Cooler Heads Prevailing With City Council

Of all the difficulties Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody has faced in his first year and a half in office, the constant quarrels within the City Council have caused him perhaps the most angst.

But he believes that has subsided … to a degree.

“As far as the rhetoric goes, it’s calmed down,” Coody said. “Some of the people on the council were strong advocates for [former mayor] Fred Hanna. I won the election with 60 percent of the vote. That set us off on a bad foot with each other. They worked hard and wanted their man to win. That brought a certain level of angst to the mix that wasn’t productive. We’ve gotten over it over the last year. I know I can get over it.”

Coody and late City Council member Trent Trumbo had several public battles. Ironically, they had begun to see a little more eye to eye when Trumbo was tragically killed in a one-vehicle accident March 26.

Coody perhaps will have to deal with new faces following November’s election in which as many as four council seats are up for grabs. Included among those in office now are Bob Reynolds (Ward 1) and Cyrus Young (Ward 2), council members who are not exactly close allies with Coody.

The other two council seats up for election are Kevin Santos (Ward 4) and Tom Bechard, who was selected to close out Trumbo’s remaining month’s in office as a Ward 3 representative.

A common characterization of Coody, from friends and foes alike, includes some level of paranoia — especially when it comes to critics in the media.

“A lot of that is self-inflicted,” Coody said. “I’ve made some statements that I shouldn’t have made.”

A lot of it is also understandable. A former publisher of the Northwest Arkansas Times admitted that the paper hired a private investigator in Coody’s hometown of Beaumont, Texas, to find dirt on the then 1992 mayoral candidate. Coody felt like some of the paper’s accusations cost him that election.

Even today, there have been accusations that Coody never graduated from college as he claims. But the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal confirmed that he did graduate from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, in 1981.

Coody said he has learned to handle criticism much better after a year and a half in office.

“It doesn’t bother me like it used to,” he said.