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[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Today on a very special edition of Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy, Stodola, Sabin and Scott, three different perspectives on being the mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mark Stodola was the mayor. Warwick Sabin ran to be the mayor. Frank Scott is the mayor. Let's hear perspectives from all three on today's Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy.
If you're a regular listener to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy, you know she always begins the program with a profile of her guest, the beginnings of their lives. Let's do that with Mark Stodola, who served as mayor of Little Rock from 2007 to 2018, Warwick Sabin, who ran for mayor in 2018. Frank Scott, who became mayor in that election in 2018. First up, Mark Stodola.
[00:00:50] KM: Mark Stodola graduated from the University of Iowa, was a double major in Political Science and Journalism. He received his law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. I gather from your double major choices in Journalism and Political Science that you always wanted to be in politics, am I right?
[00:01:07] MS: Well, I think public service is probably a more appropriate way to characterize that. I’m not sure that politics is the first definition I’d give to it, but certainly, you have an opportunity in public service to do it through elected politics. I’ve been fortunate to be involved and to serve in a couple of different capacities in an elected position.
I’ve been excited to do that. I think public service is a great honor and I’m so very thankful to the citizens for giving me the opportunity to try and hopefully, use some of my leadership skills to move this city forward. Really, my desire has always been to make Little Rock the next great American city in the south. That requires facing problems head on and facing challenges and also recognizing successes. We certainly have all of the above, and we always will as a city. Any big urban city has all of those kinds of things. They have great successes, they have challenge, they have problems that need to be solved. I’m just fortunate to be in a position where hopefully, I can lend some talent and some direction to try and take us forward.
[00:02:17] KM: You’re very ambitious. You went to be, I mean not only having a double major, but you then went and got a law degree. Why?
[00:02:26] MS: When you look back at that, I only think of the favorable fun things. You know, sometimes you block all of the horrible all-night studies, all of those stresses of the one exam that your whole grade rests on, the bar exam that you got to pass, which thankfully, I passed the first occasion. Yeah, you don’t remember all of those stresses that were there. But there certainly were. Yeah, I think the law was a great vehicle to understand our system of democracy.
Not everybody does and certainly in this climate, political climate, I’m not sure how much people pay attention to what the law really is. The rule of law is very important. It provides a framework of discipline for responsibility and for making sure that hopefully, everybody’s on equal playing field. I know, whether it’s on issues of race, whether it’s issues of poverty or income, a lot of people are not on the same level of opportunity. Part of our job as public servants is to try and do what we can to keep some doors open, or make sure those doors stay open, to give people an opportunity to maximize their own talents.
[00:03:42] KM: Were your parents civic minded?
[00:03:45] MS: My mother’s a school teacher, so certainly, yes. Absolutely. My father was a – he actually was in sales most of his life, so he was a great communicator.
[00:03:55] KM: When you got out of high school, or college I mean, out of law school, you went – you started, you went into law, private practice and you became the senior partner at what was it? Catlett and [inaudible 00:04:05]?
[00:04:06] MS: That was a while back. I’ve done a lot of things professionally. I moved from Fayetteville to Little Rock and I wanted to be a deputy prosecutor. I wanted to be a trial lawyer. Those positions are pretty coveted. I didn’t grow up in Little Rock, so I didn’t have anybody opening any doors for me and –
[00:04:26] KM: Where did you grow up?
[00:04:28] MS: I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I was –
[00:04:30] KM: That’s why you went to college there.
[00:04:32] MS: Conceived in Minnesota, raised in Iowa. When I got old enough to make decisions, I moved to Arkansas.
[00:04:37] KM: You’re kidding me. You came to Arkansas for the first time when you were at Fayetteville?
[00:04:40] MS: Yeah.
[00:04:41] KM: Why did you choose Fayetteville?
[00:04:44] MS: Well, I was in – I couldn’t get the history lesson here.
[00:04:48] KM: That’s what I want. Yeah.
[00:04:49] MS: While I was at the University of Iowa. I was in Air Force ROTC, I wanted to be a pilot, I even wanted to be an astronaut. I was a congressional nominee to the Air Force Academy my senior year in high school and I had been a foreign exchange student through the American field service program and lived in Istanbul Turkey, which was really a wonderful, eye-opening experience, s a 17-year-old, you can imagine.
When I came back, I was a congressional nominee and went to off with their for-space tech physical, passed the physical but they said, well, I got mononucleosis, because my system was weak in my senior year. I was out for, I guess, two or three weeks. They said, “Well, we’d love to take you at the Air Force Academy, but we can’t because you’ve had mono and you got to wait at least a year.” I thought, “Well, okay.” I went on to the University of Iowa and I was in the Air Force ROTC there. I was in my flight, and I was a flight nominee to the Air Force Academy.
I went and took the exam again and they said, “Well, we’d love to take you, but we can’t make you a pilot, you’ve got 20/20 in one eye and 20/25.” I had an astigmatism in my right eye. Of course, I could see perfectly and I said, “What do you mean? What’s an astigmatism?” They said, “Well, I’m sorry, but you know, you got to have perfect eyesight to fly. You can’t be a pilot but by golly, you knocked it out on navigation. I mean, you got 99.9 on navigation, we want you to be a navigator.”
