Fayetteville Might Avoid Reserve Dip

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mayor Lioneld Jordan’s administration will tonight ask the City Council to approve a 2013 budget that is an 11.2 percent increase over the 2012 spending plan.

That $13.6 million in additional funding refl ects his administration’s projections that 2013 will be a far more financially healthy year than Fayetteville government has seen in Jordan’s first term. That is indeed good news, as Jordan recognized the need to stop the practice of dipping into the city’s reserves to fund regular operations.

It’s also good news because if those projections are right, it means Fayetteville’s businesses are doing better and generating more sales tax.

Of course, whether a spending plan is good orperspective. This one has $1.8 million for street paving and $1.5 million for trails development, $400,000 for employee raises at 2 percent, $563,000toward development of the regional park in south Fayetteville, $115,000 for sidewalk construction, and $426,000 for fire apparatus purchases, among many other things. Budgets are about priorities and alderman will have to determine whether Jordan’s emphasis jives with their own ideas.

Bobby Ferrell, Ward 3’s departing alderman, said last week he may, for the first time in his two terms, vote in favor of a budget because of Jordan’s move to stop spending reserve funds. His fellow alderman, Matthew Petty, said the city should look in 2013 for money to refill some of the 21 full-time positions that have been held open since 2009 to save money.

We have been told, repeatedly, that the city of Fayetteville has operated in those leaner years by leaving positions open, but with no reduction in services. If that’s to be believed, why in the world would it make sense to restore some or all of the 21 unfilled positions simply because money has been projected to be more plentiful next year?

Let’s not add them back just because money is there. Any new positions should be scrutinized by alderman as to the need for the service provided, not the need to spend taxpayer dollars.

LITTLE FLOCK’S ISSUES ARE NOT BENTON COUNTY’S We’re glad to see a delay in talks between Benton County and Little Flock about Mayor Buddy Blue’s notion that the sheriff ’s oft ce might provide relief to the town’s growing cost for police department.

Sheriff-elect Kelley Cradduck rightly advised Little Flock that he’ll have bigger flocks to tend to when he takes oft ce Jan. 1.

Little Flock’s police department has six full-time oftcers and seven part-timers and is becoming an increasing burden to a city with limited resources.

Blue says he wants to keep things the way they are while finding cost savings. The city is dipping into reserves to pay for city operations in 2013.

A bit of history: Little Flock incorporated in 1970 out of a desire by property owners to protect themselves from annexation by Rogers, a city with far more resources.

“We don’t even have a restaurant, and we’re proud of that,” Mayor Blue said in an interview back in 2011. “This lifestyle is why the city was created, and it’s why we’re going to stay our own city.”

Of the city’s $778,485 projected budget, $414,355 is consumed by the police department.

Lifestyle choices have a cost and that’s Little Flock’s problem. Benton County cannot be the answer to the town’s financial challenges. The county has problems of its own.

Residents in Little Flock have to deal with their decision to create a significant police force for a town born out of a go-it-alone mentality.

It’s time for tough decisions.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/04/2012