Booneville Mayoral Debate, Oct 10, 2022

On October 10th, the 2022 Booneville Mayoral Debate was hosted by First Baptist Church and moderated by the Rotary Club of Booneville, Arkansas. The Master of Ceremonies, Brian Cooper of The Local Insider Podcast, welcomed everyone who attended in person or watched the event live on the Rotary’s Facebook Page. The time-keeper was Dustin Garrett, and the moderator was Derrick Wagner.

The invocation was offered by Pastor Stu, and a special thank you was extended to all those who volunteered their time to make the event a success. $4,200 was raised to benefit the Lucinda Franklin Garrett stage complex.

Rules of Debate:
Prior to proceedings, the candidates participated in a drawing to determine the order of selection. Each candidate was given two minutes for an opening statement. Each candidate was given 90 seconds to answer each question. At the 15 second mark a time-que was given to wrap up their statement. Once time has expired, the moderator allowed the speaking candidate to finish their sentence. At the end of the debate each candidate was given 2 minutes for a closing statement.

Candidates for Booneville Mayor are:

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins – He has served as Booneville’s Mayor for the last twenty years and is a funeral director at Robert’s Funeral Home.

Edgar Baker – A funeral director at Robert’s Funeral Home, Mr. Baker is a founding member of the Booneville Downtown Beautification Project.

Aaron Brewer – Is the principal broker for Mountain Vista Real Estate. He is also a licensed auctioneer and owner of Brewer Auctions.

The Mayoral Debate for Booneville was a great success. For those who were unable to attend, here is the debate via YouTube. 

Opening Statements:

Edgar Baker
“I’d like to thank Rotary for hosting this event tonight, and I’d like to thank everyone for being here. I’d especially like to thank my wife and my son for being here tonight and the rest of my family for being here. I get asked all the time, why do I want to run for mayor? I’m running for mayor because I love Booneville, and I want to work hard to make it a better place for all of us to live, a better place for my son and the next generation growing up in Booneville. I’ve spent the last 6 years as a member of the Downtown Beautification Committee, and we have worked hard, and we have brought progress and improvement to downtown. We have completed over 45 projects to downtown, and downtown is now a place we can all be proud of. We were able to do that by bringing people together. To date, we have raised over $75,000 that has been spent downtown, and we have raised another $80,000 that is being spent on the Broadway Park. I don’t want to stop with downtown. I want to take that same idea and that same energy to our parks department. We need to upgrade and improve our parks department. We need to get out and clean up some of our neighborhoods. We need to try to clean up these burned out and abandoned houses in town. We need to get serious about business recruitment to Booneville and industry recruitment. I’d like to bring the community together to fight our town’s drug problem. It’s going to take a group effort to achieve these goals, and [buzzer] I have a history of volunteering to bring progress and improvement to Booneville, and I hope to continue doing that as your next mayor.”

Aaron Brewer
“I want to thank the Rotary and the church and everybody from Booneville that is here as well as the rest of Booneville. I believe Booneville needs a mayor who is bold and someone who is decisive and legalistic and someone who is interested in the citizens, their families, and who cares about what they have to say. Someone who works in Booneville, seeking to secure its future. Someone who is dedicated to ensuring Booneville becomes a more progressive city with a healthy economic anchor. Greater educational opportunities, new industries, and a place our kids will return to because it can sustain their dreams. I am that someone. I grew up in Booneville like many of you. I remember it being a greater place to live in then, as opposed to now. Economic growth and opportunities to succeed are heavy topics in consideration of our nation’s current economic situation. I believe we need to take advantage of local resources to achieve a progressive positive turn for Booneville. If we focus on what we have locally, I believe we can provide some doors to that end. Supporting businesses for the big employers we have in town will give us more job openings. We have a doorway here in Booneville to the Ouachitas. Fishing, camping, trailheads, and biking trails that are just South and East of us. There is also a people movement from major cities to smaller towns. The advent of digital fiber allows people to work from home. We need to cater to them by providing local shopping, eating, and recreational resources. Clean streets, clean houses, and pride in ownership within our neighborhoods. I have two businesses in Booneville, so my stake in our success is great as well. While I seek a partnership with you as the city begins to transform, realize that I alone am willing to stand and intend to jump start this process of city revitalization. I will be progressive with leading our police officers to roust drugs and dealers from the streets. I have no tolerance for them. I have learned many things while out there in the world as a federal agent. I pursued my certification as an Arkansas Municipal Official with the Arkansas Municipal League. I [buzzer] learned from them city government, and about programs and venues that will enrich Booneville.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“I am the current mayor of Booneville, and this is my 20th year. I have seen about everything there is to be seen as mayor. When I started as mayor twenty years ago, we had one car and one and a half police cars, no computers, no lawnmowers, no anything. We have been able to completely refurnish the City of Booneville. We have the best equipped street department and the best equipped police department, and we have the best staffed police department. And I, like all others, want to recruit business downtown. It’s just so difficult sometimes. We want the population of Booneville to grow, but we have no where for anybody to live. So for us to recruit people to town, we have to build houses. I am in favor of us all building, trying to get more houses, more people, more population. Because the vital part of our tax base is state turnback money. We get paid by population. I think that we, the people of Booneville, this is the greatest community in the world to live. You always wonder why am I running for the mayor of Booneville after twenty years. And I just still think I have something to give to the place I love so much. I’ve lived here all my life. I’ve lived in the same house on South Sharp Street. The kids went to school here. Which we have great schools, we have great infrastructure, we have great government. I think it’s just a great place to live, and I want to be a part of that for four more years, and I certainly would appreciate your vote. Thank you.”

Question #1
In your opinion, what qualifies you to be the Mayor of Booneville?

