FAYETTEVILLE -- West Fayetteville residents heard Ward 4 City Council candidates' views on a number of issues during a forum held Tuesday evening at the Chamber of Commerce.
Ray Boudreaux, Craig Honchell, John La Tour, Phillip McKnight and Robert Williams spent an hour Tuesday fielding questions from some of the roughly 25 audience members who came to the forum. D'Andre Jones was the only Ward 4 candidate who didn't attend Tuesday's forum. Jones, a former city councilman in Joiner, said after the forum he wasn't aware it was being held.
At A Glance
Hear The Candidates
Residents who missed Tuesday’s forum will have another opportunity next week to hear from Ward 4 candidates. All six have been invited to the City Council’s Ward 4 meeting, scheduled at 6 p.m. Monday in Room 111 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St. The candidates will have about an hour to respond to pre-selected questions.
The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce has scheduled two other forums for candidates running for City Council. A Ward 2 forum is scheduled at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 at the chamber, 123 W. Mountain St., and a Ward 1 forum is scheduled at 7 p.m. Oct. 7.
Source: Staff Report
The candidates are vying to replace Alderwoman Rhonda Adams, who announced earlier this year she's moving to Tampa, Fla., where her husband has accepted a job as dean of the Honors College at the University of South Florida.
Ward 4 encompasses several neighborhoods west of the University of Arkansas campus and most land west of Interstate 49. It includes the Pratt Place Inn, Holt Middle School, Holcomb Elementary School, Razorback Golf Course, the city's West Side Wastewater Treatment Facility and the Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville.
One question, from longtime Fayetteville resident Archie Schaffer, focused on how City Council members could better enforce an ordinance limiting most single-family residences to no more than three unrelated roommates.
McKnight, who has served on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Botanical Garden of the Ozarks board, said enforcement of the ordinance is complaint driven. But, he added, the city could do a better job of actively identifying infractions.
"I know for a fact there are a lot of people who have just absolutely given up on trying to get the city to do something about the 15 people living next to them," McKnight said.
La Tour, a tax attorney who lives in the University Heights neighborhood, said he would advocate for less government regulation and more private cooperation.
"I live across the street from Razorback Stadium," he said. "I am university neighborhood all the way.
"Some of my neighbors like to live close to campus, but they don't want to live next to students. I'm sorry. Students are going to live next to campus. That's just the hard reality of it."
Boudreaux, former director of the Fayetteville Executive Airport, said it's a balancing act. Students need a place to live, and many want a dog or a place with a yard, he said. When an ordinance is being violated, Boudreaux added, it should be reported, and city officials should enforce rules in place.
Several questions Tuesday focused on economic development: How to improve Fayetteville's reputation as a business-friendly community, for example. How to protect homeowners' property values? And what to do about sprawl on the city's west side?
"That's really what got me started in this whole thing," said Honchell, a member of the Planning Commission since 2009. "When I bought a house in 2006, we didn't have a homeowners' association."
"That's a big thing to me," he added. "I think it's very important to have people that are proactive throughout their neighborhoods."
Williams, a project manager for Milestone Construction, said he was excited about the growth west of I-49.
"Growth is inevitable," he said. "It's just a matter of how you manage it. We can't go backwards."
La Tour said there are too many hurdles to open a business in Fayetteville. "A developer told me in Fayetteville it takes an average of 48 days to pull a building permit for a home, a residential construction project," La Tour said. "He also told me in Rogers on a busy day he can get it in 48 hours."
"In my mind, the best way to serve the public is get out of the way and let entrepreneurs, within reason, serve the people," La Tour added.
Boudreaux, whose airport post at one point included economic development duties, said businesses should be held to a high standard in Fayetteville.
"We all in our town are for high standards," Boudreaux said. "But we also need to recruit good business and industry, so we can create jobs for our citizens."
McKnight said good infrastructure planning is needed so Wedington Drive, which is often choked with traffic, isn't replicated in other parts of town.
La Tour was the only candidate to advocate for repeal of a contentious Civil Rights Administration ordinance the City Council approved last month. The ordinance prohibits specific types of discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation and gender identity.
Honchell said the ordinance should have been reviewed by the City Council's Ordinance Review Committee before it was taken up by the council.
McKnight and Williams said Matthew Petty, Ward 2 alderman, had every right to bring the ordinance forward.
Boudreaux said he was more comfortable with the ordinance after talking with City Attorney Kit Williams and after specific exemptions were put in place for religious institutions.
Early voting for the Nov. 4 election begins Oct. 20. Prospective voters have until Oct. 6 to register.
NW News on 09/24/2014