I said, “Well, where does a navigator sit?” They said, “Well, a navigator sits right behind the pilot.” I said, “Well, if I can’t fly the plane, I’m not going to do that.” Anyway, I went in to the third category, which were all social sciences and things like that.
I’d been thinking about being a lawyer anyway and I just knew that that probably meant I was going to make it a career. I went in the Air Force and thought if I’m going to be involved in this, and I don’t want to be on the ground, I want to be in the air force. It’s harder to shoot you down if you’re in the air. I thought being an officer, being a jag officer was a better option as well.
The first letter of acceptance I happened to get was form the University of Arkansas and I sent my – I’ve worked my way through college. I sent my money in to reserve my seat and then I took off and worked at a resort in upstate New York. I had a girlfriend who unfortunately, broke up with me, and so I was ready to get out of Iowa anyway. I went and worked in upstate New York then.
[00:07:39] KM: Then came to Arkansas. You never went into the Air Force?
[00:07:43] MS: Yeah. No, I was in the Air Force reserves for six years.
[00:07:45] KM: For six years.
[00:07:46] MS: Decided to move to Little Rock and wanted to be a trial lawyer, who didn’t have any positions. I went to work for Art Gibbons, who needed a lock art for some research. He was a state representative at the time and took the bar exam, passed, and then he said, “You know, I can’t pay you what you should be making.” He helped me get a job and I became a public defender. I got the trial experience and I became a public defender.
[00:08:15] ANNOUNCER: That's a bit of the background of Mark Stodola, who was mayor of Little Rock for more than 10 years. Next, let's hear about the beginning of Warwick Sabin's professional life. He ran for mayor of Little Rock three years ago in 2018.
[00:08:27] KM: First things first, you grew up in New York City.
[00:08:29] WS: Uh-huh.
[00:08:31] KM: How did you wind up in Arkansas?
[00:08:32] WS: Well, I mean, I always tell people, there's a long story and a short story. I got to meet Bill Clinton between my junior and senior of high school. That was pretty enlightening to me. I'd never met a politician before. New York's a lot different than Arkansas. At least I didn't get exposed to politics. I've never even met my state representative, or my state senator, much less a congressman, or a governor, or mayor, or anything like that.
To get to meet the president of United States was pretty remarkable for a 16-year-old. When I went back for my senior year of high school at the time, I just really wanted to go to an Ivy League school. I’ve worked really hard. I build up my grades. I got a lot of – Go ahead.
[00:09:10] KM: When you went back to where?
[00:09:11] WS: For my senior year of high school.
[00:09:13] KM: Oh, okay.
[00:09:13] WS: Yeah. Just because I had met Bill Clinton during the summer.
[00:09:16] KM: Then you had gone back to do your senior year in high school. Okay.
[00:09:18] WS: Then, I was getting a lot of nice scholarship offers from different schools around the country. One of them was Arkansas. I was like, “Well, that's where Bill Clinton's from.” I really liked him, and so I bet I’ll like that place. They were offering me a trip to visit Fayetteville. I thought, “I'd like to check it out.” I took the trip. The truth is, I mean, I just fell in love with Fayetteville from the moment I got there.
Even more importantly, I met a woman named Diane Blair, who you probably maybe knew at one point. She was a political science professor up there and been involved in so many different projects here in Arkansas. She and I really hit it off. She said, “If you come to school here, I'll be your advisor. You can work at the White House in the summers,” because she was good friends with the Clintons. I mean, it was really more about a heart choice than a head choice for me, because it felt right in a way that I could still can't even explain to this day. I never looked back and decided to go to school, even though everybody back in New York was wondering what was going on.
[00:10:17] KM: Yeah, because you're probably a straight-A student in New York City and you're going to go to Podunk, Arkansas they thought, and into the mountains of the Ozarks.
[00:10:26] WS: That was what it was like. I mean, that's what they thought. I'll tell you, I was the valedictorian of my high school. When I gave my speech as a – what's the polite way to put it? As a – oh, I don't know.
[00:10:39] KM: In your face?
[00:10:40] WS: In your face. Thank you.
[00:10:41] KM: You’re welcome.
[00:10:42] WS: Kind of thing. I quoted Fulbright and I quoted Clinton. I quoted all these are Arkansans in my speech when I was graduating, because everybody again thought I was a little nutty to come down here, but it's been the best thing I could have ever done.
[00:10:53] KM: Oh, we're so glad you did. Your dad's an artist in New York, right?
[00:10:56] WS: That's right.
[00:10:57] KM: I met your dad at your wedding. Charming.
[00:11:00] WS: Yeah, good guy. Yeah.
[00:11:00] KM: Both your parents are charming.
[00:11:01] WS: Yeah, I'm a lucky guy. I've got great parents and a great brother and sister too.
[00:11:04] KM: Is he do that for a living? Does he get paid?
[00:11:07] WS: Yeah. I mean, when he started out like you, he had to have a bunch of part-time jobs, because he had actually gotten a law degree and he had been a lawyer and then decided I guess right around the time he was about 30-years-old that he wanted to be an artist. He definitely had to make ends meet at first, but then eventually broke through and as I was growing up, that's what he did for a living.