Aaron Brewer
“I believe in this community and I believe in this town. I’ve worked hard since I retired and came back here to try and do something for Booneville. My certification as a Municipal Official allowed me to sit in and listen to the people of the town who come and talk to me because I’m open tp listening to you. I have strong leadership qualities, I have been in positions where I had to lead people and that’s what I’ve done. As a retired federal agent I did that alot. This town has so much to give and I’m willing and wanting to bring that out and have Booneville become the best that it could ever be. A good hometown like it’s always been.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Ok. I still think that I can contribute to that. I think that the next four years are going to be the most critical years in Booneville’s history. I’ve been here twenty years. I’ve seen it all. With double digit inflation, everything going up so much, we need and have to be conservative. And my twenty years experience tells me what to buy, when to buy, what we can afford, and when to do it. I run the City of Booneville the same way we run our house. If we don’t have the money to pay for it, we don’t buy it. We do have money in the payroll. We do have money to pay the bills. We do have money to pay for our special needs. But one of the major problems in the future, in this year and for years to come, is getting our salary schedule up. We have a turnover in the police department. We have got to pay more money to these people to be policemen. Our police department is probably one of the best in the state of Arkansas. We have a great chief, we have great leaders in the police department, and I want to fund them as much as we possibly can. Our crime rate is good, we don’t have a lot of major crimes, we may have some petty crimes. But I think Booneville is a good safe place to raise your family. [buzzer] That’s good.”

Edgar Baker
“I’ve spent the last 21 years working in Booneville, and I feel like I know what Booneville needs. I know what Booneville’s challenges are. I listen to people’s concerns, and I know what the pros are, what the cons are. I’ve spent the last six years on the Downtown Beautification Committee. I’ve bought progress. I’ve led. I’ve led by example. I’ve brought people together. I’ve raised money, and I think all of those qualify me to be the next mayor. I think my ability to bring people together to take on problems, and I think that those are the things that would make me qualified to be the next mayor.”

Question #2
What sets you apart from the others running in this race?

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, I think the one thing, I think the most important thing on being mayor, I think I’ve touched on it awhile ago, is experience. If it’s happened, I’ve probably seen it two or three times. And being able to see those problems, take care of those problems, be able to spend our money wisely is very important. I think I’ve led this community to the best of my ability. I love to live here. I think it’s a great place to live. And I think I am the most qualified person because experience, in my opinion, is the number one thing you need to be mayor. And how do I know that? Because I walked into the mayor’s office without any experience twenty years ago and got a really good initiation. So I’ve learned the hard way how to do it. I think in the next four years, the most important time in Booneville, will be somebody with the experience to lead and take Booneville in the direction that we need to go. Try to preserve our businesses. Sometimes we forget our existing businesses trying to recruit new businesses. Take care of the businesses we have, and recruit new businesses to Booneville because it is a great home town.”

Edgar Baker
“I think what would set me apart is that I have the energy. I have the effort to be out every day looking for ways to improve Booneville. There are a lot of good things happening in Booneville. People are growing new business. Their remodeling houses. They are investing money in our community, and we need a mayor and a city government that matches these people’s efforts. We need a mayor that is always going to be working hard to bring progress and improvement to Booneville, and we need a mayor that sets the environment for progress and growth. I think my energy, I think my passion for the job, and I think my ability to bring people together and lead set me apart.”

Aaron Brewer
“I believe what sets me apart is that I have a renewed vision for Booneville. I have sat in this town and watched what is here. There is a lot of good in this town. There is a lot of good people in this town, and it’s growing. But it needs to be directed positively. I’m also very good at establishing relationships with people. I’m willing to meet with anybody, talk to anybody about anything, and I’ve pretty much talked to a lot of people about a lot of different things about this city. And I’ve actually listened to you. And I was talking to somebody about something they brought to me about six years ago, and I had the notebook where I wrote that stuff down of things they were looking for to see in Booneville happen. When I was a City Councilman five or six years ago, I tried very hard to get some of those things done. And that’s when I decided I needed to run for mayor. Because the mayor actually is the person that allows and sets those things up to be done. As a City Councilman, I was there for monitoring the budget and essentially carrying messages to the mayor about what you wanted, and I carried them, but I couldn’t get them. But I’m wanting to be the mayor so that I can get those things done. I want to pull that notebook out and start all over. Start climbing and turn Booneville into a very positive and progressive place.”

Question #3
If elected mayor, how would you manage your current job along with the duties of mayor?

Edgar Baker
“My job at Roberts Funeral Home gives me the flexibility to come and go throughout the day. I would be able to spend as much time as needed down at City Hall. I would be able to be out and about in the community. Identifying problems and coming up with projects for our employees to work on, and I’d be willing to work evenings and weekends. I volunteer now a lot of evenings and weekends. I would be 100% committed to putting in the time needed to achieve the goals that we need to get done from our mayor’s office.”

Aaron Brewer
“Most of you know I have Mountain Vista Real Estate, and I’m an auctioneer also. My wife is part of my crew, and she told me at the beginning of two years ago that I needed to slow down on the auction stuff. So I haven’t really been looking for auctions and haven’t. In my brokerage at Mountain Vista, I have three people working there, and they are pretty much self sufficient. And I’ve actually slowed down on what I do in real estate quite a bit over the last year. Some of you, and I can explain this by saying, I’ve been the president of the Fort Smith Board of Realtors, President of the Rotary, President of Kiwanis, President of the Chamber, and that was all last year. And of those responsibilities, they are all ending by the end of this year. My time as mayor will be 100% whatever the mayor’s job requires. I will do what is necessary to fulfill that job 100%. I will have all the time that I need to do that. That’s pretty much what I said.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well. How would I manage this job? Well, I think after twenty years, I’ve got it down pretty pat. I think a lot of people really don’t know, but the mayor’s job in Booneville is a part-time position. I don’t know what part-time is. Part-time can be 20 hours a week, part-time can be 60 hours a week, and sometimes it takes 60 hours to be mayor. Part-time can be Saturday and Sunday and in the middle of the night. But, I’ve worked really hard, and I’m sure I get 20 hours in. There are very few weeks that I don’t get 20 hours in. But, you’re the mayor all the time. You’re the mayor when you go to Walmart. You’re the mayor when you pump gas. You’re the mayor everywhere in a small town. I think mayors and county judges have the most difficult political job there is. We can’t go to Little Rock or Washington. We are right here with you with everybody. And you’re the mayor a lot of times when you don’t want to be the mayor, but you are. But a little 5-minute trip to Walmart can take 25 minutes sometimes. Those people want to talk to you, and you do talk to them about business. About [buzzer] managing the duties of mayor, I think I’ve got it down to an art.”

