Election for Fayetteville Mayor

[cowbreath]

I have to agree with you, too, zman. Coody has my support too. I can understand that the other half of Fayetteville (the Paula Marinoni's) are going to find their candidate, but I'd have to guess they would want someone a little better suited for dealing with people than Jordan.

In fact, I'm not trying to even take Jordan serious as a candidate, but I guess we have to live with it. He would be much better starting off with a smaller city. I think Fayetteville is too large for someone like him right now. With the council being so anti-development and pro-mundane, I think it would kill our city's future to have anyone but Coody in there. I think this is a very serious election and could decide many things that are pertinent (like WAC location and green industry development).

[Mith242]

I have to agree with you, too, zman. Coody has my support too. I can understand that the other half of Fayetteville (the Paula Marinoni's) are going to find their candidate, but I'd have to guess they would want someone a little better suited for dealing with people than Jordan.

In fact, I'm not trying to even take Jordan serious as a candidate, but I guess we have to live with it. He would be much better starting off with a smaller city. I think Fayetteville is too large for someone like him right now. With the council being so anti-development and pro-mundane, I think it would kill our city's future to have anyone but Coody in there. I think this is a very serious election and could decide many things that are pertinent (like WAC location and green industry development).

[cowbreath]

I didn't go into any details with my previous post. It's been mentioned before but I just think Coody is probably the best candidate that has a chance to be elected that's in the middle. I think most of the other candidates will try to push Fayetteville more into the anti development camp or possibly more pro business to the point of losing some special aspects of Fayetteville. Granted the former option is probably the most likely to happen.

[zman9810]

Yeah I've been reading what you and others think about Coody on this thread. This has been a good resource for the city election issues and some opinions on the candidates. I agree, Coody is the best middle path candidate.

On a side note, I was watching a second tv spot on channel 19 with Lioneld Jordan. The "interviewer" this time brought up how even though the city decided only this year that bottled water would not be purchased by the city government, that Coody was quoted on a National mayors website that our city has not bought bottled water for years. Although I've heard a similar inquiry over Coody's comments to outsiders about the completion of our trail system, I still wish I could hear the whole story. If anyone has more information on these things or the whole sewer debacle, let me know. I mostly chalk it up to attacks motivated by the sheltered, power-hungry anti-development constituency (sitting on the council) against the corporate figure of Coody.

[zman9810]

Mayor Coody has rejected taking the state mandated retirement benefits that were mentioned earlier in this topic. This is a program that kicks in after some city employees of first class cities reach 10 years service. It has been brought up by several other candidates at the debates in a sad attempt to question Coody's motives to run again.

It is commendable of Coody to make this move although it is a shame to not accept the benefits that he is entitled to. It's a classic case of the incumbent being questioned about something that he has no control over.

NWAnews.com article

[Mith242]

Mayor Coody has rejected taking the state mandated retirement benefits that were mentioned earlier in this topic. This is a program that kicks in after some city employees of first class cities reach 10 years service. It has been brought up by several other candidates at the debates in a sad attempt to question Coody's motives to run again.

It is commendable of Coody to make this move although it is a shame to not accept the benefits that he is entitled to. It's a classic case of the incumbent being questioned about something that he has no control over.

NWAnews.com article

[Mith242]

Looks like there will be a runoff between Coody and Jordan. Not too surprising considering how many candidates there were. Coody got around 37% of the vote to Jordan's 28%. But now I guess the question is for all the people who voted for other candidates, who will they vote for now?

[cowbreath]

Looks like there will be a runoff between Coody and Jordan. Not too surprising considering how many candidates there were. Coody got around 37% of the vote to Jordan's 28%. But now I guess the question is for all the people who voted for other candidates, who will they vote for now?

[jllive]

Looks like there will be a runoff between Coody and Jordan. Not too surprising considering how many candidates there were. Coody got around 37% of the vote to Jordan's 28%. But now I guess the question is for all the people who voted for other candidates, who will they vote for now?

[Mith242]

Despite Fayetteville's appeal to those of us who are environmentally conscious, I would have liked to see a runoff between the two candidates who are more business friendly.

[zman9810]

Steve Clark's support is important for either Coody or Jordan to gain. I would think that he is much closer to Coody philosophically but Coody's decision to run after bowing out for a while was a blow to Clark's candidacy. The question is does he go with what is best for Fayetteville and support Coody or strike back at Coody by supporting Jordan?

I was surprised Eilers decided to support Jordan- his ideas sounded more intune with Coody than Jordan. His supporters might agree with that statement and support Coody anyway.

