FAYETTEVILLE — Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories about the race for Fayetteville mayor. Mayor Lioneld Jordan is facing a challenge from former Mayor Dan Coody. Jordan defeated Coody in a 2008 runoff election. Coody served as mayor from 2001 to 2008. Early voting begins Oct. 22 for the Nov. 6 general election.
With more than 20 years of combined public service, Dan Coody and Lioneld Jordan are familiar with what it takes to run a city.
Both have managed a staff of several hundred employees. Both have run City Council meetings and implemented multimillion-dollar budgets. And both have done their share of ribbon cutting, ground breaking and proclamation reading.
Their day-to-day roles as mayor weren’t that different. But each man’s personal philosophy, the ways they interacted with others and their approach to certain issues reveal different paths each candidate might lead the city down in the four years ahead.
Coody and several people he worked with, said the former mayor had a clear vision and a strong drive to implement it during his eight years in office. From the citywide trails program to a massive sewer system upgrade, Coody wasn’t shy about taking on big projects, even if they didn’t work out as planned.
“I took hard swings at fastballs,” Coody said in a recent interview. “We hit it out of the park a lot of times, and sometimes we just made base hits. For political reasons, people think base hits are failures. I don’t.”
By The Numbers
Sales Tax Revenue
Proceeds from Fayetteville’s 1-cent sales tax are shown since 2001, the year former Mayor Dan Coody took office. Lioneld Jordan became mayor in 2009. The city levies a 2 percent tax on local purchases. One percent is devoted to repayment of bonds. The other 1 percent goes into the city’s general fund and is available for operations. The following data accounts for the 1 percent is available for operations. The city also receives a portion of Washington County’s 1-cent sales tax based on its population.
Fiscal Year Sales Tax in Millions Percentage Change over Prior Year
2001 $11.936
2002 $12.451 4.3
2003 $12.962 4.1
2004 $14.184 9.4
2005 $15.350 8.2
2006 $15.761 2.7
2007 $15.564 -1.2
2008 $16.503 6
2009 $15.710 -4.8
2010 $15.657 -0.3
2011 $16.503 5.4
Source: Fayetteville Budget And Research Division
In baseball terms, Jordan has tried using “small ball” to his advantage during his four years in office: steadily advancing runners instead of always swinging for the fences and sacrificing big innings for individual runs.
Baseball teams might use a small-ball approach when they’re confident in their pitching staff or when they’re up against an especially challenging opponent.
Jordan said he has all the faith in the world in his staff and the City Council. He values input from residents and volunteers, and he consistently refers to Fayetteville as a “partnership-based government,” where everyone has a say.
The challenges Jordan said he’s faced include a crippling 2009 ice storm, spring 2011 flooding and a local economy that had started to teeter when he took office.
“I had to keep this city alive and well,” he said. “I didn’t have the option of a big-picture vision. I was trying to keep people their jobs and keep this city from going under.”
Vision and Approach
Robert Rhoads worked with both Coody and Jordan as mayor during his eight years as a Ward 3 alderman — from 2002 to 2010.
Rhoads wouldn’t say who he’ll support in the upcoming election.
“I consider both of them friends,” he said. “I never had an argument or spat with either one of them.”
But Rhoads described Coody’s approach as more visionary and entrepreneurial than Jordan’s.
“He looks at, ‘What could it be,’ versus ‘What have I got,’” Rhoads said.
He called Jordan an “if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it” person.
Coody listed among his successes the city’s trail system, which, he said he modeled after Madison, Wis. Between 2001 and 2009, Coody pushed for aesthetic improvements to the downtown square and a stretch of College Avenue between Rock and Maple streets. He hired the city’s first sustainability director and was instrumental in creating a Downtown Master Plan using a months-long process that included input from hundreds of residents. In September 2006, voters authorized issuing $65.9 million in bonds to pay for 13 road projects. Five have been completed. Others, including a widened Garland Avenue and Crossover Road, are under way.
Some projects Coody supported did not go smoothly, and he is still criticized for them.
Property taxes from about 1,300 property owners are being used to pay off $3.7 million in bonds associated with the demolition of the old Mountain Inn hotel at College Avenue and Mountain Street. The demolition was to pave the way for a luxury hotel planned by developers John Nock and Richard Alexander. Bonds were expected to be paid off by 2029. Recent tax collections indicate it will take longer to retire the debt.
Coody said it was unfortunate a hotel was never built. But, he added, “The part that the public was involved with worked.” A potentially hazardous structure was razed, and the site was cleared for development, he said.
As with many projects Coody supported, Jordan voted as an alderman in favor of the tax-increment financing district that paid for the demolition.
“(Jordan) and I were equally involved,” Coody said. “We should share equal responsibility.”
He defended a sewer improvement project that cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars more than original engineers’ estimates and took several years longer to complete than first expected. The roughly $185 million project paid for a new wastewater treatment plant on Fayetteville’s west side and replaced or rebuilt sewer lines throughout the city.
