Bill

Mayor Bill Johnson

JOHNSON_______________________

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The man knew his business. He handled the affairs of my first-ever city council meeting with efficiency and poise, even when issues were brought forth that were no doubt not easy to discuss and administrate. There was a lot going on in the fall of 2010. Longtime residents will remember that this was only a few months removed from the shooting deaths of two West Memphis police officers, Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans, and only a couple of years removed from the shooting death of Deaunta Farrow, a 12-year-old West Memphis boy by another WMPD officer. Some councilmen were very concerned about the WMPD having begun carrying AR-15s. Another councilman, Marco McClendon was facing domestic violence charges. There was strife in the Fire Department over claims of racial inequality. The city was in the midst of a recession that was affecting the entire nation and the threat of job cuts was looming in every department in the city.

But in that meeting and in every meeting I covered following that first one, Johnson always spoke surely and clearly. For him, it seemed, job one was putting the people of West Memphis first and then worrying about the rest later.

And the city never did have to lay off employees, or cut city services, or raise utility rates to make it work. Legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry was once quoted as saying, “Leadership is having your people look at you and gain confidence.” And Johnson put exactly that image forth at every opportunity. And when the economy did pick back up, he and the council came through with raises for their employees, and he allowed department heads to spend money where it was needed. And the city has seen several new businesses and industry in his tenure, even here in the last few years.

My personal favorite story involving Mayor Johnson involves my son, Buzz. When he was a ninth-grader at West Junior High (this would have been 2011,1 believe) the West Memphis Chamber of Commerce’s Junior Leadership group visited City Hall as part of the program, spending a day with the mayor, city clerk, city attorney, city engineer and other department heads. That afternoon, I show up to the City Council meeting only to find that my son had been elected “Mayor for the Day” by his classmates. At the end of the meeting, he got to sit in Mayor Johnson’s chair in the council chambers and accept the “motion to adjourn” from one of the council members.

See JOHNSON on Page 5C