Question #4
What are your thoughts about all of the beautification progress that different organizations/clubs are doing for our city, but then we have a couple of crime-ridden establishments making derogatory impacts on our city?

Aaron Brewer
“Wow, that’s a long question. I believe that Booneville and the Downtown Beautification, and if I’m not wrong, I believe that Robert Herrera started the park project, and pushed for that. Rotary has pushed for the stage, and the Downtown Beautification Committee is pushing for the build-out of the park and stuff. The crime-ridden portions of the city. They do impact the City of Booneville. I know that five years ago, I talked to a major CEO of a big business here in town, and he said when he is trying to recruit upper management for his job or his business, they ask about the schools. We’ve got excellent schools. Churches. We have excellent churches. He is asked about the communities, and in essence, the downfall of the communities was the drugs that were within the communities and stuff. And realistically, if you drive from Fort Smith and you take a right when you come into Booneville, you’re kind of driving into all of that stuff at that point, so it’s not a very positive impact. And I think that our police department has been doing a very good job, they have been doing a much better job, they have been very proactive, and I want to continue to support them. And I would really like to bring some of the training that I had in 32 years in federal law enforcement to augment what they do and how they do their job so that maybe we can get those people [buzzer] to move on down the road or go to jail one.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Ok, I think I know where every one of them is. And yes, the Downtown Beautification, they are doing just a fantastic job. And when you get into a small town, you depend on volunteers. You don’t have the resources to pay people to do anything. Ed has worked really hard on the park, and they are making progress, but it’s slow progress. And now, in this day and time, with everybody working, it’s hard to get anybody to help you sometimes. The businesses that you are talking about are a couple of establishments that we are really working really hard to try to clean up. But, the sheriff’s here, and the chief’s here, so I’ve got to drive home, so I’m going to be fairly careful here. But, these guys do a great job. I’ve been in City Hall 20 years, and I bet there’s been some people that have come through there 15 or 20 times. The police department and the sheriff’s department, they pick them up, but there’s nowhere to put them, so the court turns them loose, and we pick them up again. They have rights. Maybe, sometimes more rights than you think. So we are making an effort to clean the drug problem up the best we can and the beautification downtown we [buzzer] have one of the nicest downtowns of anywhere, and our forefathers blessed us with wide streets too.”

Edgar Baker
“Yes, I was one of the founding members of the Downtown Beautification Committee. We formed our group because downtown was in such bad shape. We were asked to see what we could do to improve downtown. And we’ve worked hard. We’ve raised money. We have completed over 45 projects downtown. Almost 80% of every property downtown has seen some project done to it. So, in doing all that, it was our goal if we made downtown look good, we would be able to attract new businesses downtown. And in the last six years, we probably have had 10 to 15 new businesses move downtown. We’ve had Black Dog, we’ve had Tracy Tanner (The Hair Place), Carrie Ray (McNutt) (Beauty and the Barber), Gary Catlett, Palace 23, several, there’s more. But, we could always be doing more to work on some of the vacant buildings down here. I believe with the downtown park it’s going to totally change the look of our downtown. It’s going to give us a place to gather, to have concerts, for the town to enjoy. When it comes to cleaning up houses or taking on the crime problem, I think the police department is doing all they can to enforce code [buzzer].”

Question #5
What are your thoughts in moving out the boundary of the city limits?

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Am I in favor of moving out the city limits? Yes, I am in favor of moving the city limits out. We could ah; I kinda hit on a point a while ago that we are paid by turn-back money. The more people you have the more turn-back. Of course, small town populations are starting to drop, and I don’t think Booneville’s dropped. The only thing that dropped is the way they counted people. I disagree with the census this time because every house is full, our schools have more students than we have had in the past, so I don’t agree with that. But moving the city limits out would catch, would get some more people. You know, it used to be if you moved the city limits out, you had to provide services for them. Sewer and water and fire. Now then, they have basically all that, so moving the city limits out would be a fairly simple thing to do now. But when the property owners find out you’re going to move the city limits out, I remember that. Two guys carried guns for me when I said anything about it. But, the taxes are not that much higher, and the gain of population would help the turn-back funds and would certainly help the City of Booneville quite a bit if we could extend. And yes, I am for that.”

Edgar Baker
“Yes. It’s something I’ve discussed with people. Expanding the city limit. It’s something we need to study. I can see extending the city limit all the way out to the Booneville Ball Park to the East. I think that would take in Rock Line, the airport, go all the way out to that neighborhood out there. And there is other areas that you could possibly extend out. Maybe go out north and bring in Ryles edition or some of the other areas. One of the biggest problems we are having right now in the town is we don’t have enough places to build houses. We don’t have open land to develop a neighborhood. I know there is interest from people to, you know, build new neighborhoods, and we’re just landlocked. I would be for studying it, and I would probably be for expanding the city limit.”

