Russ Racop for Little Rock Board of Directors

*The citizens of Little Rock deserve credible and ethical leadership.

Current leadership has lost credibility with the citizens of Little Rock. Credibility lost cannot be regained and these leaders must be replaced. New leadership is needed that values honesty, integrity and ethical treatment for all citizens, no matter the color of their skin or the part of the city in which they reside.

Current leadership has provided the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce $300,000 for "economic development" last year and will give another $300,000 to them this year. Citizens get no specific accounting of how the money is spent. The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce worked for the takeover of our city school district; they support the huge concrete freeway gulch through the heart of the city; they oppose democratic mayor-council form of government; they support socialized government, in which city sales tax money finances the technology park that put $11 million in the hands of one of the richest men in the city through purchase of some of his office buildings; they oppose control of private property use by landowners as they led the fight to keep the Quapaw Tribe from developing a casino on ancestral land because it would compete with a chamber financial sponsor, Oaklawn Racing & Gaming.

Transparency regarding public funds must be a requirement for any disbursement of such funds. If a receiving entity or organization is unwilling to provide an accounting of how the funds were spent, then they should not be given any funds at all.

The city manager foolishly established a no-strings-attached bonus program for LRPD recruits and two of them left employment within six months walking away with $10,000. The city manager did not see the need for stipulations for the bonus program until I urged the board to not fund the bonus program until stipulations were established - not one single board member publicly questioned the bonus program prior to my addressing the board on December 19, 2017. Only then were any  procedures regarding the bonus program crafted. These procedures have not been published by policy by the city of LRPD. There should be an unambiguous written policy regarding any bonus or incentive given to any city employee.

City leadership has targeted the homeless population in our city and the organizations that provide services to them. We must establish fully operational centers or empower and fund existing organizations to help our homeless population transition off the street to shelters and on to other living arrangements and gain employment.

We should look at what other cities in Arkansas and the United States are doing and implement similar programs here.  Fayetteville, has set a fine example with their "New Beginnings" project which will provide emergency to transitional shelter to help those struggling to find shelter.

The "There's a Better Way" program in Albuquerque, NM is another program that we should consider. This program seeks out the homeless who are panhandling and offers them day work picking up litter around the city. They get about $9 per hour, are fed lunch and are offered a place to stay for the night. The program has been a huge success at both reducing panhandling and putting some of those it touches back on a path to regular employment. In less than a year, 932 jobs resulted in almost 70,000 pounds of litter being picked up while weeds were cleared from 196 city blocks. 

Here in Little Rock this type of program could also be used to remove all the snipe signs tacked onto utility poles (a violation of a municipal ordinance with a $25 fine) and increase city coffers by enforcing that particular ordinance and raising the amount of the fine  (currently uncollected due to lack of enforcement) to an amount that would hit home with the offending parties.

*The citizens of Little Rock deserve leadership that values transparency and respect for our laws.

Current board members use personal email to conduct city business and delete emails to avoid having to release public documents that are subject to release under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

Board members should be required to use a littlerock.gov email address and establish a document retention policy to be in compliance with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

*The citizens of Little Rock deserve a public school district that is under control of an elected board.

Our current leadership has allowed the Little Rock Public School District to fall under state control without taking decisive steps to have a democratically accountable school district responsive to local voters. They pander to the appointed superintendent while the state Education Department closes down and sells off vacant school buildings to charter school concerns.

City leadership should demand that local control of the Little Rock School District be given back over to citizens to elect a school board which can select a superintendent of their choosing.

*The citizens of Little Rock deserve police officers that want to be part of the community they are hired to serve and protect.

Citizens deserve police officers that live next door to them, and send their children to the same schools as the ones their children attend.

Currently only 194 (35%) of the 560 officers reside in Little Rock. The other 366 (65%) chose to live in other communities. Of the 366 that live outside of the city of Little Rock, 136 get to use a city owned vehicle to travel to and from work each day. It's not hard to understand how an inner city resident might have cause to wonder if attitudes of officers who don't live in the city influence their policing and how they view people of different races and economic strata.  City leaders are making it economically more attractive for officers to live somewhere other than Little Rock and that is a problem that must be resolved.

City leaders need to establish a residency required for future recruits and officers.  Incentives need to be tied to residency and take home vehicles should only be issued to officers residing within the city limits of Little Rock.