Arkansas Blog

As predicted, the first strategy of the LR Board is to defer action, wear out the crowd, appoint her in an executive session without prior notice. Stay on'em ,Craig!

Not that different than the city manipulating the Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission to cancel the upcoming August Fundraiser rather than take a position on the invited key note speaker - Father Michael Pfleger - "radioactive" priest from Chicago. It's the same old hat tricks.

A vote on reappointing Jane Dickey to the Central Arkansas Water Board was delayed due to the absence of one Dean Kumpuris who will reliably vote for reappointment. Dr. Dean must be the 6th vote needed to continue another 7 years of CAW corporate ownership.

Mayor Mark Toadola told folks privately he had the votes in his hip pocket with 6 'ayes' needed. Now Mark, how could you possibly know how Directors will vote unless you have been talking to them in private? Isn't that a violation of Arkansas law? You can't talk Board business in private with Board members without notifying the media, can you? Please answer publicly as I'd like to know if I'm wrong about that.

Dickey's reappointment is no longer a slam dunk. Next Tuesday the Board will almost certainly vote whether or not to continue her reign of terror on the CAW Board.

Lots of folks sent e-mails and made phone calls in opposition to Dickey's reappointment. Target everyone with your e-mails, but be advised Toadola and Kumpuris are hopelessly entrenched with the developers.

Mayor Toadola, remember when you told about 50 folks at a Sierra Club meeting during your campaign for mayor how you would help protect Lake Maumelle and would support the Watershed Management Plan. What have you done since getting elected, Mayor? You're nothing more than a Jim Dailey clone.

Dailey, bless his nondecisive heart, would have already made 3 speeches in favor of reappointing Miss Jane Hathaway, er, Dickey, and 2 speeches against. He would have declared he had friends on both sides. Then he would have asked Chief Real Estate Adviser and Brother In Law Hank Kelley which way to vote.

Sanford:
I do not know who you are but you do know how LR government use to be.

Dear Waterboy,

Confirmed conspiratorialists like you will never accept the truth at face value. For the record, the policy on important appointments has been to grant deferment of the vote until everyone is present. Seems fair to let all your elected officials have a right to vote on the CAW appointment - also it's fair to let people voice their opinions. The matter has been deferred for only one week and the two people who chose to show up on this item specifically were given the opportunity to voice their opposition to the CAW recommendation.

As to some of your other posting nonsense, I have never spoken privately or publicly about having six votes to confirm Ms. Dickey's appointment. As a matter of fact, I only vote if there is a tie. Your comment is wrong and is pure crap.

Finally, I am in support of the Watershed Management Plan, as I always have been.

By the way, thank you for your juvenile sarcasm.

Mark Stodola
Mayor

Well I for one say kudos to Mayor Stodola for posting on the blog thread. And he dishes with the best of them. Love the attitude and facts to back it up. Now that's an example of Strong Mayoring.

Ya just gotta love that that dialogue is brought out for all to see and partake in on so many issues through blogs. And kudos as well to Ark Times and Max for developing and nurturing the Ark Times blog, what is surely one of the "go to-must read" news, information and commentary outlets in Little Rock and statewide.

First, Mayor, thanks for speaking up here on such an important issue to our community. I've supported you since your run for Congress all those years ago, but it's only fair to tell you the Dickey appointment is a deal breaker with me. I believe she has done great harm and is irreversibly conflicted as a member of the CAW Commission. Only a developer's whore could add it up differently. If you preferred new blood rather than reappointing Larry Lichty, why doesn't the same principle apply here? We grow tired of double speak from politicians on this issue; you say you support the management plan, but which version? The original one, or the one rewritten by Dickey and Deltic? Did you support CAW's allowing development on the Ferguson property in the critical area of the watershed? ? Do you support the Quorum Court adopting strong protection measure through a zoning ordinance? What is your relationship to Dickey and the Rose Law Firm? Did you receive campaign contributions from Dickey and/or her law partners? For once, show your constituents our city board can say No! to the developers. We know you'd rather skirt these issues, slip through with meaningless answers, but we really need you to show strong backbone in protecting our water.

Kate, maybe you know me by my other name. Webb Hubbell.
(okay...that's a July Fool statement). I just emulate Yogi B and observe a lot just by watchin'.

"...deal breaker..." Si!!!

Hope Hizzoner comes back...kudos in order IF he's being square.
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Hi - I'm new to this blog so can someone tell me why the "posted by" name and the comments about someone are sometimes by the same person as if they are writing about themslves?

Oh, now I see, the poster's name is BELOW the line in the box with the next poster's message. Kinda counterintuitive, no? Maybe I'm just slow.

Add me to the list of those for whom reappointment of Dickey would be a deal-breaker. My God, if clean water isn't something we can ALL get behind then the planet is sho' nuf doomed. What's next, votes against oxygen?! I'm sympathetic to the mayor's respect for precedence (i.e., honoring Dr. Kumpuris's request to postpone discussion/vote). However, this seems like an issue important enough to open up a can o' Machiavelli....

Incidentally, Dr. Kumpuris is a gastroenterologist, no? Any chance his business traffic will increase if water quality declines...?

I too voted for Stodola. For me, too, it's a deal breaker. I, too, sent an email to the Mayor and Board of Directors asking them to deny Ms. DIckey another term. I, too, got the Mayor's non-answer answer.

In my email, I commented that the citizens of LR have little confidence in the city government. If Ms. Dickey gets reappointed, after all the comments from the public (oh, just two people had the time and ability to show up at the Board meeting!), then I think that we have gotten what we deserve -- a bunch of politicians bought and paid for by the developers. And that's because we're stupid enough to believe the campaign promises, such as those of Mayor Stodola.

Oh, by the way, I'm not the waterboy that posted the original comments. Although I've had, and infrequently used, this patronym for several years, apparently the system allows duplicate commenter names.

I am calling on all bloggers to line the stairs to city hall next tuesday and shout out loud as Mayor climbs past us...I Am Waterboy!!

Original 'waterboy'- just read your post from Wednesday night. I didn't realize that handle had been taken years ago as I don't remember coming across it and wouldn't have infringed if I had known.

I'll work on a new handle tomorrow. My apologies.