Coody said the sewer system has worked flawlessly since the new treatment plant went online.
Aging sewer pipes in dire need of repair were replaced and sewage capacity doubled, he said.
“Outside of the cost, this has been a complete and total success,” Coody said.
Jordan said debt from the sewer upgrade and other projects Coody supported have left his administration hamstrung.
He said he, too, has a strong vision for the future.
Jordan mentioned plans for continuing to construct a loop of four-lane, landscaped boulevards around the city in his second term. He has vowed to build a parking deck in the downtown entertainment district to free up more spaces for businesses and visitors to the area. And he said he’ll continue to grow the city’s trail system and seek opportunities for mass transit, including a streetcar system and potentially light rail.
Again, however, Jordan said he has not had the time or economic resources to hit a lot of home runs.
According to data from Kevin Springer, city budget director, the Jordan administration has faced year-to-year declines in sales tax revenue in two of the four years Jordan has been in office. Sales taxes, one of the city’s largest revenue sources, fell by 4.8 percent from 2008 to 2009, the first year Jordan took office. By comparison, Coody faced one year of declining sales taxes during his eight years in office.
Coody noted average sales tax proceeds — $16 million from 2009 to 2011 — exceeded sales taxes during his tenure, which averaged $15.8 million.
“We were able to do much, much more with ... a creative approach to how taxpayers’ money should be leveraged,” Coody said.
Coody said sales taxes alone do not account for other revenue sources or savings seen through creative deals and public-private partnerships.
Rhoads acknowledged some of the economic differences Jordan and Coody faced in office. He said there are times for a more entrepreneurial approach and times when city leaders, out of necessity, must hunker down.
“To me, leadership is knowing when you can go down one path and when you have to go down another,” Rhoads said. “I don’t think whoever is going to be our next mayor should be on just one path. He needs to act on a case-by-case basis.”
Management Style
City Council members who served with Coody and Jordan said Coody’s relationship with the council was rocky at times.
“When he made up his mind about something, there was no discussing it with him,” said Shirley Lucas, who represented Ward 4 on the City Council from 2002 to 2010.
Lucas said Jordan is more “respectful of all council members, even though they may disagree with him.”
Ward 1 Alderwoman Brenda Boudreaux, who has served on the council since 2001, agreed.
Boudreaux said Jordan, like Coody, gives his staff clear directives, but “doesn’t micro-manage really small things.”
“(Coody) had to be involved in everything,” Boudreaux said. “Personally, I don’t think that was as good of a style as hiring good people. As long as they’re doing a good job, you let them do their job.”
Coody acknowledged the way he dealt with staff and City Council members sometimes rubbed people the wrong way.
“Ultimately I was responsible and I had a big job to do,” he said. “I expected no less of anybody else than I expected of myself.”
Hugh Earnest, resigned as Coody’s chief administrative officer in 2004 after less than two years on the job. Earnest said he resigned because Coody asked him to manage special projects rather than continue to oversee various city departments.
“I don’t think (Coody) was ever totally comfortable with having a chief of staff,” Earnest said. “It’s his preference to manage day-to-day operations.”
That firm hands-on approach is different than Jordan’s philosophy.
“I do not like micro-managing the staff. I want the staff to have freedom,” Jordan said. “I may not know everything, but I recognize talent. And then I know what they’re talented at, and I put them to work doing that task. I have enough trust in them to know they’re going to get the job done.”
“The most important thing you do as a leader is develop other leaders,” Jordan added.
Two former employees who worked for Coody and Jordan — John Coleman, former sustainability director, and Karen Minkel, former strategic planning director — declined to discuss either mayor’s management style.
Coody said Jordan’s more hands-off approach is politically convenient. The mayor doesn’t have to take responsibility for his shortcomings, but takes credit for his successes, Coody said.
“When I was up there,” he added, “everybody knew who to throw rocks at, because I would be promoting ideas, promoting positions, promoting concepts and saying, ‘Let’s go here.’”
Without mentioning names, Coody said Jordan has hired friends and campaign supporters rather than conducting national searches to fill key city positions.
Jordan said he stands by the work of two campaign supporters he hired: Don Marr, as chief of staff, and Lindsley Smith, communication director.
He said his administration has also conducted national searches for positions, such as Fire Chief David Dayringer and the city’s new sustainability director, Peter Nierengarten.
Jordan said he has strengthened existing volunteer boards and committees and created new ones, even though some committees he helped form through the Fayetteville Forward Economic Accountability Council have petered out.
As an alderman, Jordan held regular Ward 4 meetings with his constituents. The mayor has continued that practice with at least four annual town hall meetings to review city projects and field questions from the public.
Jordan said his approach doesn’t mean he rules by committee or is not fully in charge.
“I am very much an in-charge kind of guy,” he said. “I also leave enough leeway so the people underneath me can develop.”
One of several motivational signs Jordan has displayed in his third-floor office — and one that he often repeats — reads, “Dare to fail. The only mistake you make is to do nothing.”