GFPB's bad idea Editor, The Commercial:
To lobby for the passage of a tax is one thing, but to pursue and strategically plan to have total control at City Hall is a different animal.
That's what the powers behind Go Forward Pine Bluff intend to do. GF desires to have absolute control of our City Hall by establishing their own board.
There are positively no plans (none worth mentioning), proposals, legislation, ideas or creativity coming from City Hall, only those initiated and presented by GFPB. The only exception is Mr. Jimmy Cunningham's Delta Rhythm and Bayou proposals.
GF currently has six unwavering supporters at City Hall, including the mayor.
The intent is to defeat and remove the three remaining council members who might pose any opposition to GF initiatives. Should they succeed, the mayor will serve as chairwoman of the board and council members will be unequivocally supportive.
That's the whole idea with the "Super Pac," to place unconditionally supporting members on our city council. Presently, we don't have a city council nor mayor who can say "No" to any GF initiatives.
How did we get here? Less than six months ago we defeated the taxes in a special election.
GF powers convinced our council and mayor to disregard our votes and our voices and create another special election. That's how we got here. They can't say "No" to anything GF wants.
Should they succeed in establishing a board at City Hall, there will be no checks and balances, no accountability for GF, no transparency and definitely no integrity required; not from the board at City Hall.
The worst in all this is that if successful, GFPB will run our city through a council voted on by the citizens.
WE DO NOT NEED A GO FORWARD BOARD AT CITY HALL!!!
Rev. Johnny Smith Jr.,
Pine Bluff