Letter to the Editor

Public servants

You have surely heard the expression that perception is everything. I once heard that Jimmy Carter was one of the only presidents of the United States that regularly showed up every morning to work on time at practically 8 a.m. He treated it like a regular job.

Now then, I don't need the mechanic to work on my auto all the time, but when I need him, I expect his shop to be open. The same goes for practically any other type of business that provides a service to the public. What would you think if you went to the grocery store and they were open but they did not have enough people hired to check you out? Oh, but that already happens!

That being said, I do not dislike any of the public servants who work for the city of Pea Ridge. The mayor is a nice enough fellow, as is the chief of police. The issue that I have is that none of the public servants seem to be accountable to anyone. If I want to talk to the mayor about a major issue or a minor issue, half of the time he is not in the office and no one at City Hall actually knows where he is at or when he will be back in the office. The same goes for the police chief. It seems that there is no accountability.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that the more money that the City Council pays the mayor, the less time he spends in the office. Yes, I know that he is gone to Little Rock for city business a lot of the time, but how does that away time really help the citizens? It also seems like none of the other city employees have any specific answers when the mayor is gone on one of his out of town trips.

Pea Ridge now has a new city hall and court room. Will this equate to better service or less service? Have you called to talk to them yet? Well, I called them and now they have an answering machine to answer the phone. Apparently they spent so much money building the building that they can't afford to pay a live individual to actually answer the phone.

The same goes for the Police Department. No one can make an executive decision if the chief is not there. I have been by to see the chief a couple of times and apparently he did not get the message or then again, maybe he did not want to find out what I wanted because he never followed up with me. What am I supposed to do? I am pretty sure that he does not want me to find out where he lives and go to his personal home every time I have a minor issue. I already know where the mayor lives.

Am I the only one in town who gets frustrated about these issues?

Boyd B. McNiel

Pea Ridge, Ark.

Editorial on 09/14/2016