[00:11:27] KM: There's two of you gentlemen in your family that make decisions on the heart.
[00:11:33] WS: That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, I mean, it's not all heart. I mean, I think that there's obviously, thinking through what you're going to do, but I think you do have to be willing to take risks and follow your dreams too.
[00:11:46] KM: That's exactly right. That's a sign of all successful people. It's the land of opportunity in Arkansas too, don't you think?
[00:11:52] WS: Definitely. I've always thought that from the moment I got here and I think, sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are to be able to have the access that we have to people. I mean, you mentioned your experience, you're paying it forward. You're using everything that you learned and helping other people figure out how they can do the same things. I found that exists everywhere in Arkansas that nobody will tell you that they won't sit down and talk to you and a lot of people become mentors and they help again, pay it forward and bring other people up behind them.
[00:12:24] KM: While you were at the University of Arkansas, you started – you campaigned to have all the schools in the University of Arkansas system officially observe the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
[00:12:36] WS: That's right. You want to know why or how?
[00:12:39] KM: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how old are you? 19?
[00:12:43] WS: Well, I mean, by the time I was student body president, I guess I was 20. I had arrived in Fayetteville and for my freshman year, and we weren't celebrating Martin Luther King Day that freshman year of college in 1994-95.
[00:12:56] KM: You did up in New York?
[00:12:57] WS: Yes. I grew up. We had the holiday. I mean, Arkansas I found out was one of the only states in the country that didn't celebrate it. I thought that was odd for two reasons; one is it didn't correspond with what I knew about the people from Arkansas that I met, who really were very tolerant and accepting. The image that the state had because it didn't celebrate the holiday, to me didn't correspond with the people. It gives us a bad reputation, makes us look bad.
Number two, the university itself had this really good reputation. It was the first southern university that admitted an African-American student back in 1948 when admitted Silas Hunt into the law school. A lot of people still don't know that to this day.
[00:13:42] KM: I didn’t know that. Yeah.
[00:13:44] WS: I was like, okay the university's got this great reputation and it actually was very progressive when it comes to that particular issue, so why aren't we commemorating the main civil rights leader of our nation's history? When I got to be student body president, I made that a big part of my platform.
By the way, another thing that had occurred to me was knowing what I knew by then about how African-American students felt at the University of Arkansas. I learned from talking to my friends that Fayetteville was a very different place. Lily-white, barely any African-American, especially back in the 90s there's hardly anybody there. We really should be bending over backwards to do everything we can to make the place more welcoming. By not commemorating Martin Luther King Day to me, it just felt like we were not doing that.
[00:14:28] KM: You're also became the president of the Young Democrats in Fayetteville.
[00:14:31] WS: Yeah, that was before I was student body president.
[00:14:33] KM: You always knew that you want to be in politics, I guess.
[00:14:36] WS: Well, yes and no. To be honest with you, it was a weird thing, because when I was a kid, I loved to write, and so I thought I would definitely be in journalism. This is a theme that has repeated itself throughout my life, because first thing I did when I arrived at Fayetteville was I signed up to write for the newspaper. That's what I did. I've wrote for the newspaper the first couple years and I think I got pressed into getting into student government, because my fraternity house needed a representative and nobody wanted to do it. They're like, “Warwick, you do it.” I did it.
[00:15:04] KM: You’re an overachiever, you do it.
[00:15:07] WS: Well, basically. They had me in there and then the next thing I know a couple years later, I'm running for student body president. This has happened over and over again with me. Every time I basically try to get into journalism and writing, something else sidelines me. I did write for the Arkansas Times as we'll probably get to and I did get to publish the Oxford American.
[00:15:26] KM: You have a theme of writing when I was reading about you. You have a definite theme of writing, and I wondered why you were a politician. I can't believe you already got to that, because I was like, “He's a writer. Why is he a politician?”
[00:15:38] WS: It just keeps happening.
[00:15:39] KM: You can't help it. I guess, it's in your destiny.
[00:15:41] WS: Well, we'll see.
Even more importantly, I met a woman named Diane Blair, who you probably maybe knew at one point. She was a political science professor up there and been involved in so many different projects here in Arkansas. She and I really hit it off. She said, “If you come to school here, I'll be your advisor. You can work at the White House in the summers,” because she was good friends with the Clintons. I mean, it was really more about a heart choice than a head choice for me, because it felt right in a way that I could still can't even explain to this day. I never looked back and decided to go to school, even though everybody back in New York was wondering what was going on.
[00:10:17] KM: Yeah, because you're probably a straight-A student in New York City and you're going to go to Podunk, Arkansas they thought, and into the mountains of the Ozarks.
[00:10:26] WS: That was what it was like. I mean, that's what they thought. I'll tell you, I was the valedictorian of my high school. When I gave my speech as a – what's the polite way to put it? As a – oh, I don't know.
[00:10:39] KM: In your face?
[00:10:40] WS: In your face. Thank you.
[00:10:41] KM: You’re welcome.