Jordan as mayor would be a major blow to the economic well being of Fayetteville. The gains in sales tax revenue that we have been seeing will disappear and the budget after this one will require either major cuts in services or tax hikes. He would scare away businesses that are here and repel those that were considering moving here. All in my opinion, of course.

[Mith242]

Steve Clark's support is important for either Coody or Jordan to gain. I would think that he is much closer to Coody philosophically but Coody's decision to run after bowing out for a while was a blow to Clark's candidacy. The question is does he go with what is best for Fayetteville and support Coody or strike back at Coody by supporting Jordan?

I was surprised Eilers decided to support Jordan- his ideas sounded more intune with Coody than Jordan. His supporters might agree with that statement and support Coody anyway.

Jordan as mayor would be a major blow to the economic well being of Fayetteville. The gains in sales tax revenue that we have been seeing will disappear and the budget after this one will require either major cuts in services or tax hikes. He would scare away businesses that are here and repel those that were considering moving here. All in my opinion, of course.

[zman9810]

The first mayoral runoff debate between Mayor Dan Coody and Alderman Lioneld Jordan is tomorrow, Nov. 12 at 7:30 PM at the city administration building. It will also be live on cable channel 16.

It should make for a better debate with only two candidates. Hopefully there will be more in depth answers and less chance for the incumbent to be ganged up on as happened in the earlier debates. The voters will have a chance to evaluate the candidates on their merits and vote accordingly regardless of who they supported in the general election.

[Mith242]

The first mayoral runoff debate between Mayor Dan Coody and Alderman Lioneld Jordan is tomorrow, Nov. 12 at 7:30 PM at the city administration building. It will also be live on cable channel 16.

It should make for a better debate with only two candidates. Hopefully there will be more in depth answers and less chance for the incumbent to be ganged up on as happened in the earlier debates. The voters will have a chance to evaluate the candidates on their merits and vote accordingly regardless of who they supported in the general election.

[cowbreath]

Jordan and Coody had a mayoral debate last night. I felt like the nwatimes article was a little biased towards Jordan, as was my feeling whenever some group put their endorsement behind him and it was printed. With Jordan I sort of get the feeling of the whole good ol' boys thing.

The one thing I have against Coody in the back of my mind, is that when I went to the Fayette Junction planning meeting I was a little put off that all of the city planners there were really young, and their approach to our meeting was a little like being in my high school english class told to make some puppets. If anything, it could have been the city's strategy led by the mayor to put these sort of people in the planning positions or at least in the facilitation of the planning. We had a really unscientific visual preference presentation in which we had to choose between two pictures of development techniques. Without actual location context and scientific calculations of bias because of the pictures I was very skeptical of how they planned to use the results. At the end they showed the tallies of the results and put it in terms like "75% of you said that you preferred bioswell drainage instead of curb gutters".

I did like the opportunity we had to draw pictures on a map of what we would like to happen in our area. However, only afterwards did I realize I should have put everything I would have wanted on the map (like better street connectivity even if no right-of-ways existed). It was all a "taste" of our preferences but we could have spent more time or re-did the session later now that we knew what it was about. I was surprised that people in general didn't want single-family housing, or at least that was what the article said. I was ok for a concentration of student-projected housing as long as it wasn't another Lindsey apartments complex.

Anyways, I should probably communicate this to the city, but it is harder when they know who you are.

[butttrumpet]

Thats a valid criticism of Coody I guess. But think about other cities in the region. I can guarantee you that Springdale and Fort Smith don't have these public brainstorming meetings at all. I view these planning kids as being part time city employees or even part volunteer. Since they hold positions many of these other cities don't even have, its understandable that they are probably poorly funded positions, too, and therefore filled by kids.

I watched the debate last night. How Lioneld Jordan is even being considered as our mayor against Coody blows my mind. He isn't very well spoken. He basically seems to agree with everything that has happened under Coody's leadership.

I really don't get it. Maybe its some kind of good ole boy deal. Whatever.

[cowbreath]

In defense of Jordan's style of community involvement he said he had over 140 meetings in his ward over the last 8 years. However, I won't go much farther to defend him. I am also shocked about him considered as a candidate. I'm curious about what people in the physical plant at the UA think about his style. I have a feeling he can't be argued with, but probably tries to get some cozy benefits for people to earn favor.

I don't personally think much of the physical plant or any department at the university. It's largely political and filled with disconnect.

Anyways, the paper did not say when the government channel would re-air the debate. I'd like to see how it really went.

