Our View

Our View

It’s often a good idea to ask a few questions

It’s refreshing to experience what it is like to hear about a newly elected politician challenge the political status quo and ask serious questions the political establishment isn’t accustomed to answering.

We’d like to commend newly elected West Memphis City Councilman Wayne Croom, a retired and successful businessman, for taking on this newfound responsibility as seriously as he is.

For example, during the final January meeting of the West Memphis City Council, the business at hand was waving competitive bids on several services provided to the city by private contractors. The session was carefully orchestrated with Mayor Bill Johnson and long-time City Attorney explaining the waiver process and categorizing instances where waiving bids, rather than soliciting bids from competitive businesses, just simply serves the city’s best interests.

Mayor Johnson reminded the council that it is common practice to waive bids every year for certain services regardless whether there may be other providers capable of providing services or needs at competitive prices.

Specifically, six bids are routinely waived for services such as the West Memphis Chamber of Commerce. In this particular instance, the chamber receives $10,000 from the city’s economic development budget as well as $20,000 from the city’s Advertising & Promotion.

Information from the latest A& P invoice described the chamber as “providing assistance to the West Memphis Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, hosting the grand opening event of the Big River Cross, assisting in the annual (Christmas) Tree lighting ceremony as well as organizing the city’s annual Christmas Parade.

Bids were also waived for certain accounting services for the utility and the airport, to regulatory consultants dealing with energy supply and citywide mosquito spraying.

Councilman Croom, who is also directly involved with the chamber and has been for years, immediately questioned why bids were being waved and made it clear that competitive bidding was good business practice.

Peeples justified the waiver practice by explaining to Croom there are instances where there is simply no competition and added, “sometimes you have a need for something and don’t have time to go through the process.”

Veteran Councilwoman Ramona Taylor explained to Croom, “there are some (service providers) we don’t bid out because we have a relationship.”

Okay, there are instances where waiving competitive bidding is understandable but we know bids can be drafted in ways that eliminate competitors and socalled “emergencies” can be stretched to waive bids for convenience purposes.

Croom’s inquisitiveness into the city’s status quo practices lets us, the taxpayers, feel confident there is a political watchdog looking out for the best interest of our tax dollars and the decisions made are fair and equitable to all concerned.

We’re also pleased to learn that Councilman Croom is going beyond his basic responsibilities by voluntarily attending other city committee meetings as a means of learning as much as he can about this city government. This is highly impressive and something that is rare among some members of this elected body. We look forward to some good things to occur as a result of Croom’s involvement and leadership.