FAYETTEVILLE -- A longtime resident, educator and graphic designer is the first person to announce candidacy for City Council in the Nov. 4 general election.
Sonia Davis Gutierrez said she will challenge alderwoman Adella Gray for the Ward 1, Position 1 seat.
Profile
Sonia Davis Gutierrez
Fayetteville City Council
Ward 1, Position 1
Age: 40
Residency: Fayetteville resident for more than 20 years
Family: Husband, Mike
Employment: President and co-founder, New Design School; Graphic designer, 3c21 Design
Education: Master of fine arts degree, Parsons The New School for Design; bachelor of arts degree in art and bachelor of science degree in microbiology, University of Arkansas
Military Experience: None
Political Experience: None
Ward 1 encompasses a wide swath of south Fayetteville, including Walker Park, Lake Sequoyah, Mount Kessler, the Senior Activity and Wellness Center, the Yvonne Richardson Community Center, the Arkansas Research and Technology Park and several manufacturing plants, including Pinnacle Foods, Superior Industries and Tyson Foods' Fayetteville complex.
"We choose to live in south Fayetteville because we value our hills over billboards, trails over traffic jams and parks over parking lots," Davis Gutierrez said Tuesday.
Gutierrez in 2006 co-founded the New Design School, a nonprofit organization offering graphic design classes, seminars and workshops from an office in the Fulbright Building on East Dickson Street. She runs a design firm called 3c21 Design and has taught visual communication classes at the University of Arkansas, NorthWest Arkansas Community College, Fayetteville Public Library and Yvonne Richardson Community Center.
Gutierrez hasn't held elected office before, but, she noted, she has served as chairwoman of the Creative Economy Action Group, one of several committees that grew out of the Fayetteville Forward economic development summit in early 2009. The committee was instrumental in creating the city's first gallery guide and organizing Last Night Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas' largest New Year's Eve celebration.
She also participated in the Ozark Literacy Council's "Pigshibition" initiative and has served on the Arkansas Arts Council's selection committee for the Governor's Art Award program.
"I am an active citizen dedicated to civic engagement in our community," Davis Gutierrez said Tuesday.
She said she will advocate for good streets, safe sidewalks and adequate police and fire protection. "But, it is also important to remember what makes a memorable place people call home ... natural beauty and the environment, a value for amenities like trails and public transportation, public art, aesthetics, architecture, history, delicious food grown and raised in our mountains and put on plates at our local eateries, access to world-class art and a community of creative, fun-loving, talented people," she said.
She was joined at Tuesday's announcement by her husband, Mike; Don Moore, chairman of the Ozark Literacy Council's board of directors; Stephen Smith, communication professor at the University of Arkansas; two architects at Marlon Blackwell architecture; and Sarah Marsh, the City Council's other Ward 1 representative.
Gray, who was first elected in 2006 and is the City Council's longest active member, has said she intends to run for a third four-year term, but hasn't formally announced her candidacy.
The filing period for City Council candidates begins July 25. Candidates have until noon Aug. 15 to submit a petition signed by at least 30 registered voters in their ward to the Washington County Clerk's office.
According to City Clerk Sondra Smith, the City Council's three other Position 1 seats -- held by Mark Kinion (Ward 2), Justin Tennant (Ward 3) and Rhonda Adams (Ward 4) -- are up for election Nov. 4, as is the city attorney job, filled by Kit Williams.
NW News on 06/04/2014