Aaron Brewer
“I can agree on just about all aspects from both Jerry and Edgar. It is a very contentious subject though because people don’t like to be drawn into the city that live on the edge of the city. They want to keep their rural capacity. However, as Jerry said, it’s an increased revenue city which is very important. It does provide more infrastructure that the city has to deal with. But all in all, to increase the size of Booneville would give us an opportunity to have more houses built within the City of Booneville. I’ve always said that when Booneville was growing again was when new houses were starting to be built. And we’re seeing that and have over the last two years. A lot of that is from people who are moving into the area that had the money when they moved here to be able to build a house in the city. We’re not swapping houses so much anymore like it was when I first started selling real estate in town. But it’s going to be up to the voters on how much the city can expand. To annex more into the City of Booneville is a very difficult subject. I mean, Magazine spread out their city limits, and people fussed about it the whole time it was happening. There were some of them that wanted it because they wanted protection from the police department [buzzer], and that would come along with that. Thank you.”

Question #6
How do you feel about alcohol sales in the city?

Edgar Baker
“Yes. Ah, it’s a tough question. And it become a lot tougher question when they moved this debate to the First Baptist Church. But, let me say, I think it’s something that we should be looking into. We should be studying. I think it would be interesting to know how much revenue that Paris and Ozark bring in off their sales tax, alcohol tax. But the big question isn’t whether I want alcohol, or Jerry wants alcohol, or Aaron wants alcohol. The big question would be do the people of Booneville and the people of South Logan County want alcohol. If it gets on the ballot someday and it passes, we need a mayor and a city government that’s smart and prepared to regulate it to what the people of Booneville want it regulated. We need to regulate where it would be sold, what is sold, when it’s sold, and we should put a 1¢ extra tax, consumption tax, that would go towards our parks and our police department, so again, let’s educate ourselves. Let’s study it as a community and [buzzer] be prepared that if it ever does get on the ballot, let’s be prepared to regulate it the way we want to see it regulated.”

Aaron Brewer
“Alright, this is a tough one. But the answer is even tougher. With that said, as Edgar stated, the voters, and this was my position five years ago, the voters need to decide what they want to do with this. It’s not up to me to decide. My job is to make sure the citizens and the people of Booneville get what they want. And as Edgar said, it needs to be regulated and cared for very carefully. I think that it will probably come up on the ballot at some point in the future because there is already a movement in this town. I can say this, as President of the Chamber of Commerce, we have tried to bring businesses to Booneville, specifically like a new hotel. A chain, somebody (to) come in here, put more places for us to stay, for our families to stay when they come to visit. And after their studies and other restaurant chains as well, they said that they weren’t willing to invest anything in Booneville because #1, we didn’t have any alcohol allowed in this part of the county. So they looked somewhere else and went on down the road. That’s lost revenue or is. That’s lost revenue, and that’s what we are trying to do, is build Booneville. But, I don’t know that Booneville’s ready for alcohol at this point in time, as it’s being discussed. [buzzer] It’s something that we explore very carefully, study very carefully, and tread softly, but you, the voters, will be the ones to decide.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Sooner or later, I knew this question was going to come up. And alcohol sales looking around, of course, Ozark and Paris have alcohol sales, and their populations may be dropping faster than our population. As far as sales tax, like Ed said, you need to put a tax on it. I will not endorse alcohol, because I’ve seen too much firsthand what it does. But I will endorse people voting on alcohol. And I don’t think the growth of our community and the growth of Booneville, Arkansas, will strictly, but like Aaron said, some businesses will not come unless they are able to make alcohol sales. But one of the fastest growing communities in Arkansas, and even in our area, is Greenwood, Arkansas. And they don’t have alcohol. They seem to be growing well without it. I don’t think it may not even make any difference how much alcohol is actually in our community. But the sales that it does bring tax dollars, and we do have one private club permit in the City of Booneville, right now as we speak. And you can get a private club permit without being a wet side of the county, and the private clubs are the things that we are looking at [buzzer] right now.”

Question #7
What are your thoughts on the housing/rental markets in Booneville? What would you do as mayor to address improvements to housing to encourage a growth in our workforce?

Aaron Brewer
“Why do I always have to start with the long questions? Alright, I believe that there are areas in town that need to be developed better than they are. There is a lot of growth potential in some of our neighborhoods that have some pretty disparaging-looking houses. If they are cleaned up and taken care of, then there is a market there for houses to be built. We need to support the two primary businesses in this town. The Booneville Human Development Center and Rockline. They are looking for people to come here to work, and they are looking for places to live. Booneville can grow as long as we have houses here. People are looking for houses to rent like crazy, and there is nothing out there for them. And they call my office constantly to ask about that. I’ve talked to investors about building and developing more, but the cost right now is prohibitive for them to start building. They have to rehabilitate what they can get. And some of them are in pretty bad shape to try and rehabilitate them. Again I’ll say, when you start building houses, you start growing again, and we are building houses. But we do need to support those two businesses and the people who are coming here to live.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Of course, as mayor, you can’t really control the housing market, but you can control the infrastructure that goes with it, so you’re there to provide water, sewer, and it’s probably less permits in Booneville than there is anywhere. But we just don’t have a lot of places. I was just thinking the other day if we could, there might now be 40 places in our town where we could actually build a new house. Because there’s just not that many places to build a house. But renovating would be good. Yes. And we cannot grow without houses. I mean, we have the infrastructure. But, I was thinking the other day as I was driving through the south part of Fort Smith. They are selling those houses out there, and they are just one house right after another for $200 a square foot. They are probably 12-1400 square foot. They are selling for $260, $240-$260. You build that same house in Booneville, and you probably couldn’t get $180 out of it or $190. So contractors are not going to come here and build when they can make another $50,000 building up the road 35 miles. But, we have built more houses in the last two years, new homes in Booneville than has ever been built probably in history. And, that’s great. We gotta be thankful for [buzzer] what we got.”

