Candidates state their cases in Earle debate

Candidates state their cases in Earle debate

Mayoral election less than two weeks away

news@theeveningtimes.com Cleaning up the city, bringing in more jobs, increasing civic engagement among residents, and repairing its battered image were the top items on the minds of the candidates hoping to be the next mayor of Earle.

Five of the seven candidates seeking the mayor’s seat squared off in a debate Monday in the Earle Elementary School cafeteria and offered their vision for the city in the next four years.

Mayor Carolyn Jones was recalled in November after a controversial two years in office. Once the county’s most populous and prosperous city, Earle has seen its population decline and infrastructure and finances crumble.

Candidates acknowledged the city faces some daunting challenges ahead, but expressed optimism that the city came come back.

Participating in the debate were former mayors Sherman Smith and Otis Davis, Frederick Pitchford, Judy Wiley, and James Perry, Jr. Jesse Booker and W.H. Johnson, Jr. are also running but did not participate in the forum.

Each were given two minutes for opening remarks followed by a question and answer period moderated by librarian P.J. Cox.

Sherman Smith, who was mayor for 22 years and currently works as a community liaison writing grants for East Arkansas Planning and Development District, said the city is at a critical point and needs experienced leadership. “I’m not looking to return as mayor because I need a job,” Smith said. “But because I love this community. I feel with the level of experience that I have I can walk in from day one and take charge of the helm of the city and move it forward.”

Smith said his top priorities if elected would be beautification, stepped up code enforcement, better housing, more activities for senior citizens, and to get citizens more involved in the city.

“I would like to have the opportunity to serve once again as your mayor to put it in the right direction, to restore respectability to the community, to instill the pride and progress that we once had.”

Frederick Pitchford said Earle needs to get back to following the rule of law first and weed out the corruption in city government.

“My main expertise is the law,” Pitchford said. “Earle belongs to the State of Arkansas. It is based on the expertise of the legislature and how it must be ran. It is supported by the Constitution of Arkansas and that is supported by the Supreme Court rule on how everything should be done. The only way we will move forward in this city is with compliance to the law.

Without the structure of the law, there will be corruption. That’s what we have in this city — total corruption. No one is complying with the standards and legislators or Supreme Court ruling. And until that is done, nothing will happen.

I can represent you on all areas and have my assurance that I will not sell you out.”

Pitchford said his priorities include making sure the council follows the law, educating city workers about their jobs and what they are required to do, and hiring more qualified police officers.

“We’re not going to hire anybody to do our citizens wrong,” Pitchford said.

Otis Davis, a pastor and former state representative and Quorum Court member who lost a re-election bid to Carolyn Jones in 2014, said Earle was moving forward under his leadership and would like to finish the work he started.

“My purpose in running for mayor again is I want a chance to lead this city,” Davis said. “I believe when I was the mayor that as you traveled the city under my tenure there was a difference. There were some things being done. I am running again because I feel there was some work that needs to be done.”

Davis said his top priority is to clean up the city and get tougher on tearing down dilapidated and abandoned

homes.

“There is nothing to be attracted to our city if it’s not clean,” Davis said. “If the city is clean there will be no problem trying to get business to come to the city.”

Judy Wiley, who spent 51 years in the wholesale glass industry most recently with Lewis Auto Glass, said she is running because she loves Earle and believes it can be a great community again.

“When I was asked to run for mayor I was more than reluctant, but was asked to search my heart,” Wiley said. “I did search and I did pray and I asked God for a pure motive. Pure motive is that I love Earle. I was born here, I went to school here.

I have always been part of Earle and always loved Earle. I want to see Earle revived. And the way we can see Earle revived is with a mayor and council and citizens walking hand in hand in unity for the sole purpose of reviving Earle.

When I rode around in Earle last week, when I came home I cried. Then I became very angry. Our town did not get like this overnight. We allowed it to happen.”

Wiley said she wants to put her management experience to good use in city government and would lead by example.

“I was in the corporate world for 51 years,” Wiley said. “I worked for four multi-million dollar corporations. I started off as a clerk and ended up as president of a company I helped build. I have been involved in every part of business — from sweeping the floors to making every decision what would take place in our company. I did the hiring, firing. I hired many people from Earle and they were awesome employees.” Wiley said she would focus on cleaning up the city and fixing the city’s streets.

“My first effort would be to clean up Earle,” Wiley said. “We have so many tires and furniture sitting out on the sidewalks — things like that. We need to clean up first. We will have heavy equipment working but also a group of volunteers to be able to get us cleaned up pretty quickly.”

James Perry, Jr., who works in warehousing and distribution, said he loves Earle and wants to revitalize the city and provide more opportunity for the city’s youth.

“We often just ride around, but if you just take a good look, I was very disappointed in what I saw,” Perry said. “There is nothing here — no opportunity for our youth. We often talk about it. But I decided to do something about it. So that is why I am running for mayor.”

Perry said he wants to see the city hire more qualified police officers and to bring more jobs to Earle.

“Roughly nine out of ten people here work out of town,” Perry said. “We have to be competitive to compete for jobs.”

Perry said he would apply the principles of LEAN manufacturing to city government and the budget.

“You might have to trim here and there,” Perry said.

“But you take those steps to do it.”

All five candidates said they would have an open door policy if elected and would work hard to restore pride in Earle and overcome its bad reputation.

“I would be the example,” Wiley said. “First, I am a Christian. My behavior is Christian. I don’t like discord. Sometimes you can agree to disagree, and that’s okay. I would put together a front of total peace and joy within ourselves that we are happy in Earle and proud of Earle. When you exude that pride in the city you live in, people are going to feed on that and realize this is the shining star of Crittenden County.

We have been in the past and there is no reason we can’t be in the future.”

Perry said part of restoring pride is to get residents to know their neighbors and do more to recognize the youth..

“We have to be proactive and engaged with our youth,” Perry said. “Often times we hear all the negative stuff. When they do something good, call the newspaper. Let them know.”

Smith said he would lead by example.

“I can relate to my past tenure,” Smith said. “We didn’t have those problems. Our council worked good together. Somebody has to lead and somebody has to be the mature one. You lead by example. You go in with dignity and always remember you’re not working for yourself. You represent other people. If people follow that, we can certainly regain our reputation of being that city on the uprise.”

Pitchford said he will continue to take officials to court if they don’t follow the law.

“If I am mayor and you are an elected official and you violate the legislative statute, we’re going to court,” Pitchford said. “I’m going to get a ruling on it.” Davis said officials and residents will need to come together as a city to change the attitude in Earle if they ever hope to overcome the negative perception.

“If we can come together as a city and as a people and still discuss our differences instead of fighting and downing our city and moving away, we can become better,” Davis said.

“If we want to change the identity of our city to become the bright shining light, then we have to do it within ourselves.”

The election will be held Tuesday, March 14.

By Mark Randall