For the first time since a sales tax was passed in 2017 for Go Forward Pine Bluff initiatives, the City Council took money from those reserves and spent it on a project of its own choosing.
Council Member Ivan Whitfield, who is no fan of GFPB, with a few other council members, consistently lobbied for using the agency's earmarked funds for what he sees as other city needs. On Monday, he was successful, taking $2 million in tax revenue that would have gone to GFPB and, on an 8-0 vote, giving it to the Delta Rhythm and Bayous Cultural District Project.
"This is the first time it's happened. Up until now, they've controlled it," Whitfield said on Tuesday. "They've controlled every penny of it."
Even Monday's effort took an extra push from Whitfield to make sure the money was taken from the 2017 five-eighths percent tax revenue, the sole beneficiary of which has been GFPB.
At a previous committee meeting held last week when the city's various budgets were being finalized, Council Member Bruce Lockett proposed another option for where the $2 million could come from and how it could be allocated.
"It doesn't require us to alter the budget for the 2017 sales tax," Lockett said.
That statement was countered by Council Member Joni Alexander, who pointed out that the council had already voted 8-0 to take the money from the five-eighths percent tax.
The change, which was eventually rectified at Monday night's council meeting, incensed Whitfield, who said he felt as though the issue had already been settled.
"I'm being insulted," Whitfield said. "... I made a motion that we get $2 million from the upcoming 5/8th-cent sales tax. It was passed by a council 8 to 0. There's no further discussion needed, and now we come in here and say we don't know where the money is coming from."
The Delta Rhythm & Bayous Cultural District is an initiative headed by city tourism director Jimmy Cunningham Jr., the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County National Heritage Trails Task Force in partnership with the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission, and the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance.
The total cost of the portion of the project presented to the City Council, which will include areas dedicated to blues and wellness, cinema, food trucks, and the Chitlin' Circuit, is a little more than $6 million with an estimated economic impact of more than $18 million per year.
Whitfield was also joined in his effort by Council Member Joni Alexander, who has evolved over time from a solid supporter of GFPB to someone who now says she cannot support the agency any longer. Alexander, as late as last year, stood up for protecting the sales tax for use by GFPB, but she too voted last week and on Monday to take the money from the agency's pockets and give it to Cunningham's project.
"After about three years of them not fulfilling their promises, I have to hold them accountable," she said on Tuesday. "And if the Delta Rhythm and Bayous group hasn't done anything in two years, I'd feel the same way about them."
Alexander said there were two reasons driving her decision making. One was Cunningham's transparency in what his project will cost and what it is expected to bring in, she said, adding that she finds GFPB less than transparent in how and where its money is being spent.
"The way he showed what the economic impact was going to be, that was just a wonderful presentation," she said. "His presentation also showed the lack of transparency from Go Forward. My allegiance is not to Go Forward Pine Bluff. It's to the people who passed a 5/8th-cent sales tax who supported the many initiatives promised by Go Forward."
The other issue, she said, was that when the five-eighths percent tax brought in some $1.9 million more revenue than was anticipated, instead of turning that extra money back to the city, GFPB increased its own budget by that amount so that it could pay off a loan for the Pine Bluff Aquatic Center, a move she said was unnecessary.
"That kinda upset me," Alexander said, adding that paying off the loan saved about $100,000 in interest but that the city had higher priority needs for the money.
"We don't have that luxury," she said of the early payoff. "We had to cut back the street department and the street light program to less per month than it's been in forever. Help me make that make sense."
Alexander said that, if GFPB had not spent the $1.9 million, the council could have taken that money, added $100,000 to it and used that for the Delta project and not had to dip into the agency's tax reserve.
"Instead, they spent every dime of it," she said. "They can increase their own budget at a time when our city has so many other needs."
Whitfield and Alexander both said they felt GFPB had done little with the $20 million in tax money that has gone to the agency in the past five years other than concerts and events.
"There's no accountability for that money," Alexander said. "There's no tangible evidence of it being used."
Said Whitfield: "They have not delivered anything successfully."
The two, both of whom are leaving the council at the end of the year, were also in agreement that the city council in the future would be justified in spending the revenue from the five-eighths percent tax instead of giving it all to GFPB.
Whitfield said the general use tax can be spent for anything the council chooses but that to do that, the money has to be taken out of the revenues before moving the money to GFPB.
"The money is the city council's and has been that way since the tax was passed," Whitfield said. "But once it's given to Go Forward, it's Go Forward's. We can't rescind it."
Alexander said her support for GFPB was starting to wane last year when it came time for the city council to move the tax proceeds into Go Forward's account.
"I was on the fence then," she said. "I know the needs of the city. He [GFPB Executive Director Ryan Watley] said he wanted to put in a business park at Fifth and Main. I said, 'Ryan, build something.' But yet nothing has happened. And nothing that was promised was done. I can't just have blind allegiance to them. I don't mind supporting ideas. I don't even mind supporting failures. But it's the lack of transparency and the deterioration of the relationship between the mayor and city council. That's what lost my confidence in Go Forward."
Alexander said, at one time, the mayor and council had to work together. Now, she said, the council "has become a formality."
"She doesn't need us," Alexander said of Mayor Shirley Washington. "And it's because Go Forward has that tap of money. When you see her out, she's not with department heads or council members. She's with Go Forward. She's with them, not us."
Washington could not be reached for comment.
Watley defended Go Forward saying the organization has made considerable strides with both its tax dollars and with the private dollars that have been attracted for various projects.
"Go ask the girls and boys if they appreciate the renovation of the Pine Bluff Community Center," he said in listing projects that GFPB has had a hand in starting or completing. "Go ask the kids and adults who visit the [Pine Bluff] aquatics center if they appreciate what we've done. Go ask the entrepreneurs who have come through The Generator if they appreciate our efforts. Go ask the 30 new homeowners that have been put into home ownership. Go ask the 20 first responders who have been incentivized and retained. Go ask the neighbors in those areas where one of the 100 dilapidated homes have been demolished if they appreciate that their own property is now worth more because the eyesores are gone."
Watley said it's easy for people to talk about what Go Forward hasn't done.
"We prefer to talk about what we have done," he said. "And we've done so much in a short amount of time, despite covid. But what we've done has not been for politics but for impact."
As for Alexander's contention that Go Forward should have returned the $1.9 million to the city for other projects, Watley said Go Forward had a fiduciary duty to pay off the loan for the aquatics center. To have returned the money to the city "would have been irresponsible."
Asked about the council taking tax dollars earmarked for GFPB and using it to help Cunningham's project, Watley said a cultural district, such as the one Cunningham has proposed, is actually in the GFPB master plan. In short, using the money for that project is something Go Forward would have eventually done, Watley said.
"We think it's a good project," he said. "It's all about cash flow now, so that other projects that are already underway are not impacted."
Still, Whitfield said it's important for the council to be able to identify problems and use tax proceeds -- even those that have heretofore been held back for Go Forward -- to address those problems.
"By taking that money and spending it that way, we showed that we as a council still serve, that we have ideas and that those ideas should count for something," Whitfield said. "When we voted to do that, a turn was made for the first time. I can leave the council knowing that not all of my fighting was in vain."