The City Wire endorsements: Sanders, Jacobs, Weber, Settle, Hollenbeck, Hatwig

The editorial board of The City Wire has considered for endorsement 15 federal, state and local races. Municipal and county endorsements will be published Tuesday (Oct. 26). Link here for endorsements in races for U.S. Senate, 3rd Congressional District, 4th Congressional District, Arkansas Governor and Arkansas Lt. Gov. Link here for endorsements in the races for Arkansas House District 66, Arkansas House District 67, Arkansas House District 83 and Arkansas Senate District 6.

What follows are endorsements for Fort Smith Mayor, Fort Smith City Director Position 4, Fort Smith City Director Position 5, Fort Smith City Director Position 6, Sebastian County Sheriff and Sebastian County Clerk.

• Fort Smith Mayor
Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker
Mr. Sandy Sanders

The City Wire endorses Sandy Sanders.

Beloved Mayor Baker has been an excellent cheerleader for the city, and was, early in his mayoral career, one of the few willing to be passionate about their belief in the potential of Fort Smith and its citizens.

Although the days of cheerleading are not over, the times do require a mayor with the ability and willingness to be an educated and effective advocate for the socio-economic development of the city.

We believe Sanders will be a good transition between the style of Mayor Baker and the style necessary to ensure that life continues to be worth living in Fort Smith, jobs are worth having in Fort Smith, and the cool factor is worth pursuing among the entrepreneurial creative class.

• Fort Smith City Director Position 4
George Catsavis
Patrick Jacobs

The City Wire endorses Patrick Jacobs.

Neither candidate has impressed, and we are not certain either will provide leadership to a board that has for the past few years been unable to determine if it is coming or going.

That being said, Jacobs presents the more professional, pro-business approach to the issues now facing the city and those just around the corner.

• Fort Smith City Director Position 5
Juan Martinez
Pam Weber

The City Wire endorses Pam Weber.

Martinez and Weber are good candidates. It’s a shame they have to face each other.

We give the nod to Weber for two primary reasons. She has more experience/involvement with city government, and she has possibly attended more board meetings and study sessions than a few board members.

Also, we trust Weber’s emotional attachment to non-profit causes will not create unnecessary ordinances (municipal legislation over-reach).

Without question, Weber is likely to bring some much needed fiscal and political backbone to the board of directors in addition to her experience and healthy amount of institutional knowledge.

• Fort Smith City Director Position 6
Eric Arthur
City Director Kevin Settle

The City Wire endorses Kevin Settle.

Settle is fortunate in that his opponent essentially disqualified himself from our consideration with his fleeing from police while driving intoxicated and in exercising poor judgment in using the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith logo on his campaign materials.

While we remain concerned with Settle’s frequent attempts to micromanage city government, he is the clear choice in the race.

• Sebastian County Sheriff
Bill Hollenbeck (D)
Tommy Young (R)

The City Wire endorses Bill Hollenbeck.

While we appreciate the service of Young, the pattern of problems at the Sebastian County Jail point to the need for new leadership and new approaches. We are convinced Hollenbeck has the experience and professionalism to more proactively address the problems and modernize the department.

• Sebastian County Clerk
Sharon Brooks (R)
Angela Hatwig (D)

The City Wire endorses Angela Hatwig.

This was a tough endorsement decision because Hatwig and Brooks are excellent candidates.

We eventually leaned toward Hatwig because of her institutional memory of a county department so vital to the maintenance of Quorum Court records, election information and other vital county government recordkeeping. We simply could not endorse against Hatwig’s 10-years of service as deputy clerk and 21 years working in a clerk’s office that is one of the best among Arkansas’ 75 counties.

In an ideal world, the runner-up in this race would be the deputy county clerk.

Regardless of who wins, Sebastian County residents would be wise to keep the two talented and knowledgable candidates employed in some capacity — elected or otherwise.