[00:10:42] WS: Kind of thing. I quoted Fulbright and I quoted Clinton. I quoted all these are Arkansans in my speech when I was graduating, because everybody again thought I was a little nutty to come down here, but it's been the best thing I could have ever done.
[00:10:53] KM: Oh, we're so glad you did. Your dad's an artist in New York, right?
[00:10:56] WS: That's right.
[00:10:57] KM: I met your dad at your wedding. Charming.
[00:11:00] WS: Yeah, good guy. Yeah.
[00:11:00] KM: Both your parents are charming.
[00:11:01] WS: Yeah, I'm a lucky guy. I've got great parents and a great brother and sister too.
[00:11:04] KM: Is he do that for a living? Does he get paid?
[00:11:07] WS: Yeah. I mean, when he started out like you, he had to have a bunch of part-time jobs, because he had actually gotten a law degree and he had been a lawyer and then decided I guess right around the time he was about 30-years-old that he wanted to be an artist. He definitely had to make ends meet at first, but then eventually broke through and as I was growing up, that's what he did for a living.
[00:11:27] KM: There's two of you gentlemen in your family that make decisions on the heart.
[00:11:33] WS: That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, I mean, it's not all heart. I mean, I think that there's obviously, thinking through what you're going to do, but I think you do have to be willing to take risks and follow your dreams too.
[00:11:46] KM: That's exactly right. That's a sign of all successful people. It's the land of opportunity in Arkansas too, don't you think?
[00:11:52] WS: Definitely. I've always thought that from the moment I got here and I think, sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are to be able to have the access that we have to people. I mean, you mentioned your experience, you're paying it forward. You're using everything that you learned and helping other people figure out how they can do the same things. I found that exists everywhere in Arkansas that nobody will tell you that they won't sit down and talk to you and a lot of people become mentors and they help again, pay it forward and bring other people up behind them.
[00:12:24] KM: While you were at the University of Arkansas, you started – you campaigned to have all the schools in the University of Arkansas system officially observe the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
[00:12:36] WS: That's right. You want to know why or how?
[00:12:39] KM: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how old are you? 19?
[00:12:43] WS: Well, I mean, by the time I was student body president, I guess I was 20. I had arrived in Fayetteville and for my freshman year, and we weren't celebrating Martin Luther King Day that freshman year of college in 1994-95.
[00:12:56] KM: You did up in New York?
[00:12:57] WS: Yes. I grew up. We had the holiday. I mean, Arkansas I found out was one of the only states in the country that didn't celebrate it. I thought that was odd for two reasons; one is it didn't correspond with what I knew about the people from Arkansas that I met, who really were very tolerant and accepting. The image that the state had because it didn't celebrate the holiday, to me didn't correspond with the people. It gives us a bad reputation, makes us look bad.
Number two, the university itself had this really good reputation. It was the first southern university that admitted an African-American student back in 1948 when admitted Silas Hunt into the law school. A lot of people still don't know that to this day.
[00:13:42] KM: I didn’t know that. Yeah.
[00:13:44] WS: I was like, okay the university's got this great reputation and it actually was very progressive when it comes to that particular issue, so why aren't we commemorating the main civil rights leader of our nation's history? When I got to be student body president, I made that a big part of my platform.
By the way, another thing that had occurred to me was knowing what I knew by then about how African-American students felt at the University of Arkansas. I learned from talking to my friends that Fayetteville was a very different place. Lily-white, barely any African-American, especially back in the 90s there's hardly anybody there. We really should be bending over backwards to do everything we can to make the place more welcoming. By not commemorating Martin Luther King Day to me, it just felt like we were not doing that.
[00:14:28] KM: You're also became the president of the Young Democrats in Fayetteville.
[00:14:31] WS: Yeah, that was before I was student body president.
[00:14:33] KM: You always knew that you want to be in politics, I guess.
[00:14:36] WS: Well, yes and no. To be honest with you, it was a weird thing, because when I was a kid, I loved to write, and so I thought I would definitely be in journalism. This is a theme that has repeated itself throughout my life, because first thing I did when I arrived at Fayetteville was I signed up to write for the newspaper. That's what I did. I've wrote for the newspaper the first couple years and I think I got pressed into getting into student government, because my fraternity house needed a representative and nobody wanted to do it. They're like, “Warwick, you do it.” I did it.
[00:15:04] KM: You’re an overachiever, you do it.
[00:15:07] WS: Well, basically. They had me in there and then the next thing I know a couple years later, I'm running for student body president. This has happened over and over again with me. Every time I basically try to get into journalism and writing, something else sidelines me. I did write for the Arkansas Times as we'll probably get to and I did get to publish the Oxford American.
[00:15:26] KM: You have a theme of writing when I was reading about you. You have a definite theme of writing, and I wondered why you were a politician. I can't believe you already got to that, because I was like, “He's a writer. Why is he a politician?”
[00:15:38] WS: It just keeps happening.
[00:15:39] KM: You can't help it. I guess, it's in your destiny.
[00:15:41] WS: Well, we'll see.
[00:15:42] ANNOUNCER: That’s Warwick Sabin, who lost the Little Rock mayoral election three years ago to the man we'll hear from next, current Mayor of Little Rock, Frank Scott.
