Jonesboro mayoral candidates prepare for live television debate Tuesday night

Jonesboro will select its next mayor in November and five candidates have emerged to challenge incumbent Harold Perrin for the city’s chief executive office.

Perrin, Nathan Coleman, Harold Copenhaver, Amanda Dunavant, Tom Elwood, and John Street will discuss issues 6-7 p.m. tonight during a live debate hosted by KAIT-TV on the Jonesboro High School campus.

Talk Business & Politics host and executive producer Roby Brock will moderate the debate. The debate will be broadcast live on KAIT 8.1 (ABC) and KAIT 8.2 (NBC). It will be streamed on KAIT8.com, on the Region 8 News mobile app, and in a video stream that will feed through this post.

City employee salary hikes will likely dominate the only scheduled debate among the candidates. City leaders voted in September to raise police pay by almost 6%, and it will add $600,000 to this year’s payroll alone. City officials are considering raises for firefighters and non-uniformed workers that could add about 7% to the city’s payroll by the end of the year.

How the city will fund these payroll increases in the coming years will be a major issue the next mayor will have to address. It’s likely that proposals to increase firefighter and non-uniformed worker pay will be voted on before the general election.

Perrin, a two-term mayor and former alderman, has publicly stated the city council needed to decide on pay raises for firefighters and non-uniformed workers after the police pay increase was approved. Perrin previously worked in the banking industry before serving in elected office. He graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and also served a stint on the university’s board of trustees.

Coleman, 34, has served as a police officer on the Jonesboro police force for eight years. He spearheaded the fight for higher police wages, and has said he believes city workers deserve better pay. Prior to his work with the city, Coleman, a Nettleton High School graduate, worked as a master technician for Mercedes-Benz in Memphis.

Coleman noted the city lost 77 officers in the last five years, and low pay was one of the main reasons. He said the city has paid almost $2 million to train new officers, and it should have been spent money on retaining the ones they already had. He hopes if he’s elected, he can stop problems like this in the future.

Copenhaver, a former state representative from district 58, has criticized Perrin and other elected city officials for lax judgment when it comes to competitive wage rates for employees. The average Jonesboro city worker makes about 4% less than their counterparts in similarly sized cities statewide, according to the city.

Copenhaver, 55, thinks city officials were too quick to pass the police pay plan without studying the long-term financial effects. The former state representative attended Arkansas State University and worked for more than 25 years in the insurance and banking industries.

Dunavant, 29, is new to the political arena. She has never before sought elected office, she told Talk Business & Politics. She led the fight to remove the international maintenance code regulations from the city’s building codes. During that fight, she talked with many citizens and decided the only way to repair local government problems was to run for office herself.

Dunavant has worked in operations, logistics, and business management. She also helps her grandmother operate a 30-unit trailer park, and other business ventures. She doesn’t just work in her office, she said. Dunavant also has a certified driving license, CDL.

Elwood, who studied history at ASU and is self-employed according to his Facebook page, previously, told Talk Business & Politics he supports wage increases, but doesn’t think city officials can legally enact them during this part of the year. He thinks those raises can only be made when the budget is formulated.

Street, 63, has served 14 years on the Jonesboro City Council. He voted for the police pay raise and supports pay increases for other city employees. The real estate appraiser and broker also served two terms on the Valley View School District Board.

Street, who served in the Arkansas National Guard, has been a reserve police officer in Jonesboro for several years. He has a business administration degree from ASU. Street acknowledges the pay increases will hamper future city budgets, but he thinks investing in employees will pay much higher dividends in the future.

Several other issues may also be discussed at the meeting. The city has had chronic drainage issues and street congestion has grown in recent years. Economic development, a proposed aquatic center, a sales tax to support emergency service workers (police and firefighters) have also been hot button issues.

Members of the public are invited to attend the event at the Jonesboro High School’s Center for Performing Arts. Seats in the auditorium will be made available on a first come basis.