A public relations and marketing executive with numerous ties to Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has applied for a seat on the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.
Myron Jackson, 48, is president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock public relations firm The Design Group. His wife, Stephanie Jackson, 43, also works for the firm. Myron Jackson's application to serve on the Airport Commission was submitted Jan. 4, city records show.
Stephanie Jackson served as a spokeswoman for Scott's 2018 campaign for mayor. After Scott won the race, Jackson was hired by the city in a part-time capacity while continuing to work for The Design Group.
Jackson left her position as Scott's communications director effective Jan. 3, 2022, and later returned to the campaign trail as a spokeswoman for Scott's successful 2022 reelection bid.
Members of the Airport Commission are appointed by the mayor but must be confirmed via a three-fourths vote of the city's Board of Directors.
Under Scott's administration, City Hall has partnered with The Design Group on at least two occasions.
In a 2019 no-bid arrangement, Little Rock paid the firm $4,990 to produce a critical-incident video following a fatal police shooting.
In 2021, The Design Group collaborated with the city on Scott's annual State of the City address, which was delivered virtually that year because of covid-19. Stephanie Jackson said at the time that The Design Group was not compensated for work tied to the broadcast.
Myron and Stephanie Jackson each contributed $2,900 -- the maximum amount an individual can donate to a candidate during a single election -- to Scott's reelection campaign in March 2022, according to an amended pre-election campaign finance report.
In the same filing, Scott's campaign reported paying The Design Group over $202,300 for advertising during the period covered by the report -- Feb. 1 through late October 2022. A little more than $7,200 was subsequently paid to The Design Group in November 2022, according to a separate report.
The Airport Commission seat sought by Myron Jackson is currently held by Mark Camp, whose term expired at the end of December. Camp, president and owner of the 1836 Club, has applied to be reappointed.
Camp said he had not received any word from city officials concerning his reappointment when reached by email earlier this week.
Seven members serve on the Airport Commission, which oversees the operations of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field. Terms are for five years. Like other city boards and commissions, members are limited to two terms, according to Little Rock deputy city clerk Alli Segars.
The city board voted to appoint Camp on Jan. 2, 2018, under then-Mayor Mark Stodola, according to meeting minutes.
At least one Airport Commission member must hold some type of pilot aeronautical rating, according to the city's website. Among the commission's current members, Camp as well as John Rutledge Jr. are licensed pilots, according to the airport's website.
In addition to Camp, Jill Floyd, Stacy Hurst and John Rutledge Jr. joined the commission under Stodola.
Commissioners Tiffany Mays O'Guinn, Patrick Schueck and Bill Walker were appointed under Scott.
O'Guinn and Schueck replaced Meredith Catlett and Gus Vratsinas, who joined the panel under Stodola but were not reappointed when their terms expired under Scott, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in 2021.
Rutledge was reappointed under Scott for a term that expires at the end of 2025. The same is true for Floyd, whose latest term expires at the end of 2026.
When reached by email this week, Myron Jackson said in response to questions that he would not be available until late today because he was traveling with a client. "My current project has me deep away from cellular and internet [service]," Jackson wrote.
At least seven people have applied for the Airport Commission seat, according to records the city of Little Rock provided to the Democrat-Gazette in response to an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request.
In addition to Camp and Jackson, the other applicants are Phillis Nichols Anderson, Harold Betton, Jeff Hildebrand, Ahmed Samad and James Wilson.
Anderson's application, which was submitted in September 2021, listed the Airport Commission as her second choice. Betton was recently reappointed to the Planning Commission, which he had listed as his second choice on his application.
At a city board meeting on Jan. 17, before board members went into executive session to consider a series of appointments to boards and commissions, at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris raised a question about the process for appointing people to the Airport Commission.
Kumpuris said he had received information from a citizen regarding the statutes governing Airport Commission appointments and asked City Attorney Tom Carpenter for his opinion.
Carpenter said making appointments to the Airport Commission required a three-fourths vote of the city board, which prompted some further discussion among board members.
After they returned from executive session, city board members voted on a series of appointments and reappointments, but Camp's seat on the Airport Commission was not among them.
Responding to a request for comment, Scott's chief of staff Kendra Pruitt did not directly address whether the mayor plans to recuse himself from discussions related to the Airport Commission seat in light of his connections to Stephanie Jackson and The Design Group.
"As the duly elected Mayor of this city, Mayor Scott, like previous mayors, makes appointments to City of Little Rock Boards and Commissions that is voted on by the City Board. It is his right and responsibility," Pruitt wrote in an email Wednesday. "Per protocol for executive session, Mayor Scott doesn't publicly discuss these appointments or other similar personnel matters. To date, Mayor Scott has not made an appointment for the Little Rock Airport Commission's current vacancy."
CORRECTION: Members of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission are appointed by the mayor and confirmed via a three-fourths vote of the city board. An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect explanation of the process while referring to language in Little Rock City Code pertaining to the Airport Commission that is superseded by language contained in another part of the code.