[00:15:51] KM: Your parents played a big part in your development. Tell us about your family, and growing up in Southwest Little Rock.
[00:15:58] FS: Well, being born and raised and still reside in Southwest Little Rock, you definitely understand the differences, particularly when I was a banker as well, leaving southwest Little Rock, driving down to Ranch Drive and seeing the differences in how development at a erupted amongst our city, and the need for a greater focus on development in every area of our city, to ensure that there were no haves and have nots.
That's been a uniting vision, a vision of growth and transformation for the entire city. As we all grow together. I’m excited that I've had the roots of my both my parents to play a large role in my development, and seeing how their journeys in life have helped me become the first college graduate in our family on both sides of the family. Coming from modest means is truly by God's grace and mercy that I stand here today as the state's capital city mayor.
[00:16:55] KM: Your father was a firefighter?
[00:16:56] FS: He was a retired firefighter.
[00:16:59] KM: I thought he was a Baptist preacher.
[00:17:00] FS: No. That's me.
[00:17:03] KM: I thought that came down through the family.
[00:17:05] FS: No, not at all. I'm the only one in the family.
[00:17:10] KM: You said, “My mother is definitely the backbone of our family with what she has persevered in life.” What do you mean by that?
[00:17:17] FS: Well, she was a young teenage mother when she had my older sister, and I came shortly after that. If you understand the sacrifices that she's made for our entire family, it's unbelievable, and the things that she's persevered through. She's truly demonstrated not only work ethic, but reliability, dependability, that has poured into not only my life, but my siblings’ life. Without her and of course, my father, I wouldn't be the man I am today. I definitely key into a young single mother, and what she was able to do and persevere through has truly built the character in my life.
[00:17:56] KM: How much is teenage pregnancy a problem in Little Rock?
[00:17:59] FS: Well, I think it's not just necessarily a problem in Little Rock. It's something that we're seeing across the nation when we're having children having children. Many times, we see different things. We want to do our best to ensure that there are wraparound services for everyone, to ensure that they have the positive movement.
[00:18:17] KM: Wraparound services. I like that term. Is that niche? You make that word up?
[00:18:21] FS: No.
[00:18:22] KM: You said on your website, I read your whole website.
[00:18:24] FS: I can tell.
[00:18:26] KM: I got a million quotes from your website. You said, that speaking about your parents, they sacrificed to raise you and your siblings with values of faith, hard work, community and self-determination, and that this foundation helped you, like you just said, become the first person in your family to graduate college. You went to college at the University of Memphis. You've also said on your website, it really changes your life. How did it do that?
[00:18:50] FS: Reason, many people who know me, and some who don't know that I'm an introvert.
[00:18:54] KM: What?
[00:18:56] FS: That knows how to turn it on from time to time. I'm clearly an introvert. I was a shy kid, young teenager at the time. and I really came into my own and understanding myself in college. That really driv, really expounded upon the public service that was inside me that I didn't – I wasn't aware of when I would go in all of the church community services that would go, where my mother would drag me through it as a young kid, growing up in Little Rock when we were a Greater Second Baptist Church.
When you see that, and you know that, I didn't know I had it in me until I got into college and really, I figured out what I was most passionate about. That was to give back and to give to others. That played a large role in me understanding and having that confidence that I didn't know was there.
[00:19:42] KM: Empowered you?
[00:19:44] FS: It did.
[00:19:45] KM: You know, Kristen Lynch called you an old soul. Your classmates called you Mr. University Memphis.
[00:19:54] FS: Where did you get that from?
[00:19:55] KM: I don't know. I found it somewhere online, where he quoted calling you “An old soul.”
[00:20:01] FS: I am.
[00:20:04] KM: You get a master's from Fayetteville.
[00:20:05] FS: University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
[00:20:07] KM: Oh, and I love this part about you when I read about you. This is when you became endeared to me, because I love ballet. You took ballet from Michael Tisdale.
[00:20:18] FS: Tidwell. Yeah. Seven years. I've been known to understand ballet and jazz and hip-hop and modern dance. I know the difference between Isidora Duncan and Jenski and have an alien Judo Jameson.
[00:20:34] GM: Yeah, you’ve won us over now.
[00:20:37] FS: I know what a [inaudible 00:20:38] and fondue and everything.
[00:20:40] KM: I cannot believe it.
[00:20:41] FS: First, second, third and fourth position.
[00:20:44] KM: You still live and preach in Southwest Little Rock and attended church there. Why is that important to you?
[00:20:48] FS: It's my personal calling, is to preach and teach the gospel.
[00:20:53] KM: I love it.
[00:20:54] ANNOUNCER: That's the mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, Frank Scott. On this special edition of Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy, we're calling the program Stodola, Sabin and Scott. Interesting perspectives from three men who were Little Rock mayor, are Little Rock mayor, and wanted to be Little Rock mayor. Next up, we'll take a look at some of the ideas these three men had. Starting with former mayor of Little Rock, Mark Stodola, right after the break.
[BREAK]
[00:21:21] GM: You're listening to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy, a productionofflagandbanner.com. Over 40 years ago with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. During the last four decades, the business has grown and changed along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge.
