The City Council appointed one of its own to become mayor Tuesday night and voted to pay him the same salary as the previous mayor.
Buddy Curry, the new mayor, was on his seventh year as alderman and also sat on the city’s Planning Commission since the mid-1990s. Curry and resident Jack Davis were considered for the position.
As the mayor, Curry will earn $52,088, plus a $300 monthly allowance for transportation. Lonnie Barron, former mayor, resigned Sept. 30 for health reasons.
“Before he stepped down, he called me over to his house and we had a chat,” Curry said. “Before he stepped down, he wanted to make sure we had someone qualified that would be willing to run for this position, because he didn’t want to step down if he knew that we could get someone that doesn’t know the city.”
Davis, a business owner, told the city council he had little to no experience to run the city but managed “a lot” of money and people in previous jobs.
He said no when asked by an audience member if he knowledge about the city’s problems or attended any City Council meetings. He said he wanted a clean and safe city.
“I’d like to make this a city that has good revenue,” Davis said. “We have to have business primarily to do that.”
Curry said Johnson is surrounded by Fayetteville, Springdale and Tontitown and may not grow anymore geographically. The city can only grow by creating businesses within its borders, he said.
Last week, Curry said the city’s key project in the near future will be building a multilane road connecting Interstate 540 with Johnson Road that would bring in more businesses and more sales tax revenue. The project has been in discussion with Springdale for 10 years, he said last week.
“I don’t really have all the background on what’s held it up,” he said last week. “It’s something, if elected, I'll pay a lot of attention to.”
City aldermen voted to keep the salary the same, despite discussion that centered on the amount of the mayor’s salary.
Prairie Grove and Farmington are two Washington County cities with larger populations with lower mayor’s salaries than Johnson, said Alderman Keith Allen.
Prairie Grove Mayor Sonny Hudson works full time and earns around $24,000, after the city council approved his raise in December. Farmington Mayor Ernie Penn works part time and earns $14,400.
“It’s a position that is held with the highest esteem in our city,” Alderman Tom Bramlett. “I think for it to be held in that esteem that the pay ought to be as high or higher than anybody else in the city.”