Edgar Baker
“Yes. We are experiencing a great number of people that are moving to Booneville. They are recognizing that Booneville is a special place. That the housing market is affordable. There are nice houses here. They are moving here from out of state, and they are buying up everything that is on the market. And, what that does, is it sets up the ability for investors. There are a lot of young people who are buying houses, they are remodeling them, they are fixing them up. And turning a $40-50,000 house into an $80-90,000 house that they can sell to someone. And that’s good for Booneville. It’s an increase in property tax. It brings in more revenue. And what I see is, you know, if you have an investor that is willing to remodel and put their money into a house, that we need a city government that is willing to work hard to enforce the cleanup codes on some of these abandoned and burned-out houses. That, what makes a person want to invest on a street that has a burned-out house or an abandoned house. So, the more houses that are cleaned up, the more people are going to invest. It’s going to give opportunity for houses, for people to move in here to buy, move in here to rent, [buzzer] and that’s a good thing for Booneville.

Question #8
How would you support the police department?

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“How would I support the police department? I’m probably one of the greatest supporters of the police department. I’ve built it or tried to fund it from day one. Our policemen are the best equipped, best educated small town police department around. We go to all the schools. Of course, our job as mayor is to furnish them with the equipment they need to operate with. And the problem now is not that we have furnished that equipment. The problem now is the salaries. We used to be one of the better paying police departments around, and now we are middle or even below what other police departments are paid. So we’ve got a committee put together now trying to raise the salary, including the police department, of everybody where we can be; we’re in a very competitive job market right now. There’s everybody from poultry plants that pay as much as we pay police. So, these guys go to school, they risk their life. I would think they should be paid twice what they are getting. We may see someday that we might not be able to hire policeman because how dangerous it is and how much support they get. So we have to support them, and I very much do support the police department.”

Edgar Baker
Yes. I 100% support the police department. I think Chief Ben and the police department are doing a great job. They are active, they are visible in the community. They are out making stops, making more arrests. And I think the police department is in the best shape it’s ever been. As mayor, I think it is important to equip the police department the best that we can, to train them the best that we can, and to pay them the best that we can. So, I would support a raise for the police department. They are having a hard time keeping police officers and retaining them. And, we probably need to really look into that, and we need to support a raise. I do believe that Chief Ben is doing a great job. If I’m elected mayor, I’m not going to be trying to micro-manage the police department. I think it’s in the best shape it’s ever been. I’m going to stay out of the way, and as long as they are doing a good job, I will just be there to support them in every way that I could.”

Aaron Brewer
“I’m going to say ditto on that because both Jerry and Edgar said, they were very good answers. And as mayor, I would continue to support the police department 100%. Having a background in law enforcement, I understand how important it is for them to have the support of the community and the mayor who is in charge of that, and I would do everything that I could to continue to keep them funded. I am very aware of what Jerry spoke of and Edgar both, about the salary disparity and the issues with that. Right now, it’s very difficult. As was brought to the City Council meeting last, our salary structure 7 years ago was competitive with all the surrounding cities and the county. And now we haven’t changed that for 7 years, and now we are losing police officers to the county and other cities because we can’t compete. We are losing to other jobs. They are leaving the law enforcement entirely. And there is an expense that comes with that because there is an investment that the city makes when they start with them, for their training, for their vests, and for their equipment, for the vehicles that they drive. And you have to start all over if you lose that police officer. So we really need to, and as the mayor work hard, to support them and keep them in the City of Booneville, so they can continue to grow. Our experience level in the city is between the Chief and Cody, [buzzer] far exceeds the police officers that we have. They are averaging about three years in experience right now, which is relatively young when you consider a full career in law enforcement.

Question #9
What are your plans to combat the drug problem in our community?

Edgar Baker
“Yes. Booneville has a drug problem. Like a lot of towns in this country. And I think we are going to have to fight it as a community group effort, and I think we fight it in three phases. The first is supporting a strong active police department. More stops equals more arrests. And if drug dealers and drug users think there’s a chance they are going to be stopped in Booneville, arrested in Booneville, they might move on to another town. I think we need to be working with the judicial system to prosecute to the fullest extent possible. And phase two would be education. You know, we’ve got to educate our kids against drugs. We have two full-time resource officers, and they need to be working to educate our children. And phase three would be drug treatment. First Baptist Church supports Celebrate Recovery, and it’s a great thing. We need to, as a city and as a police department, be supporting that all we can. So, I think we fight it as a community through our schools, through our churches, and through our city. And that would be my plan.”

Aaron Brewer
“I said five years ago, and I’ve said continuously, that I don’t condone drug pushers and users. That’s just in the core of my life. I agree we should use the police department to combat, the community can get involved, but there’s a thin line there where you have to be careful when you involve the community in combating drugs and stuff because it can get very, very violent sometimes. So, that said, supporting our police officers, having them get out there and identify where the pushers are coming from. The people that are selling the drugs. Only through removal of those people, can the people that you love and care for who are in drugs that just want to get out of it and become well; if they don’t have a place to go, they aren’t going to get well. So, if they can find the drug dealers… I remember a young lady who came to my office looking for a place to live. She had been in rehab. She was desperate to be cured. I mean, she was well. She was happy that she had gone through her recovery. And she wanted me to help her find her a place to live in town. And I did find her a little place that she could afford. And two months later I asked somebody what happened to her. And they found her, and continuously sat on her front porch until she had been pulled back into it again, and she was as far down the road as she had ever been before. [buzzer] That’s going to continue to happen until you remove the dealers from this town. Don’t buzz me again, I’m done.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, I don’t think, I don’t really think, that between the sheriff’s department, the drug task force, and the City of Booneville, we all work as a team on drugs. I don’t think that in the last year, in the last year, six months to a year, there is any community that has attacked drugs harder than Booneville. All of our law enforcements work together. We make house calls. We go take people out and put them in jail. Out of houses that are drug houses, but that does not solve the problem. Every time the police department gets blamed. It’s not the police department. We put them in jail, turn them back out, and we put them back in the same environment, and you’re right back where you started. So, we’ve got to have this environment cleaned up. They have to live in a clean environment. And we are doing all that we can to clean this environment up. And I think that we probably make more drug arrests than any community our size anywhere, and these guys work constantly at that. But there’s nowhere, they do not need to be in jail. They need to be in treatment. And there’s no treatment facilities. All the treatment facilities were federally funded or something, and there just aren’t any left. If you do it individually, the family tries to do it, they can’t afford to do it. It has to be court-ordered. There’s no treatment facilities around.”