In 1995, she embraced the internet and rebranded her company as simply, flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. Since then, she has founded the non-profit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom, began publishing her magazine, Brave. In 2016, branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel and podcast. In 2020, Kerry McCoy Enterprises acquired ourcornermarket.com, an online company specializing in American made plaques, signage and memorials for over 20 years. If you'd like to sponsor this show, or get involved with any of Kerry McCoy’s enterprises, send an email to me, Gray, at gray@flagandbanner.com. Telling American made stories, selling American made flags, the flagandbanner.com.
[00:22:30] ANNOUNCER: You're listening to a special edition of Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. I guess, you could call it a mayor's roundtable. Our guests are Mark Stodola, Warwick Sabin and Frank Scott. Stodola was mayor, Sabin ran for mayor and Scott is the mayor. Let's go through all three gentleman's ideas about running a city like Little Rock, Arkansas, beginning with former mayor for 10 years plus, Mark Stodola. A few items that were on his mind about the city of Little Rock when he was mayor; crime, the AmeriCorps system, our airport, and a possible Amazon distribution center. Let's hear what he had to say back then
[00:23:08] KM: The department of justice recognized you nationally for your innovative juvenile diversion program. What was that?
[00:23:16] MS: Well, it was a program where we would actually take kids that were in trouble and as a prosecutor, I’d make a decision on deferring their charges, so that they did not have a record. They would come before a juvenile peer panel of kids of similar age, who had been in trouble themselves. It was a process where you didn’t admit you were guilty, but you had to accept the responsibility for the conduct that brought you before the panel.
[00:23:49] KM: You were judged by your peers?
[00:23:52] MS: They would listen to the story, they would listen to what happened, which is actually a criminal activity. You usually have a police officer who testified by it as well. Then, that peer panel would fashion a punishment. Usually, and the fascinating thing is they usually were tougher than the juvenile judges were in many respects.
They’d come forward to some sort of probationary process, where they do community service work, they do those kinds of things. We had the panels at watershed, we had a couple of the schools and things like that. The secret to it all was that the panel was made up of people who have been on the other side before. They’d done something wrong. They’d gone before the panel. They did their community service work. Then, the one requirement that everyone absolutely had is they had to also then sit on a panel and judge a kid that was going to come before them.
[00:24:49] KM: And pay forward what they learned.
[00:24:50] MS: It really, really put a level of responsibility and understanding that they never ever would have appreciated otherwise. You’re talking about some history here. I mean, certainly back then, we had a big gang issue, and so we needed some additional legislation there.
[00:25:04] KM: Was that about the time the documentary about Little Rock came out?
[00:25:09] MS: Well, back in 1993 and we had all of the gang – you know, we had a big gang issue, much different than today by the way, but still, using the word gang is the common vernacular between the two timelines. But then it was much different, it was based on colors, geography, criminal activity.
[00:25:32] KM: Crips and the bloods.
[00:25:32] MS: Crips, bloods, folks, glass lords, you name it. You know, I had a gang prosecution unit, they had to learn gang language, gang signs, the territories, you know, we had a – biggest challenge was trying to keep our witnesses alive between the time incident occurred to when they had to testify.
I received a big grant nationally from the corporation for national community service called the AmeriCorps folks, and we’re going to have 30 AmeriCorps kids in our most troubled, challenged, hot spot neighborhoods – we’ve got seven of them that we’ve identified. They’re going to be working all year-long helping those neighborhoods. They’re going to be helping improve the houses that people live in. They’re going to be doing energy efficiency. They’re going to do improved safety checks. They’re going to be trying to create neighborhood watch programs. I mean, working with our housing and our COPP officers. Really trying to transform those neighborhoods.
The one nice thing about that is that these AmeriCorps kids, and it’s not just kids, we’ve got a couple of older people that are in there, too. It gives them the opportunity for a $5,000 college, or extra educational attainment type certificate if they want to a college, to Pulaski Tech, or to whatever trade school they might want to go to. A $5,000 stipend goes with that if you complete your year of work in AmeriCorps.
[00:26:59] KM: I heard that you put in a bid for Little Rock to become an Amazon distribution center. Is that a rumor? Is that true?
[00:27:07] MS: Well, we’re talking about it. We don’t meet the technical requirements of the request and everybody is tripping over themselves about this, and spending a lot of money and a lot of time on it. We’re going to approach this in a unique way, let me put it like that.
[00:27:22] KM: What does that mean?
[00:27:23] MS: I am not going to tell you.
[00:27:24] KM: Oh, it’s a secret. Well, we are in a great location. We are centrally located for a distribution center, but we don’t have an airport.
[00:27:31] MS: Well, we don’t have transit. We don’t have an international airport.
[00:27:34] KM: That’s what we don’t have is an international airport.
[00:27:35] MS: If you have an Amazon – we have plans for an international airport.
[00:27:38] KM: We do?
[00:27:39] MS: Yeah, we do.
[00:27:41] KM: Since when?