[zman9810]

After watching Wednesday night's mayoral debate for the second time I am more convinced than ever that Mayor Dan Coody is the the more qualified and able candidate for the job. While I haven't always agreed with his positions I think he has a much better understanding of what it takes to be mayor. He has brought many improvements to the city and with his reelection he will be able to continue those positve initatives. His middle of the road approach is what Fayetteville needs to grow economically and with the attention to liviablity that the city needs. The progress towards sustainabilty that the city has made is in large part due to his efforts and the contacts that he has made.

Jordan comes across as too ambitious and ready to say whatever he thinks he needs to in order to get elected. I don't think he has the knowledge or ability to lead Fayetteville and the city will face serious problems if he is elected. I think his populist approach to government is one that sounds good to a lot of Fayetteville's activists but will hurt the overall good of the community. Appealing to a outspoken minority may be a way to get elected but is not the way to lead a modern community facing the tough economic challenges Fayetteville is facing.

I hope that those opposing Mayor Coody's reelection have the city's best interests at heart and are not doing so as a lame attempt to exact revenge for perceived offenses against them. The election comes down to a candidate that will lead from the middle and get things done for the city or an extremist that will cause division of the likes the city has not seen in many years.

[butttrumpet]

Great assessment. I am afraid that the vocal minority is very committed to getting rid of Coody. I hope they don't succeed.

[zman9810]

Great assessment. I am afraid that the vocal minority is very committed to getting rid of Coody. I hope they don't succeed.

[butttrumpet]

Early voting started today. Get out and vote!

[Mith242]

I think you are right- there will some voting more against Coody than actually in support of Jordan. That's generally the case with incumbents though- it's easy to make enemies when you are in the top job.

[zman9810]

That's true. I've tried mentioning some of that to some of my coworkers who live in Fayetteville. Some haven't been real happy with how a lot of the development has moved north to Benton County. Since Coody has been in office it's easy to blame him. But I've also tried to point out Jordan has always come across as being rather 'anti-development' on the City Council. Choosing him could very well push more development northwards.

[cowbreath]

I read about the second mayoral debate, and it sounds like Coody had a little more charge in his fight this time. I can just picture Jordan red-faced with fire coming out of his ears. One major criticism was about how Ward 4 would add an extra two months to a development approval process if the development was in their ward. Another was a continuance of saying that Jordan had sounded supportive of unionizing city employees. Jordan denies remembering saying anything.

Coody also criticized once again how a good development totally in line with our city's 2025 plan comes through to the council, a few voices have descent and then the plan is picked apart by council. Of course Ruskin Heights comes to mind. Then he said that the "same-old stuff" developments come through and they get approved with no problem. I can see traffic concerns being legitimate for these large projects, but then you see a huge Lindsey development get approved with little trouble (except for some artificial resistance) off of wedington.

Jordan's big attack point was about the sewer plant. The $180 million project was $60 million over budget, and Jordan said the mayor fell asleep on the wheel. Coody said a consultant lied to him about the cost, and when they found out the problem they immediately put their own person in charge. He said they learned not to put an outside consultant in charge of the project management.

As far as business goes, I recognize that happens very often (look at the price jump for the Renaissance too). Surely there was a learning curve for discovering this error for such a big project, but I guess I can't help but attribute this one thing for creating the biggest stir of anti-Coody people, especially with Jordan. Blaming the consultant in my mind is a little like blaming Palin for McCain's defeat. McCain is the one who picked her. However, that is about an election, this is about the politics involved in holding an incumbent accountable over the management of a large scale project. I wonder what it would have cost otherwise, or if there would have been any difference.

Also Jordan attacked the time that raises weren't payed properly to city employees (I think the fire department). Coody said as soon as he found out he went to rectify the problem and offered to pay what was not paid, but they filed a lawsuit anyway and in the end the same result happened, although much time and money was wasted in court. Maybe that is why the Fire people are for Jordan.

By the way, Coody accused Jordan of promising cost-of-living increases in exchange for the IAFF/FOP endorsement. Coody has great justification for why they shouldn't offer it in my mind (he takes the risk of sounding unpopular but I think it is reasonable).

Disclaimer: I found out that what I read in the paper is not necessarily the whole store or the actual story of what went on. I found this out by watching the first mayoral debate.

[butttrumpet]

I'm hearing Clark may endorse Jordan.

Why, I have no idea.

Well, we might just close up discussion on developments in Fayetteville if Jordan becomes mayor. I have no idea what the guy's appeal is.