Question #10
We had several city council positions run unopposed this election cycle. What is your vision to improve community involvement at the local government level? And, what lessons did you learn from the COVID pandemic?

Aaron Brewer
“Ok. One of the things that I have talked about and have had positive reinforcement in the community is having town hall meetings again. At least once a quarter, even more, if we have to. Where the town can come to say, to the Hampton Center and voice their concerns. Have city council members, have the mayor there, me, so that we can hear what you have to say. Now, I’m going to be available 24/7 on my phone. I have no bones about publicizing my number. You will be able to find me and talk to me. But I think that it will be important for there to be a forum for the community to come together to try and work with the city council so that they can work through a problem so that when we go to a City Council Meeting, we can actually conduct business based upon what we learned. I don’t know if you realize this, but two city councilmen cannot talk to each other outside of the city council meeting without having somebody there to report or listen to what they have to say. So it makes it difficult for the city council and city government to do anything when they can’t talk to each other about it before they go to the city council meetings. I really feel like these opportunities to, for the community to come together and voice their concerns would be beneficial for our community. And what lessons did I learn from the COVID pandemic? Keep your distance, no, not keep your distance, but rather that [buzzer] it makes it difficult for us to communicate when we can’t be in the same room together.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, I don’t know how many peoples been to one of my city council meetings, but it turns into a town meeting sometimes. Cause, you know, when you go to a lot of city councils, if you’re not on the agenda, you might as well not even be there, because they aren’t going to let you talk. When we get done with our city council, if we have an audience there, we have people that attend. I ask if anybody has any questions, we discuss those questions too. Because, I think, as Aaron said, we don’t have town meetings, so that’s our only opportunity. Some people come up to me and says, “I sure do hate to tell you this, or say this, or complain.” We won’t ever know. I look at them, and I say, “You’re not offending me. I’ll never know if you don’t tell me.” We can never fix the problems if we don’t know the problems. So, anybody that has any input, I’m more than happy to listen to it. Anything to make Booneville, Arkansas, a better hometown. I’m all on board. And some of the comments are a little outrageous, but some of them are pretty good too. So I’m willing to listen to anything. I think I just got the blue light, which means I have 10 seconds. Thank you.”

Edgar Baker
“Yes. If I’m elected mayor, I will have an open door policy that I will meet with anybody at any time at City Hall to discuss their issues. I think that’s become a problem that people come to the city council meetings only because that’s their only time they can ever talk to the mayor or any of the city council members. So, I hear that a lot in the community. What have I learned during COVID? I’ve learned that Booneville’s a special place. You know how many people have moved here in the last two years? That are getting out of California, they are coming down here moving from up north. They are seeing Booneville as a special place. They are working from home. They have the opportunity to live wherever they want to now that they are working online. And they are choosing to get out of other places across the country, and they are coming to Booneville. And I’ll always ask them, how did you end up in Booneville? What made you want to move to Booneville? They’ll talk every time about being such a beautiful and special place and how friendly the people are. And I think sometimes we all live here, and we take that for granted. I encourage you to, every time you meet somebody, ask them why did you come here. And what do you think of it? And you’re going to hear a lot of positive things about Booneville.

Question #11
As America fights inflation, families have seen their buying power erode. Would you support raises for city employees and where would that money come from?

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, I definitely support raises for city employees. And where the money comes from, that’s the difficult part. You know, with inflation, and I’m sure, I’m not going to label any businesses, but if you bought groceries here or anywhere else, your grocery bill is going to double before long if we don’t slow down on inflation. So if you give the city employees a 10% raise and inflation is 20%, we’ve just lost 10%. Yes, we do need to raise the wages of city employees. We have good benefits, and we have a good retirement program, and we are looking at raising that. But our wages are below. I’ve had, and everybody, truck people just leave city jobs. We had one here at the police department lately, to go drive a truck that paid twice what they were making for the city. We have got to get more competitive. Our benefits are good, our wages need to go up. And I would say, just a guess, I think wages should go up $10,000 a person because we haven’t given these people a raise because there’s been no money. And I don’t really know, without raising the sales tax, which we don’t want to do, how we are going to come up with the money, but we are certainly looking at it right now.”

Edgar Baker
“Yes. I would support a raise 100%. I believe they need a raise, they deserve a raise they haven’t had a raise in 8 or 9 years. How do we pay for it? We need to go through the budget with a fine tooth comb. We need to find where we are wasting money, where we have excess money. We need to be looking at ways to generate more revenue for the city, and we’ve had a financial committee, a volunteer committee this last year of four or five business people, and they worked hard, and they came up with four or five suggestions that they made to the city council and I don’t know that any of them got taken up or studied by the city. So there are possibilities of ways to generate more money, more revenue for the city, and we could put that towards paying people better and giving them a raise.”

