Six Centrists Seek Fayetteville Mayoral Job

One of the main issues facing the six candidates for mayor of Fayetteville is bringing harmony between the business community and environmental concerns.

rEach candidate told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal that they are the one who can get that done. The six appear to be clustered in the middle of the political road, however, with none describing themselves as leaning too far to the left or right.

rBut many people view the mayoral race as a battle between the pro-business leadership that has been in office for the past eight years and several pro-environment challengers. Voters will have the final say Nov. 7.

rFred Hanna has been mayor since 1992. His opponents charge that he too often bends the rules to allow developers to build and businesses to relocate in Fayetteville. But Hanna said he is no less pro-environment than the other candidates.

r”I am not willing to paint myself as the green candidate,” Hanna said, “but I think I am as pro-environment as [Dan Coody] is. But I am pro-business, also. … That is the engine that is pulling this train.”

rThe challengers claim to be pro-businesses but said they wouldn’t bend the rules — such as the city’s tree-preservation or sign ordinances — to lure businesses here.

rSo here’s a synopsis of what each candidate told us regarding their background and issues facing Fayetteville’s business community. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order.

rrDan Coody

rAfter growing up in Beaumont, Texas, and attending college, Dan Coody moved to Fayetteville in 1987 with his wife Deborah. They came here because they liked the environment (both weather and economic) and the people.

rCoody has been self-employed for almost his entire adult life. He works primarily as a real estate developer. His latest project is a residential subdivision on Mount Sequoyah called Sequoyah Preserve.

rCoody served on the Fayetteville City Council before losing a bid for mayor to Fred Hanna in 1992.

rAfter the election, Coody filed suit against the Northwest Arkansas Times claiming an editorial and news article that were published in the newspaper during the week of the 1992 election were libelous. Coody won the case on the local level, but the verdict was overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

rAlthough some of his opponents say Coody has “thin skin” and overreacted to the editorial, Coody said the 1992 election has prepared him for anything now.

r”After what I’ve been through, my skin has gotten as thick as a rhinoceros’ skin,” he said. “I’ll learn from fair and constructive criticism. Nobody deserves slanderous attacks and unfair criticism.”

rCoody said the main issue in the election is that Fayetteville has become “the city of perpetual conflict.”

r”It’s unnecessary and counter-productive,” he said.

rCoody said he understands both the business community and environmental activists. He said some city ordinances may need to be reworded so they are clear.

r”There needs to be a level playing field where the rules are followed by everybody,” Coody said.

rCoody said Fayetteville hasn’t taken advantage of its potential as a tourism destination.

r”We aren’t nearly the tourism center we should be,” he said. “We are set up for cultural tourism, and we are not capitalizing on that.”

rCoody said his priorities for Fayetteville include:

r• To reestablish Drake Field as a first-class general aviation airport and business air park.

r• Redeveloping College Avenue, focusing on safety and beautification.

r• Attracting high-tech businesses.

r• Planning for growth and traffic concerns.

r• Forming long-term solutions for the city’s solid waste problems.

rIf elected, Coody said he would hire some professional city staffers from out of state. He said he would prefer that any layoffs of current employees take place through attrition.
rrFred Hanna

rAfter returning from a stint in the Navy, Hanna became a franchisee operating a Gulf service station on Dickson Street in 1959. A year later, he began to sell boats at the location. He sold the station in 1965 and opened a marine business, selling boats and motors.

rWith the money he was making, Hanna purchased land in Fayetteville. He then became a developer, building five office buildings and two four-plexes.

rHanna sold the boat business in 1978. He served as controller for Hanna’s Potpourri, his son’s business, from 1989 to 1992, the year he decided to run for mayor. Hanna has been mayor ever since.

rHanna is obviously proud of what he has done as mayor. He cites an impressive list of statistics (changes that have occurred during his tenure as mayor between 1992 and 1999):

r• Net bonded indebtedness per capita decreased from $645 to $31

r• Ratio of debt service to total general government expenditures went from 19.6 percent to 1.7 percent

r• General government expenditures increased from $1.1 million to $3.3 million

r• Public safety expenditures went from $4.8 million to $9.9 million (reducing the crime rate by 17 percent)

r• And administrative services expenditures dropped from $3.4 million to $2.4 million

rHanna believes the city has done a good job balancing business growth with environmental concerns.

r”I don’t think we’re anti-business as much as anti-growth,” Hanna said of Fayetteville. The size of the city and lack of traffic congestion adds to its desirability as a place to live, he said.

r”I think we have a great balance in Fayetteville,” he said, “and that balance has made Fayetteville a great place to live.”

rA major issue facing the business community, he said, is the lack of a labor force in Fayetteville. That means blue-collar workers make more money in Fayetteville than in other cities.

r”But I don’t see that as totally negative,” Hanna said.

rHanna said Fayetteville doesn’t need more factories. The city needs more high-tech jobs. The city’s planned 200-acre fiber optics park will help with that, he said.

rSubroto Lahiri

rLahiri was born in Calcutta, India. Lahiri said he was the first college student allowed to present Mother Theresa with an orphaned child to be adopted in the aftermath of World War II.

