PINE BLUFF -- The Pine Bluff City Council voted Monday night to repeal a measure approved two weeks ago that would have taken money out of the Go Forward Pine Bluff improvement program to meet other city needs.
In a 5-3 vote that followed a rancorous debate, the City Council decided to return $2.1 million from a five-eighths percent sales-tax increase to the Go Forward program and to prioritize drainage and city department needs with any additional funds the city receives.
Mayor Shirley Washington, who sponsored the resolution, said the city expects to make $10 million annually from a casino being built in the Jefferson County city.
Council Members Joni Alexander, Glen Brown Jr., Donald Hatchett, Lloyd Holcomb Jr. and Win Trafford voted in favor of the measure. Ivan Whitfield, Steven Mays and Bruce Lockett voted against it.
The ordinance was proposed by Washington to repeal and replace a resolution sponsored by Whitfield to divert tax funds earmarked for the Go Forward Pine Bluff program. The funds instead would have been used to address drainage needs and to prop up city department budgets.
On Oct. 7, the council voted 5-3 to adopt a resolution sponsored by Whitfield, who is challenging Washington for the Democratic nomination for mayor, that would have reallocated $2.1 million of the sales tax. Holcomb and Hatchett voted in favor of Whitfield's proposal in that meeting.
The resolution allocated $300,000 each to the Police Department, youth and community resources, and the convention center, and another $200,000 to the Fire Department. Another $1 million was allocated for drainage needs.
Opponents of that resolution contended that -- although the decision was legal because the tax issue's ballot title did not limit the proceeds to the Go Forward program -- the shift of the money could create voter mistrust in future elections and, according to Go Forward Pine Bluff Director Ryan Watley, jeopardize the public-private partnership that has been trying to help the city economically by building up its population, tax base and development efforts.
Whitfield, Mays, and Lockett said that because the tax vote, held in June 2017, was for a general sales tax, the city was violating the law by earmarking the tax for downtown development through Go Forward Pine Bluff, even though the tax was explained to the voters as doing exactly that. The tax was approved with 3,381 votes in favor and 1,798 votes against.
Whitfield was especially vigorous in his opposition to Monday's resolution, as he accused Go Forward Pine Bluff of running a shadow government and compared the city's relationship with the Go Forward organization to measures taken during the Jim Crow era to prevent blacks from gaining political power.
Seven of the eight City Council members, the mayor, the director of Go Forward Pine Bluff, and most of the directors of city departments in Pine Bluff are black, as is approximately 77% of the city's population.
"What they did years ago, not only in this community but in others, they had what they called the poll tax," Whitfield said. "The power wanted to control the weak. And I speak for the weak because they don't have a voice."
Whitfield said the special election that decided the 2017 tax issue was scheduled for that June to keep blacks from voting.
"What they did was a poll tax move," he said. "They put this election in June in a special election, when we're tending to our children, on vacation, not worrying about a vote. They were smart the way they did it."
Whitfield also accused Go Forward Pine Bluff of using only public funds to finance its operations, even though the organization solicits private donations as well. Watley said after the meeting that Whitfield's accusations were untrue.
"It's unfortunate when people try to act like we pulled the wool over people's eyes," Watley said. "We campaigned for three or four months on this issue. We had meetings in every ward. This is just campaign rhetoric."
Watley said that despite Whitfield's accusations targeting his organization, private funds have been spent on the Teach Pine Bluff teacher-scholarship initiative, private sponsors have been aboard for the organization's festivals and other events, and a grant writer hired with public funds has been responsible so far for obtaining nearly $1 million in private funds through grants.
"If you look at our marketing, you'll see that we're making use of a lot of the private money we get," he said. "We're doing a lot to help the citizens here, and you're looking at a demographic of more than 75% African-American."
Trafford condemned Whitfield's comments in a Facebook post shortly after the meeting.
"The 5/8 cent general tax which was campaigned for on the Go Forward Pine Bluff initiative made up of 100 people throughout our city was definitely not a poll tax and a way to exclude 'Black People' from voting as mentioned by a council member so loudly at our meeting tonight," Trafford's post read. "Do your own research on issues and legislation. You can definitely count on facts if you have done your own research. ... As a Native American, I understand what my ancestors went through for me to even have the chance to be born in this country we call home, and to be a part of the forward movement."
Brown said he believed that Whitfield's remarks were influenced by politics.
"It's the political season," Brown said. "You know, we go along for a couple of years just taking care of business and then the campaigns start heating up and this is what we get. I'm looking forward to the elections being over and we can go back to taking care of business without all this."
Hatchett, who voted for Whitfield's resolution two weeks ago and voted Monday to repeal and replace it with the ordinance sponsored by the mayor, said that after some study, he was convinced the mayor's plan addressed the concerns raised by Whitfield.
"This does what Alderman Whitfield intended to do and some other things as well," Hatchett said. "Some duplications in funding in terms of our youth initiatives and our drainage situation were cleared up."
Holcomb, who also switched his support to the mayor's proposal, said the ordinance alleviated concerns he had been harboring about making sure all of the city's needs are being adequately addressed. He said the tensions on the council are indicative of the different viewpoints held by the various members, but that the council is working to better the city.
"I feel like this is the best way forward," he said of the new ordinance. "Council Member Whitfield has a right as a citizen and as a council member to feel the way he feels, but we all want a better Pine Bluff. We may not agree how to get there, but we have to come together for the betterment of the city."
Washington said she expected the opposition and was prepared for it, but she said she was ready to put the issue to rest.
"I knew they would push back, that there would be opposition, but I'm glad it's over," she said. "It's done, and now we can move on."
State Desk on 10/22/2019