Aaron Brewer
“I know that at the last city council meeting, a committee was appointed to study and look at this. And I believe that a tier structured method of promoting pay for these people would be one way of giving them something more than what they’ve got right now. Sustainability for that is going to be the difficult part of that. Being able to continue to pay that. As Jerry said, we’ve only got so much money, and with the economy the way it is, it’s becoming more difficult to realize any free money. It’s really hard to get. But, it’s gonna have to happen in order for us to have a viable police department, a viable city department. So, it’s got to happen, and it’s something that we are going to have to dig down and figure it out. I’ve been given the privilege of reviewing the budget, and some of the numbers and stuff, and the pay structure increase is very good. It’s going to get us, it’s going to help us retain these people. We just have to figure out how we are going to pay for it. And like Jerry said, also coming back to the public, to you again, to ask you for more money is not the way it’s going to work. It’s just going to have to be tightening some belts in some areas, and I don’t know, that’s going to be difficult, but [buzzer] it’s got to be done.”

Question #12
What would your advice be to our communities seniors who have no access to tornado shelters when school is in session?

Expanded on by moderator Derrick Wagner. “So right now our school district, when there is a tornado during school session, the public is not allowed in the tornado shelter at the school.”

Edgar Baker
“Well, it’s a unique question. I would say that the city does a good job with the tornado siren. They’re on top of it, and I would recommend just being aware, listening to the news, doing all you can to protect yourself, and that would be my suggestion.”

Aaron Brewer
“I really believe that we need to look at some of our existing structures. I can understand them shutting the school and not allowing, because you don’t know who is going to be coming through that door to be with those kids. But, finding some buildings in town that could possibly be supported better that may become a secondary shelter area for the seniors to go to. I’ve never even thought about that question. That is a totally out-there question. But, that would be my first response as mayor. I would start looking at what we have, to see how we could build it better to give somebody an opportunity that’s a senior or otherwise to have a secondary shelter location in the City of Booneville.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, that is an interesting question that somebody brought. That where would people go if school was in session and the tornado siren went off? They’re not allowed to go to the school. I’m trying to think of a place. I can’t think of anywhere. But…”
Edgar Baker interrupts and says “I would suggest maybe using city hall.”
“But you got to understand, Ed, that City Hall was built on the cheapest bid. I don’t know if we want to go there or not (laughter). But they did get the better structure. The courthouse has a basement. The Methodist Church has a basement. And I guess if a tornado was coming, we could probably enough of us start digging, find a place to go make a basement under the Baptist Church. I don’t know. But we need to find a basement. But that is a very good question, and it does need to be addressed. And I really just don’t know how to address that. You know when the tornado sirens, it’s all hooked up automated, and when the tornado siren goes off after school hours, it automatically opens the doors to the tornado shelters. And then the police department, I’m thinking they go back and get control and get everybody out, and then they close the doors. But during school, the gates to the school, the schools now on lockdown, and probably the tornado shelters are only big enough to put the students in any way. There’s no room left. So that is a question I will research since I got blindsided by this. Thank you.”

Question #13
What will you do to ensure city employees receive periodic performance reviews, and what disciplinary action would those receiving multiple bad reviews face?

Aaron Brewer
“Five years ago, six years ago maybe, when I was on city council, the question was asked about city employees that weren’t doing their job or the possibility that they weren’t or weren’t doing the best that they could do. And I asked if there were job descriptions, and there weren’t. So we wrote job descriptions for them and had every one of them endorse that so that they understood what they were required to do based upon what they were hired to do. And that’s what I would assume these reviews would be based upon, and if they aren’t doing their job, there should be a period of remediation to correct whatever it is that they are not doing or their sub performance on whatever it is, and they need to understand that that is what they were hired to do and that is exactly what the city is expecting of them, and the public is expecting that too. Because our tax dollars are paying their salary. So when you see them not doing or what they seem to be doing is not in their job description, and you report it, you need to know and understand that the mayor is going to respond to that and take corrective action with them to make sure they are doing their job and or we hire somebody who will do the job that they are not able to do.”

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well, I agree with Aaron, but maybe we don’t have all the procedure boards and everything, and I do go around and check, and we do have people who don’t do their job. I can tell by the results, I can tell when they’re working. And yes, they do get an ear full now and then, and they do get warned if they don’t want to work, we can find somebody else to do the job. And it works for a little while, and then you have to warn them again. Sometimes it’s more work to get somebody to work than to do it yourself. But there is people that get the job done eventually, not as fast. We have a labor force, especially in one department, that’s been here for 25 or 30 years, and they are slow. Eventually, they get it done, but they don’t tear your equipment up while they are doing it, and that’s very expensive to fix. And then with our wages, when we are $5 to $6 dollars lower than the poultry plant, it may be all we can get sometimes. So they are warned, so maybe not enough, but they are warned. Thank you.

Edgar Baker
“I hear a lot of people complain about our city employees not getting a whole lot done. I hear that a lot. I think our street department could be organized better. Could be supervised better. We need to have a mayor that’s on top of that. We need a mayor that sets goals that we work towards. We need a mayor that is out identifying work projects that need to be done, and we need a mayor that’s going to be on top of the employees, that will hold our supervisors accountable, and then the supervisors will hold the employees accountable. And if they are not doing their job, they will be dealt with. I have a very good eye for detail, and I will expect the city employees to keep things to the standard that I want to see them at.”

Question #14
If elected, how would you tackle the growing stray pet population in Booneville?

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Well. This young lady sitting right in front of me is wanting this answer. The pet population, the stray pet population. Of course, we are a noneuthanizing pet facility, so we try to adopt out. But, we do have a pet problem, and I think we do, and in fact, we are in the process of getting bids to expand the size of the kennel. That would be one thing we are doing. But eventually, you have to get rid of those animals. And those animals, most of those animals don’t belong to somebody. They are brought here from out in the country, left in town, and people leave. And we do the best we can in picking them up, but there are strays. I’d say we average 3 or 4 calls a day on dogs and cats, and it’s really hard to catch a cat. So, but we do get a lot of calls. We do get the dogs, and we occasionally trap cats. But you know, it is a problem, I agree, we do the best we can with the way we have to do it, and I think it’s a problem almost every community has. I think Fort Smith finally just gave up on it all. So, we’re trying.”