rLahiri has been instrumental in developing a city named Kalna, about 80 miles from Calcutta. His business, Lahiri Associates International Inc., designed an alcohol plant for the town that produces 42,000 liters of ethanol daily for hospital sterilization use. His company is working on a similar plant in Costa Rica. Lahiri’s business also helped develop a wastewater treatment facility for Kalna.

rLahiri has lived in Fayetteville for 30 years. He taught sculpture in the art department at the University of Arkansas for 18 years. He has had sculptures on display throughout the country.

rLahiri is director of the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, which has about 33,000 “agents” worldwide.

r”We side with the League of Women Voters in every state,” he said.

r”The role of mayor is multi-dimensional,” Lahiri said, “and no one dimension can be ignored for long or dissatisfaction sets in.”

rLahiri said the biggest problem facing Fayetteville city government is a lack of research before action is taken. Research would have prevented many mistakes the city has made, he said.

r”Out of the top of the head is useless,” he said. “We’re not supermen.

“rTo attract high-tech businesses to Fayetteville, Lahiri said he would “give them free everything for seven years.” He said there’s money available for such incentives.

rLahiri said he would also convert Drake Field into a high-tech industrial park.r

rPaula Marinoni

rMarinoni was born and raised in Fayetteville. According to her resume, she’s done a variety of things, from being a regional finalist for Poultry Princess in 1973 to being a professional cheerleader.

rMarinoni was a fashion merchandising major at the University of Arkansas in 1975, but she didn’t finish her degree.

r”In college, I did not apply myself,” she said. “I was bored out of my gourd.”

rMarinoni said she has applied herself since then.

rShe returned to Fayetteville five years ago after living in Kansas City, Mo., for 21 years. In Kansas City, Marinoni worked for two years as an assistant buyer for Macy’s Department Store and for three years as a salesperson for Josten’s, the yearbook and graduation-supply company. After that, she worked as a freelance marketing consultant for those companies and others.

rAs a consultant, Marinoni said she increased profits by 637 percent for the Heart of America United Way direct-mail campaign.

r”Since I’ve been back,” she said, “I have focused all of my time and energy on the community. I have attended well over a thousand meetings. I came back to have an impact on the city of Fayetteville.”

rMany people remember Marinoni as being instrumental in saving Carnall Hall, the second oldest building on the UA campus. Carnall Hall’s fate, however, is still in the air while money is being sought for its renovation.

r”What I see as the main problem here is we are suffering from lack of qualified, trained leadership,” Marinoni said.

rShe said the business community needs to view the mayoral race as if they’re hiring a CEO for their company.

r”Everybody needs to be happy,” Marinoni said. “I think I am the only candidate who has the ability to bring everyone together. I can relate to everyone in the city, and I appreciate everyone in the city.”

rIn her “statement of intent,” Marinoni said she would approach the leadership of the city “from a holistic viewpoint. The health of every part is important to the whole.”

rMarinoni said she is “pro-business,” but she won’t break the rules for businesses. If a business wants the city to bend its sign-ordinance rules in the overlay district along Interstate 540, tough, she said.

r”I will passionately fight for you, but I will not break the rules for you,” Marinoni said, referring to businesses in Fayetteville. “What does it say to the people who have already complied with the regulations?”r

rMustin

rMustin grew up in Chicago and has lived in Fayetteville “for eight or nine years.” He officially changed his name from Daniel Joseph Mustion about six months ago.

rHe describes himself as a musician and composer. Mustin said he is working on Project Majestic Mix, which is an effort to produce a compact disc of music by Nobuo Uematsu, a video game music composer.

r”I’m working on my music,” Mustin said. “I’m destined to make a decent four-figure sum, but I’m still working on it.”

rMustin said he would like to make an impact on Fayetteville before moving on with his life.

r”I can’t be a politician for the rest of my life, because I’m not a politician,” he said.

rMustin said urban sprawl in east and west Fayetteville needs to be better controlled. He said efforts need to be made to beautify College Avenue and to install lights on Interstate 540 through Fayetteville. Such efforts would help attract business to the city, he said.

rrCyrus Young

rYoung grew up in Fort Smith and came to Fayetteville for college in 1969. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1973 and has remained here ever since.

rFor 20 years, Young worked as a building site inspector for Crafton, Tull & Associates. For the past six years, he has served on the Fayetteville City Council.

rYoung said he’s somewhere between the left — which he describes as the Coody/Marinoni camp — and the right, which he uses to refer to Hanna.

rYoung said Hanna is perceived as going easy on developers by not enforcing city ordinances.

r”It’s hard to say what [Coody and Marinoni] would do, but the perception is they’d be radical tree preservationists,” Young said. “But there has to be a middle ground, and that is what I’d bring to the mayor’s office.”

rYoung said he could help alleviate the “divisiveness” in city government and he wouldn’t cave in to every group that approached him with a problem.

rYoung said he wouldn’t give national chains preferential treatment when they consider construction in Fayetteville.

r”We would welcome them,” he said, “but they would have to compete on the same level as the merchants here in Fayetteville.”

rYoung said it’s essential to keep Fayetteville’s quality of life in order to attract high-tech businesses, which he said will help keep UA students here after graduation.

r”Those high-tech industries are not interested in going to the old smokestack towns that are nothing but trashed out,” he said.

rYoung said he has been one of the primary supporters of Fayetteville’s proposed fiber optics park, which will help land some of those high-tech businesses.