[00:27:42] MS: Well, you can have Ron Mathew on and he can tell you all about it, our airport director. Yeah, we’ve got plans for – We got plans. They can build it. They just need to have the airlines that want to come here and fly to these foreign cities. I suspect that if Amazon for some reason decides they want to come to Little Rock, Arkansas, you can bet for sure that we will have an international airport.
[00:28:03] KM: I don’t know if that makes me happy or sad, because I love coming to the Little Rock Airport and just walking straight to the gate. Then again, I hate all the – you have to have it layover everywhere you go.
[00:28:14] MS: You know, when you look at the request for proposal, it’s a little incongruent. They want the 24/7 walkability, kind of things that you talk about downtown, but they also want – they want to build out on a 100 acres. Well, you are not going to find a 100 acres in downtown, Little Rock. You’re not going to find that.
[00:28:34] KM: you’re lucky.
[00:28:35] MS: The only way you are going to find that is on a green field site. They’ve mentioned that they will be looking at a green field sites, too.
[00:28:42] KM: What do you mean by green field site?
[00:28:43] MS: We’ve got a lot of qualities.
[00:28:44] KM: What do you mean by green field site? One that needs to be demolished?
[00:28:47] MS: One that didn’t have anything on it. One that’s site ready, but don’t have any buildings on it. We understand that we don’t meet the technical requirements. It’s an exercise. It’s an opportunity for us to pull together for businesses like an Amazon. These businesses are the future. For us to pull together what our real talent base is. It’s been really exciting for me to get the emails and the information from UA Little Rock, from UCA, from a lot of our technology businesses and the talent pool that we’ve got.
When you begin to see these kinds of things, it opens up the door probably for many, many other opportunities for economic development. There is a real salutatory benefit above and beyond whether Amazon would ever think to come here or not.
[00:29:34] KM: That’s right. You’re putting it altogether and making you think, and you’re getting your creative vibes together and then you can start looking for more grants or opportunities for other people.
[00:29:40] ANNOUNCER: Mark Stodola, thinking back to the items that were on his to-do list and his wish list during his tenure as Mayor of Little Rock 2007 to 2018. We're looking back at people who were mayor of Little Rock, wanted to be mayor and our mayor in Frank Scott. Now, we’re going to get to Warwick Sabin, what kind of ideas did he have? What was important to him when he ran for mayor in 2018?
[00:30:08] WS: What I love about public service is what I love about all the things that we've been talking about. It's the ability to do good for your community, the ability to scale up an idea. To me, I can't live in a place to not want to make it a better place and not want to create more opportunity for others. To me, public service is one of the best ways to do that.
[00:30:29] KM: I went to your website and I looked at your real results page. You have things that you've done; ethics reform is a biggie, jobs and entrepreneurship, we've talked about energy, government transparency, education.
[00:30:42] WS: What I'm proud of, first of all, is that I came into the legislature in the minority. It's actually the first time the Democrats had been in the minority in a 138 years. It was 51-49 in the house. My second term, it was 64-36. Now in my third term, it’s 76-24. I'm in a super minority now.
All throughout there, I was working in the minority. Yet, I was able to pass all this significant legislation that you were talking about that you can see on my website. I'm proud of all of it, because it all is again, part of creating more opportunity for people in the state. Whether it's again creating a new energy economy, whether it's making our government more transparent and more ethical, or whether it's making it easier to start a business, or grow a business here in the state, I mean, that's really what's been motivating me.
I think, when you have good ideas and you can work well with other people and you can convince them of the merits of those ideas and you can get stuff done no matter what party you're in and all of that.
[00:31:45] KM: You've been known for being able to work across the table on these important issues, which you just talked about. I had some quotes somewhere about how you were written up as the up-and-coming freshman in the house. How are you able to do that? Why can you work across all and nobody else can?
[00:32:04] WS: Well, I don't know of anybody else. I mean, I think there are a lot of people who can, I mean, to be honest with you. I just think, a lot of it is just about having the patience, again, to listen to other people, to not always think that you have all the answers going into it. I mean, you can do your research and you can be prepared, but you also have to be willing to be flexible and that's how our system was designed.
I do think a lot of it, like you said also, it's just the hard work. I think, people respect you when they see that you've put the time and effort in, and that – I always tell people when it comes to the legislature, but also everything else I do, I never regret that extra meeting, or that extra phone call, because sometimes that's how the deal is done. I think, sometimes people get tired of working on an issue, because it gets frustrating and they think, “Oh, if we can't just come to agreement right here, then let's just throw our hands up and walk away.”
There's some of these issues, I had to meet many, many times with people, until we got to the point where we could make it happen. Then we did it and we got it done, and that's what we're here to do.
[00:33:08] KM: I have a quote from you on your website. It says, “I'm running for mayor, because Little Rock has been standing still for too long. While we see other dynamic southern cities leading the way with fresh ideas, our leadership has just settled for the status quo. It's time for that to change.” Most everything you said today, somebody came to you and asked you if you would take a job. I don't think you've ever applied for job in your life. Even running for congressman, somebody came to you and said, “I think, you'd be good at this position.” Did someone come to you on the mayor and say, “I think you'd be good to this,” or did you just – is this one that you just think, “I'd be great at this,” and decided to do?
