five-eighths-cent sales tax that passed in 2017 for that purpose.
Washington, 71, is a retired educator who spent 22 years in the classroom in Wabbaseka and 16 years in the Pine Bluff School District as a principal. After retirement, she said, she went into real estate for a time before deciding to enter local politics.
She said that under her leadership, the city has seen a reversal of its declining fortunes of the past 20 years that have included declining population, loss of industry and businesses, a shrinking tax base, and erosion of infrastructure and confidence.
Among her accomplishments, she said, is the reopening of Main Street, which was closed off to traffic in the downtown area for two years as a result of buildings in danger of collapse. Since being elected mayor in 2016, Washington said the city has completed construction of a state-of-the-art aquatics center, has nearly completed construction of a new main library, successfully negotiated the location of a casino inside the city limits, began both a summer youth employment program and a youth mentoring program, and formed partnerships to provide services to veterans.
WASHINGTON
Washington said the city's involvement with Go Forward Pine Bluff has led to positive changes. She said the goals outlined by the partnership have helped focus the city's direction as well. She said that before the efforts put forward by the Go Forward Pine Bluff initiative, the city was caught in its own inertia and very little was moving forward.
"Before I became mayor I saw an article in the paper about this group which later became Go Forward Pine Bluff," she said. "I read this article about what they wanted to do and I said, 'Yeah, this seems interesting.' "
Washington said that she applied to be with the initial group that would identify city priorities, and she was selected.
"I could see that this was going to bring in some human resources, some capital resources that we needed," she said. "It was the overall plan of how we could get from point A to point B to get things done. Somebody had to put in the time, somebody had to coordinate, organize, and to bring in the professionals to guide us through that process. The Go Forward foundation was doing that, and no one else was putting anything in place."
In the absence of a workable plan from any other source, Washington said, the efforts put forth by Go Forward Pine Bluff appeared ready to move the city forward.
"I felt like if we had enough people of one accord who were working together on one committed plan, that we could move the community forward, "she said.
Washington said that Go Forward Pine Bluff represents a united way forward for the city, as opposed to ad hoc efforts working at goals that are in opposition to one another.
She said despite claims to the contrary by her opponents, the city is working to fund public safety, drainage, youth programs and infrastructure.
"We are working on all of those needs," Washington said. "The problem is, that no one, not me, and not any of my opponents, can address everything all over the city at one time. We must prioritize. We must move forward with a plan. And that is what we've done. We have prioritized and we are working to get all of these problems addressed."
WHITFIELD
Whitfield, the former police chief and a former candidate for Jefferson County's county judge, is a native of Helena (now Helena-West Helena), and a 1980 graduate of Helena Central High School. He attended the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff out of high school, but did not graduate until 2011.
"I got broke, had to quit and took a job," he said. "I went back later on and got a degree in criminal justice in 2011. I started off in agriculture when I first came. My daddy was a hog farmer. I came here on an agricultural scholarship but when I went back I pursued a criminal justice degree because I'd been with the Police Department for so long."
Whitfield said he went to work for the Police Department as a patrol officer in 1983, but was soon tapped to work in the vice squad.
"I wasn't from here and there was a need for a black person to work drugs undercover that everybody didn't know," he said. "I worked there two or three years and then was assigned to work with the state and the feds, loaned out to do undercover work. That helped me make rank."
From there, Whitfield was placed in the service division, then back in patrol, then promoted to captain, and he worked his way through the ranks, finally being named as police chief in February 2017, a year before he retired with 35 years on the force. In 2018, Whitfield ran for the Ward 3 City Council position, defeating longtime Council Member Bill Brumett in the May Primary Election.
Whitfield said he believes Washington's intentions are good, but he said she has ceded her authority to other interests in the city.
"I believe she's given her authority to Go Forward and I've never been shy to say to Simmons Bank," he said. "I have no problem with anyone building up their downtown, but the problem is that with all across this community, our drainage is bad, and that's something we have to call time out on, like with any football or baseball game, and go make some adjustments."
Whitfield said that, regardless of what the public was told the 2017 five-eighths-cent sales tax for Go Forward Pine Bluff was supposed to be spent on, the city should be able to redirect those funds as it sees fit.
In October of last year, Whitfield sponsored a resolution that would have redirected $2 million of the $4 million annual tax collection from Go Forward Pine Bluff to other needs, including drainage, police and fire, and youth programs. Although the resolution passed, it was overruled by an ordinance passed later that month that returned the funding for Go Forward Pine Bluff and prioritized drainage and city department needs from funds that the city will receive once Saracen Casino Resort has opened.
Whitfield has said that public safety must be a priority, regardless of any other needs.
"Everyone knows that money is tight," he said.
MAYS
Mays, a Pine Bluff native, graduated from Pine Bluff High School in 1979, and from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1985 with a degree in business administration. He said he has lived in the city all of his life.
"I don't plan on leaving, I don't plan on going anywhere," Mays said. "I just want to do the best I can for the city."
Mays said that outside of his duties on the City Council, he helps to mentor at-risk youths in the city.
"I love what I'm doing," he said. "I love helping teenagers."
Mays said that from a young age, he followed local politics, reading in the newspaper about the local elected officials.
"We were getting the paper at home and I was reading about the politicians and how they would respond to people's questions," he said. "I kept noticing that they never followed up and did what they said they were going to do. As a kid I read that and saw that and when I was about 16 years old I got a vision that I would run for City Council and eventually run for mayor. That was a dream of mine, a goal of mine, and I could not get off course. I'm doing it now."
Mays said that, if elected, he will work to keep people in Pine Bluff.
"We must continue to stabilize the population," he said. "I don't want anyone to leave the city of Pine Bluff because of our elected officials or our department heads are not doing their jobs. I want to stabilize our neighborhoods so people can continue to build inside their neighb0rhoods. Let's stabilize our businesses so that people can utilize what they have, and continue being a concerned citizen, supporting all of our local businesses and giving them a chance to prosper and grow."
Voters go to the polls for early voting beginning Tuesday at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 101 East Barraque St., Pine Bluff, as follows:
• Weekdays: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Feb. 24-28 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday and Feb. 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• March 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Election Day is March 3.
State Desk on 02/17/2020