Two business owners in Pine Bluff have filed complaints with the state Board of Election Com- missioners alleging that Mayor Shirley Washington has used the levers of power in her administration to punish them for supporting her mayoral opponent, an accusation the mayor denies.
April Thomas, who owns a building at 2402 E. Harding Ave., and Jeffrey Neal, who owns a building at 209 N. Blake St., filed their complaints on March 18, and both said their trouble with the city started immediately after they put up campaign signs supporting state Rep. Vivian Flowers, who is in a runoff with Washington to be the Democrat- ic nominee for mayor.
“On March 18, 2024, we allowed Vivian Flowers and Kanisher Caldwell use of the space and some of their marketing material was placed outside of the facility,” Thomas wrote in her complaint. “Shortly after that, signs were stolen from the property and I received a cease- and-desist letter from the city of Pine Bluff stating I am operating an illegal event center. I have owned this building for two years. We have had gatherings in the past for different activities, but no one has ever bothered us until I publicly endorsed Vivian Flowers.”
Caldwell ran unsuccessfully for the state representative seat that Flowers will vacate.
Thomas, who runs a mortgage lending business in the front of her building, said she was confused about the letter from the city, saying she believed she should have been given the opportunity to defend herself in court before being told she couldn’t operate her business. She described the space in the back of her building as a basketball court.
Neal said Washington’s administration had “arbitrarily targeted supporters of her opponent, Vivian Flowers.”
“After expressing public support for the incumbent’s opponent, I received several inquiries from city departments regarding ordinance compliance,” he wrote in his complaint. “This approach has not been evenly and fairly applied to all business owners, only to those who express their public support of the incumbent’s opponent. Desired resolution is for the city to be admonished.”
Copies of the complaints were emailed to The Commercial. Chris Madison, director of the state Board of Election Commissioners, said he could not confirm that the complaints had been received because they are not covered under the Freedom of Information Act. He said the complaints would not be released to the public until the issue was set for a public hearing or 30 days after a final action is completed.
The process for review- ing such complaints, Madison said, includes a review of the submissions, deter- mining if any law had been violated and whether the matter should be turned over to other state agencies, such as those that handle law enforcement or ethics violations.
Neal, a real estate agent who rents out office space in his building to other businesses, said he believes the city’s interest in his operation is directly tied to his support of Flowers.
“I do believe this is politically motivated,” he said. “We have tried to see things objectively. I’m really upset that we are being arbitrarily targeted because we sup- port the mayor’s opponent. I want to make it clear: We will not be bullied or intimidated. I’ve made substantial investments in this city, and we don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
Neal said that after he put up signs in front of his business, the city collector’s office called to make sure he and the other businesses at the site had the proper business licenses.
“After that, the Fire Department contacted us about an annual inspection,” Neal said. “I said, ‘OK, let’s set up a time.’ I never received a call back. It started with the signs. As soon as I put the signs up, we started receiving all these inquiries from the city. We live in the United States and have the right to support whomever we choose without undue interference like that — especially coming from the sit- ting mayor and her offices.”
Neal said all of the signs in the front of his building had been stolen, including one larger sign that had been cut down, “but they’re back up now.”
Washington said she was not aware of complaints from Thomas or Neal, adding that she has not leaned on her departments to harass them.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Washington said. “I’ve not done any- thing. That’s not my style. That’s probably just code enforcement doing their job. This is not politically inspired, not at all.”
Fire Chief Shauwn Howell said he would have to look into the issue but said an annual call from the Fire Department would be something the department does to update records.
“It may have been an annual fire inspection or to check contact numbers,” he said. “Is there a sprinkler system and is it working? Have the locks been changed? Sometimes businesses give us access to their buildings. We know business owners are busy so we wouldn’t just show up. We’d call first to set up a time. That part wouldn’t be out of order for us.”
Howell said the com- plaint was troubling to him but quickly added that he had not received any directive from Washington’s office to go after Flowers’ supporters.
“This is the first I’ve heard of their complaints,” Howell said, adding that he would have to look into exactly why Neal had been contacted by his department.
Lakishia Hill, a zoning official in the city’s Inspection and Zoning Department, said the reason Thomas got a letter from her office was because Hill sent several letters to business owners along East Harding Avenue — Thomas being one of them — who were suspect- ed of having illegal events in their buildings. Some of those suspicions were raised because of complaints her office had received about activity at the locations.
The city’s ordinance regarding event centers states that there has to be adequate parking and that the facility can’t be within 300 feet of a residential area, Hill said.
Thomas said she had allowed some gatherings to take place in her building, such as a reception for classmates and one to honor a relative. She also said she allowed Flowers to have a reception in the space but didn’t charge for it.
“This is my space,” Thomas said, noting that her structure is closer to residential areas than the 300-foot minimum. “I’m not causing any type of any- thing. If it is voter intimidation, that’s what it feels like. But I can’t say for sure. The timing was just off.”
Thomas said her husband talked to Hill and, according to him, Hill said the list of businesses to target came from the mayor. Hill vehemently denied that description.
“No such conversation ever happened,” Hill said. “They are spinning a narrative that the mayor told me to do this, but that’s not true.”
Hill said the cease-and- desist letter that went to Thomas and others was only concerning the operation of supposed event centers that were not approved by the city. She said Thomas also needs to get a license to operate the office in the front part of her building because Hill said she shows no record of Thomas ever getting one. Hill also said she had seen online where Thomas had charged $25 a person for one event in her building.
“It’s definitely an event center,” Hill said of Thomas’ building. “What you cannot do is you cannot charge at the door. You can’t do this for yourself or for the public.”Hill said she is accustomed to dealing with unhappy people.
“Enforcement is enforcement,” she said. “After 20 years of doing this, I realize you get the crown of evil. People don’t like being told what they can and can’t do with their property. The mayor didn’t endorse this or know anything about it. If I had to check with the may- or every time I enforced the zoning code, I wouldn’t get anything done.”
Attempts to reach the Pine Bluff collector’s office were unsuccessful. Contacted Thursday, Flowers stood by her sup- porters.
“This isn’t right,” she said. “I don’t know who is responsible for city departments to start checking on them. It reminds me of the Gestapo or whites who would intimidate Black people years ago and tell them how to vote. That’s offensive to me.”
Flowers said Neal and Thomas had invested heavily in the community and should be treated with more respect.
“They could have just stayed at home,” she said. “They could have moved to White Hall as so many others have. And for staying in Pine Bluff, this is what they get?”
Flowers also criticized the city for taking action against Thomas based on a social media post and for the fact that Thomas got no chance to defend herself be- fore being told to stop having any gatherings.
“We shut down a business because we see a flier on Facebook?” Flowers said. “If that is how we do business in Pine Bluff. ... Well, if I become mayor we will no longer be doing business like that.”