SW Arkansas Times

I was asked to re-post the text of an earlier Facebook post, minus one paragraph which is no longer relevant.

Paul Mitchell

Keep Alexander Safe, Prosperous, & Growing

RE-Elect

Mayor Paul Mitchell Nov.8th

Only Candidate with Municipal Government Proven Experience

Proven Leadership

Worked 2 years without pay

Have not taken a raise in 5 years

Our Police Dept. is Professional, our hourly wages are comparable or higher than other cities our size, they are Highly Trained, well equipped & respected by Saline County, Judges, Courts, Prosecutor’s office, Crimes against Children office, Arkansas Municipal League. & the Arkansas State Police. (The above mentioned Agencies do not wish to see changes in the Administration that would impact the current Alexander Police & Fire Department’s that has been restructured from where it was.)

Professional Fire Dept. Highly trained & is second to none for other cities of our size (24hrs. a day 7 days a week) to provide safety and security to our citizens & Highly Respected by other Departments their wages are comparable and in some cases higher than other department’s our size.

(ISO RATING OF 2) out of 10.

Compare the Alexander Streets & Parks Department, there are no other Municipalities of our size in Saline County that can even come close to having the quality of Personnel, & range and types of equipment to do all the work in the City of Alexander, where everything was at one time contracted out at a cost higher than if we did the work ourselves and on the contractors time table not ours, we now have the equipment and schedule the work on our time.

Our City is virtually Debt free except for two Police Units & City Hall Building everything else paid for with cash. If thing’s get bad such as it has we as a city are in great shape. Anyone can spend money and create debt but can you grow without debt, we have. We can pay off those two Police Cars anytime we want and the building.

The passage of our 1 cent sales tax for the general fund put us on a path to prosperity, the other 2 cents were restricted funds to parks, police & Fire. It enabled the city to use General purpose funds for retirement, Health Ins., Vision & Dental, payed Life Ins., raises, purchases of new Police Patrol Vehicles with new equipment, new Street Dept. Trucks all bought at State Bids. All heavy equipment for streets and parks, purchased from Federal Surplus, State Surplus and some from other Government sources.

Every city property with a building that we use has a back up generator & several spare portable generators. The sales tax will help us with the new Community Center at the old hospital property along with the planned Splash Pad next to it.

We as a Mayor Council form of government over 2 years lowered millage rates (real and personal property taxes) from 5 mil to 1.5 mil all cities of our size are still at 5 mil. If you would compare your property taxes to any city in Saline County, Pulaski County or other surrounding counties you will see it’s a far less tax burden to build and own a home or business in the City of Alexander, this is what your Mayor & Current City Council have done for it’s citizens and at every chance we get we strive to reduce your tax burden. This also gives us a selling point to grow and bring more business which it has, such as the old hospital property portions of that will be at low cost or even free to someone to build us a grocery store, and or strip mall.

There are so many projects in the city that we are undertaking at this time that will come to a halt or be severely hampered with a change in the Administration or Council. Many of my 14 years on the City Council and as Mayor has provided me with building resource contacts and understanding the State Laws concerning Municipalities to expedite projects. Municipal laws are completely different than regular contracts because of public money. We are audited each year and we are under audit now just about completed.

None of the other candidates for Mayor have any experience in the State Laws governing Municipalities nor spent any time even over the years at any City Council meetings.

There is this guy who wants to be Mayor T.J. Gaylor he has lived in the city about 5 years have not heard from that one yet, he says by living here he now understands small cities, all I know about him is a handyman.

And now Chrystal Herrmann is running for Mayor which she is so misinformed, she just showed up at our last month’s City Council Meeting for the first time. She Started off with improper campaign signs and other materials it says Mayor Elect if this is any indication of a Candidate for Mayor, you would think she could get that right. Mayor Elect is to be used after the election and only if you have been elected, she has not been elected. She says our city is not growing as though your eyes are deceiving you, Dollar Store, Big Red, Circle K Store, Marijuana Dispensary, our population has increased drastically with the last census which is incorrect but we have to just live with it.

We are working with developers on the 65 acres across from Meadows Edge entrance now to be Residential Housing & Multi- Family Housing, will have pool house and swimming pool.

Now to each point she has presented to the public as a Candidate.

• I have a open-door policy this is a small town and every citizen should have the right to address their Mayor with a problem.

• Transparency operations & financial budgets. It is open to the public in council meeting and to your elected representatives required by law, ask your representative for a copy, we have never been asked for a copy just when election time comes around.

• Individual neighborhoods infrastructure needs. We have a street Superintendent who takes those calls, we have addressed flooding issues all over the city, we have 50 years of collapsing street culverts and have replaced around 15 or more so far, we replace them as we find them. The city does not take care of sewer that is the water Dept. which we have nothing to do with. As far as the streets we have spent around $1,000,000.00 city money and State Aid Money on the streets and another $300,000.00 is coming this spring. We did bus routes first and the main streets on each end of a neighborhood so that every one in that neighborhood when leaving or coming home had a good street. We are now doing the individual cross streets in those neighborhoods. And when we are done not a single ward is being left behind all streets that need it are being overlayed that is our city goal, but remember there are 4 wards in the city neighborhoods and work has to be spread around so the representatives for the people of those wards get equal work.

• Addressing vacant & abandoned properties: Because you are so misinformed once again, the city has a Code Enforcement Officer who has either cited the owners properties through out the city or red tagged the dwellings and given them time to clean the property by at least a hundred warnings, for those that do not clean up a ticket is issued. It’s now in the hands of the District Court Judge which either gives more time by many month’s added to the month’s the officer has already given them to clean up, one of those we were working on took close to a year before the court finally fined him, he is paying off part of his fine working for our Street Dept., we do not control the courts all we can do is continue issuing warning and writing tickets.

• Focus on cleaning up and revitalizing city owned property. So misinformed again, she just did an FOIA to find out what properties the city owns. She says creating a city center to support community outreach; The city has just took possession of our newest Community Center on the old Hospital property will be used for community outreach, heating & cooling center in times of outage, senior ctr. indoor flea markets, rented for weddings, etc., there will be a new splash pad across from the community Ctr. for the public.

• Improving Quality of Life in our City; I have spent 24 years of my life fulfilling a promise to my wife to convince her to move back out to Woodland Hills. I started on the Woodland Hills Fire Board 10 years Worked for annexation into Alexander, took seat on the Alexander City Council 4 years, Elected Mayor 10 years the city was broken, and where were the others all those years now running for Mayor that claim they can do it so much better and faster after I’ve spent years repairing it. In the city park, yes the equipment is old there has been plans to update them, but if people were scared to even go into the park there was no need to update play ground eqpt., so we used the funding to beautify the park and make it safer and more Inviting. The restroom’s are already planned, we have already done the water and sewer to be sure it is available, we have plans for a 40x60 ft. Stage at the back of the park. As far as animal control I am working with the County and others with the Director Bryant Animal Control for a New Facility in Bryant that we all will use. Trash service has always been a problem, there is no way of billing or enforcing without having there water attached.

Re-Elect

Paul Mitchell

Mayor City of Alexander

Original source can be found here.