PINE BLUFF -- Jefferson County and its largest city will swear in new top executives today after voters rejected the incumbent county judge and mayor in November, creating leadership changes as the region tries to rebound from a long decline.
Pine Bluff Mayor-elect Shirley Washington defeated incumbent Debe Hollingsworth, and County Judge-elect Henry "Hank" Wilkins IV unseated Dutch King. Both races ended in a March runoff, and neither winner faced a general election opponent in November.
The transition comes as the shrinking city has renewed efforts to clean up its deteriorated downtown and has entered the early stages of what one economic development official believes will be a resurgence. Millions of dollars are in the pipeline to pay for a new swimming center and library in downtown Pine Bluff, and companies have announced billions of dollars in coming industrial projects.
Lou Ann Nisbett, chief executive of the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, said she does not believe the political transition will upset that momentum. Not counting the $3.7 billion investment for the first phase of a planned gas-to-liquids plant there, nine companies since 2013 have announced nearly $400 million in Pine Bluff projects, Nisbett said.
"I think we are ready for growth here, and it's going to happen," Nisbett said. "We're going to break those perceptions and negative thoughts people have about Pine Bluff."
Wilkins, a former state senator and representative, said the election was about fostering "cohesion" in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County.
"What we've had is, I'd say, a lack of cohesion," he said. "Much of that has to do, quite frankly, with race. Much of it has to do with socioeconomic conditions, which is more than just race. ... There will be people who for the first time feel like they're being heard."
Wilkins and Washington are black, and Hollingsworth and King are white. Pine Bluff is about three-quarters black, and roughly 55 percent of Jefferson County residents are black, according to census data.
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Hollingsworth, a former business leader and stockbroker who won all but about 20 of the city's 112 precincts in 2012, said the 2016 results were not a rebuke of the city's direction but a product of how the technical aspects of local Pine Bluff elections changed.
Local candidates for the first time had to identify a party affiliation. All mayoral candidates registered as Democrats, so residents who voted in the Republican presidential primary were not eligible to cast mayoral ballots in the primary or subsequent runoff election.
Hollingsworth, who received the most votes in the primary but lost in the runoff, said the lower turnout for both elections hurt her chances. About 3,800 Jefferson County voters, or 23 percent of the county electorate, cast Republican ballots in the primary.
"We didn't lose support," Hollingsworth said Wednesday morning between sips of coffee from a small Styrofoam cup in her nearly bare office. "That did not happen."
Washington received 4,145 votes to Hollingsworth's 3,424 in the March runoff. Wilkins beat King by a tally of 5,069-4,948.
Alderman Steven Mays, an outspoken critic of Hollingsworth, said the results signaled that Pine Bluff residents soured on the mayor because the city was not moving forward quickly enough.
"The citizens want a leader that can get us out of the middle of nowhere," Mays said. "I feel like it's a good thing for the city of Pine Bluff to have new leadership, a new direction and new purpose."
King, who said he tripled the county's road budget during his four years as county judge, said it's clear that the city and county "made pretty significant strides in the past four years."
"You've got to catch up and then move forward, and we've been in a hole for a long time," King said. "The people need to be focused on electing people that genuinely care about Pine Bluff and Jefferson County and not about themselves. We have too many politicians and not enough public servants."
Washington was not interviewed for this article. She twice told an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter that she would email responses to questions but did not.
Pine Bluff's population fell by 14 percent from 1990 to 2010 as Northwest Arkansas cities rapidly expanded, pushing the city from the state's fourth-largest -- behind Little Rock, Fort Smith and North Little Rock -- to ninth, with 49,000 residents, according to census data.
Of the state's 10 largest cities, Pine Bluff has the highest poverty rate, at 32.1 percent, and lowest median household income, at $30,700, according to 2015 census estimates. Fort Smith, the state's second-largest city, ranks second-worst in both categories, with a 26.9 percent poverty rate and a $35,100 median household income.
Downtown Pine Bluff remains largely abandoned, except for the Simmons First National Bank headquarters, public offices and a few small businesses giving it a go. A block of Main Street remains blocked off to traffic because of debris from a collapsed building. Many other buildings have fallen, are visibly damaged or are boarded up.
Hollingsworth said the city is cataloging how many of its downtown buildings are in disrepair -- even using a firetruck's bucket lift to examine rooftops of structures whose owners couldn't be reached or didn't give the city permission to enter. She said she doesn't know the scope of the necessary work. The city has, however, begun issuing citations to some property owners, she said.
"Our downtown does not have any energy," Hollingsworth said. "Our city has gone through at least a decade and a half or longer of zero code enforcement. The property owners, they've not been held responsible or accountable for their buildings. Nothing has been done. That translates to what we have now."
Hollingsworth, who took office in 2013, prioritized data-driven police work and code enforcement in the city's neighborhoods during her lone term.
Violent crime in Pine Bluff declined 9 percent between 2012 and 2015 to 569 instances, according to the latest available FBI data. The crime statistics are based on offenses known to police and are reported to the FBI by departments on a volunteer basis. Property crime in that time declined 16 percent to about 2,800 instances.
Hollingsworth said she had planned to "do nothing but focus on downtown" in a second term.
Construction of a $6.5 million public aquatics center is to begin this year. The center, which will include competition and leisure pools, has been in the making since voters in 2011 approved using bonds backed by a sales tax on multiple projects.
Voters in November approved a property tax increase that will allow $14 million in bonds for a new downtown library.
Wilkins said he largely agreed with ongoing efforts to better downtown Pine Bluff, excluding some alterations he would have made to the library-tax ballot issue.
Meanwhile, Nisbett credited the economic development sales tax that voters approved in 2011 for driving industrial growth. Money collected from the countywide tax goes into a fund overseen by a seven-member board that can provide job-based financial incentives to companies looking at locating in Pine Bluff.
Before the tax passage, Pine Bluff would attract industrial attention and land on companies' "short list" because of its access to rail, water and Interstate 530, but would be crossed off when the conversation turned to incentives, Nisbett said.
"All I had was a smile, and it can only get you so far in the game," Nisbett said.
Among the 10 companies that have announced new projects or expansions in Jefferson County since 2013 was Energy Security Partners, which announced a gas-to-liquid plant. The project's first phase will require a $3.7 billion capital investment and create about 225 full-time jobs, Nisbett said.
Hollingsworth is not sure what she'll do next, though she is mulling over some possibilities in politics, she said. In the short term, she plans to work behind the scenes to hold council members accountable, she said.
King, also a former Pine Bluff mayor, said he wants to run for county judge again in 2018.
State Desk on 01/01/2017