Edgar Baker
“It is a problem. I see it every day. I’m downtown a lot volunteering and working, and there are stray cats all over downtown. And I know, if we could get our animal control to try and trap those, take them to the animal shelter, adopt them out and fix them. We’ve got a stray dog problem. It’s just something that’s going to take time to work on. I support animal control. I support them adopting all they can, and spaying and neutering all they can. Like Jerry said, it’s a problem that every city has, and we just have to work hard at trying to make it a better situation.”

Aaron Brewer
“I’m very encouraged to hear that we are going to build and expand the center down there, or that we are taking bids to have that expanded because that’s important whenever animal control is able to catch these animals. We have several groups in town and in the community that do everything they can to rehome these animals and stuff, and that’s important to get them rehomed. I had talked to Charlie 5 years ago about him being able to cooperate with the city in order to spay and neuter the animals so that they are not out there. Charlie said you can spay, like cats, and you can spay and miss one of them, and that one will do the job of all the rest of them that got spayed. Because they are very prolific. But it’s going to have to be a continuing effort to take care of the stray animals. To rehome them. I don’t believe we need to euthanize any of them. We need to find homes for them. It’s unfortunate that the country brings them into the city and puts them there. But, I know when I was a police officer here 40 years ago, and we had cats downtown, and skunks and everything else that was running around downtown and trying to deal with that as well as the stray dogs. It goes forever and ever it’s just something we have to deal with and [buzzer] continue to work on.

Closing Statements

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
“Ok. I’ve been the mayor for 20 years. I’ve seen a lot. Anywhere from 850 jobs leaving, to the sales tax going to $30,000. And I’ve seen us come back over a period of time. The people of Booneville are very durable, and they have stayed with me all these years. And now our sales tax is running over $80,000. We are a progressive community that’s growing well. I am running for my 6th term as mayor, and I don’t have any earthly idea. I think I’ve lost my mind. But. I don’t take the city insurance, which you know pays, our cost matching about $700 or $800 a month. For some reason, years ago, many years ago, even well before my time, and even 2 to 3 mayors time before that, they set up a retirement system, that when the mayor retired in 10 years, he got a two multipliers so that gave him 20 years and he could draw half of his salary for the rest of his life. Well, we did not set a retirement fund up under that all those years ago, so that comes right out of the general fund. We have two people that have retired, so they are getting money out of the general fund. And I’ve probably, if you take my insurance money that I save on insurance because I’m old as dirt, and I’m on medicare, then my retirement, then I figured it up that I’m doing it for about $27 a month the other day, so I’m not really getting rich. But I enjoy it. I think this is the greatest place in the world to live. I’ll do anything, I’ll do it for nothing. Anything to help Booneville, Arkansas. We have the best-kept secret around [buzzer]. Thank you. I would like… I’m off. I have been cut off. And I’d appreciate your vote. Early voting starts two weeks from today. I hope these guys remember so I’m going to remind them, and I’d appreciate your vote for reelection.”

Edgar Baker
“I’d like to thank everyone for being here tonight. This is an important election. I think this election is about the future of Booneville. What does the next 10 to 20 years look like for Booneville? Who are the next leaders of our town? Real leadership matters. And I’m ready to bring the next generation of leadership to Booneville. I think we would all agree that Booneville is a very special place, and it’s up to us to keep it that way. I need your help. Booneville needs your help. And I hope you will vote Baker for Mayor on November 8th.”

Aaron Brewer
“Alright, I’m going to go back and address the housing improvements. I worked diligently 5 and 6 years ago as your City Councilman to ensure that our city ordinances were up to date, that our city employees had job descriptions. Those ordinances can be used and should be used in order to start affecting the change in the parts of the town that have issues with them. The construction and the way they look. And I intend to start using those ordinances. I know the police department has set everybody up in zones and stuff, but I want them to become more aggressive in that. These tools are available and are all within our favor to provide Booneville and its citizens with a refreshed progressive vision for a “Better Tomorrow and Brighter Future” for Booneville, our “Good Home Town.” These past 4 years, I have consistently and constantly listened to your input as you voiced your concerns for our community. I have been in attendance at all the convened city council meetings providing them with input in order to support the growth and prosperity, and conformity of Booneville. I believe in Booneville, and I love this town. I came back here after 32 years because this is where I want to spend the rest of my life. I am truly committed to Booneville and to the citizens of Booneville. I would truly appreciate your vote and support November 8th. And in two weeks from now when it starts early voting. And I’ll remind you again. Do not forget to vote. And if it turns into a run-off, that’s really important to come back out and vote. I know of 2200 registered voters four years ago, 518 were all that came back out in the run-off. It’s very important to vote every time you have an opportunity to vote. Thank you very much for this evening. I appreciate your time, and I appreciate your attendance, and I would really really appreciate your vote as your next mayor. Thank you.”
 

End

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Previous entry:

On Monday, October 10th, at 6:30 pm, the Rotary Club of Booneville will host a Mayoral Debate for Booneville residents and community members. The debate will be held at First Baptist Family Life Center at 382 N. Kennedy Ave., and will offer citizens an opportunity to anonymously voice their concerns for the future of Booneville. Questions will remain anonymous and may be submitted to BoonevilleRotaryDebate@gmail.com. Deadline for submission is Sunday, Oct. 9th at 6pm. The event is being emceed by Brian Cooper and moderated by Dustin Garrett and Derrick Wagner.

Booneville candidates for the November 8th, 2022 Mayoral Election are: 

Incumbent Jerry Wilkins
Edgar Baker
Aaron Brewer

There will be a silent auction and pie auction to benefit the Lucinda Franklin Garrett Stage project currently underway in downtown Booneville. Come early to bid on silent auction items, and the live auction will immediately follow the debate. Please come and show your support for this important event.