The looming retirements of Metroplan Executive Director Jim McKenzie and his top deputy have board members debating the future of the regional transportation planning agency.
After all, McKenzie has been part of the agency for 28 years while Richard Magee, his deputy and planning director, has been on board for more than 40 years. When the two leave in December, they will take a vast knowledge of transportation and funding issues and many key relationships developed over that time.
The prospect of losing all that institutional knowledge has given rise to discussions that some fundamental changes may be in order for Metroplan. More specifically, the time could be at hand to merge the agency with another regional planning agency, the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District, to create a super-regional organization.
The idea garnered much discussion at the Metroplan board's retreat late last month, with some members saying the move would better help the region fulfill its potential.
"It seems like the two entities don't connect," Cabot Mayor Bill Cypert said in support of combining Metroplan and the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District. "It's seems like we lose something."
While board members decided at the retreat that, first things first, McKenzie's replacement must be place before a merger can be explored further. That prospect has some support.
Jim Youngquist, executive director for the Institute of Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has long advocated an ambitious vision of combining the two agencies into a super-regional organization.
"We've had the discussion for years," said Rodney Larsen, executive director of the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District. "It's going to stay about where it is. Everybody agrees it will be a great thing. But we just can't agree on how to go about it. There's no right way and no wrong way."
The Central Arkansas Planning and Development District provides community and economic development services for Faulkner, Lonoke, Monroe, Prairie, Pulaski and Saline counties and the cities within them. The agency has a staff of 42 and annual budget of $4.9 million, said Larsen.
The agency's staff assists cities and counties with applications for grant funds and administers the projects once they are funded. Project development, financing, management and administration are coordinated by the staff to construct public works, and other services including disaster mitigation and flood-plain management.
Youngquist and others believe a region is better served by one multiservice regional organization rather than two, and often point to the Mid-American Regional Council as the model. It serves the greater metropolitan area surrounding Kansas City, Mo. It includes 119 communities, nine counties, two states and a population of 2.4 million.
"You show me a great region and I'll show you a great regional council," Youngquist said.
Only one other metropolitan region of Little Rock's size -- Birmingham, Ala. -- lacks the combined regional agency, according to Youngquist.
Supporters say the case for merging the two agencies begins with their boards. At least nine of the nearly three dozen Metroplan board members, who largely are mayors and county judges, also sit on the district board, including Cypert, the district board chairman.
Even McKenzie said the timing couldn't be better to chart the agency's future.
"This is the perfect time to sit back and think strategically about where you want the organization to go and how to get there," McKenzie said at the retreat in Heber Springs.
Supporters say linking the two organizations in some fashion makes sense.
Metroplan, created in 1955 by local political and business leaders, describes itself as a voluntary membership organization open to any local government in the region and supported by member dues and federal and state grants and "acting out of necessity and inspired by the principle that the metropolitan area was one community and that the problems and opportunities of each entity were common to all."
Begun as a local council of governments, it also has been the region's designated Metropolitan Planning Organization since 1972. In that role, it works with local governments, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and Rock Region Metro, according to the agency, "to determine transportation needs and funding priorities for federal transportation investments."
The agency also provides general planning, mapping and technical assistance to local governments. It also has helped develop significant projects such as Burns Park in North Little Rock, the area that would become Riverfront Park and the Mid-Arkansas Water Alliance, which has been used to secure long-term sources of safe drinking water for the region.
Its members include governments in Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner, Lonoke and Grant counties.
Metroplan has 13 employees and an annual budget of $3.2 million.
Metroplan is based in Little Rock while the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District is based in Lonoke. The latter's headquarters is based on the federal legislation that created it, requiring its main office to be centrally located within the district.
But for local officials dealing with issues involving both agencies, the separate offices are frustrating. Just ask Mayflower Mayor Randy Holland, who had to bird-dog projects at both agencies to help his town rebuild after the April 2014 tornadoes that struck his city and Vilonia. The twisters left 16 people dead.
"It would be nice if they were at least in the same building," Holland said.
Larsen made a plea to merge the organizations at the Metroplan retreat. Under that proposal the Metroplan board would contract with the district to manage and administer Metroplan's day-to-day operations. The Metroplan board would continue to operate with the agency's executive director remaining answerable to the board.
Having two major regional organizations divides the time and energy of the organization board members. "It's better to have one organization working for all," Larsen said.
By combining both organizations, "you've changed the future," Larsen said. "It's all the same people. It's time to do it. Trying to replace Jim and Richard, it's never going to be the same anyway."
County Judge Barry Hyde of Pulaski County was open to the idea, suggesting that it is difficult to see where Metroplan goes without McKenzie.
Metroplan "has taken on your personality," he said to McKenzie during the retreat. "It's done a great job, but a big part of that is the relationships and connections you've built up over 27 or 28 years."
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola was among the skeptics of a merger.
His chief concern: He didn't want to risk the in-house knowledge of transportation funding issues Metroplan has developed over the years.
"Federal funding issues are very sophisticated," Stodola said. "It's taken a lot of time to learn them. I'm still learning."
Hyde also said the issues that the regional district addresses often are rural in focus and wouldn't provide value to the cities."
But Stodola didn't think further discussions were out of the question: "The easiest thing to do is to see if there are ways for the two organizations to work more closely together."
"Right now wasn't a good time," North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said last week. "We might look at it later after we get a new director."
In the end, the Metroplan board focused the balance of the retreat session on looking for a new executive director. The board has retained the Mercer Group Inc., a national search and consulting firm, to identify and recruit candidates that a board search committee can review and interview. The committee will recommend three candidates for the board to interview.
County Judge Jim Baker of Faulkner County said the board should leave the direction of the agency to whoever it hires.
"You want the best person you can get and we'll follow him where he wants to go," he said.
Metro on 04/11/2016