[00:33:52] WS: I love that question, because I've never really ever thought about it that way and that's really interesting. This one definitely came from me. In fact, almost the opposite happened, because when it got made known that I was looking at this, people were like, “Why would you want to be mayor? You've already been in the legislature and isn't that a step down to go from state government, city government?”
I've never seen it that way at all, because to me, all of the most innovative public policy in the United States right now is happening in the cities. Congress right now is dysfunctional. They're not getting anything done in Washington. State government is hard, too. I can tell you from – there are three terms. If you look around the country like I said, there's all this really exciting stuff happening at the city level. Then with Little Rock being our state's largest city, our capital city, our center of commerce, our center of media, all of that, the opportunity to do some really great things here is huge.
Then being mayor, you're in an executive position. You can really set a policy agenda, you can really get out there and work with people every day. For me, the job itself sounds so exciting and it was definitely something that nobody really came to me about. I said, this is really what I want to do. I feel very prepared for it.
[00:35:01] KM: What's the first thing you want to do when you get in office?
[00:35:03] WS: That is a great –
[00:35:05] KM: If you get in office.
[00:35:06] WS: Well, there are lots and lots and lots of things I want to do. I don't know what the first thing would be. I mean, we have definitely have to have a plan in place to get the crime situation under control in the city. I think that there are a lot of great things that we can put into place to do that. I think we need to have a strong effort to support our public schools here in Little Rock, and I've got a lot of ideas about how we can bring people together to partner with the school district, create some plans, make sure we're getting an elected school board back in place, but give people the confidence that we are going to get our schools in a place where people don't want to move out of the city, or feel they need to put their kids in private schools.
[00:35:43] KM: Do you like charter schools?
[00:35:44] WS: Well, I don't think we need to wage any battle against charter schools. I think, what we need to do is focus on making our public schools the very best that they can be. I think if we put our effort and our time into that, the other problem takes care of itself.
[00:35:58] KM: What's the answer to crime? We had the police chief on this radio show about, I don't know, six months ago or something. He said, “It's not us.” He said, “We can't be parents to everybody.” He said, “Parents have to parent their children,” and they want the cops to be parents. He said, “We can't be parents.”
[00:36:14] WS: Well, it's not a good enough answer though, because the reason why human beings organize themselves as units in the first place, like the beginning of politics thousands of years ago was to ensure their own safety. I mean, it's basically safety in number. The first priority of any government is the protection of its people. We have got to get the public safety piece right. Right now, it's hard to recruit people into the city to live here; number one, because of our crime problem. Number two, people don't feel safe. People are getting hurt.
We've got two problems. On the enforcement side, we allowed our police to have too many vacancies to where they're spread too thin and literally could not respond to the criminal activity that was happening. We cut back on community policing, which was an outstanding strategy that worked really well in Little Rock; helped us get our crime rate down the last time. It spiked –
[00:37:04] KM: We cut back on it, because we’re just understaffed?
[00:37:07] WS: No, we cut back on it just because the decision was made. I mean, there was no reason to understaff the police in the first place and there's no reason to cut back on community policing. We need to make sure that we're back on that. We need more coordination among city departments, so that it's not just the police that are in essence responding to spikes in criminal activity, but it's code enforcement, when in certain neighborhoods, abandoned houses are being used for criminal activity, or it's when there's a lack of lighting, or a lack of youth programs that are keeping kids off the street.
I mean, we have the ability through good leadership to marshal the resources necessary to address crime where it occurs. We need to have these measures in place. We need to be working with the state government to lower the caseloads for our parole officers, which are the highest in the country right now.
[00:37:50] KM: What about the homeless? It seems like, that’s a lot.
[00:37:52] WS: Well, that’s a big issue. Again, I think we can take that on through better coordination among all of the resources that exist already in the city, because one of the things I talk to a lot of the folks that are involved with the nonprofits, the religious organizations, the government agencies that are all addressing different parts of the homelessness problem. One thing they say the city could really do is help create more awareness of the resources that exist, which helps increase access to them. Then once we understand the universe of services that are there, the city itself can maybe fill some of the gaps that aren't being filled, like maybe around temporary housing for people who just need a place to go, to get back on their feet so they can have a place to live and get clean, so they can go look for a job and all of that stuff. People are homeless for different reasons.
[00:38:39] KM: That's right.
[00:38:40] WS: Sometimes they are evicted from their home, sometimes they lose a job, sometimes they've got a health problem or a mental health problem, or they're trying to escape domestic abuse. If you take each person as a human being and you're able to again, get them access to those services that in many cases already exists in the city, they just don't know they're there, or don't know how to get to them. The city can help do that and it's worked in other cities around the country.
[00:39:04] KM: The police know all the homeless people. The police go up to the homeless person that they know and because they know their issues, could probably take them to somewhere?
[00:39:13] WS: That's part of it. Actually, if we had street teams that weren't actually the police that we're doing some of that work, I think that would take some of the burden off the police. I think that's important for us to be able to do here in Little Rock is to not criminalize homelessness and not try to just push people out of sight, but actually, more efficiently get them what they need so that they are not homeless anymore.
[00:39:34] ANNOUNCER: Some of the thoughts of Warwick Sabin, candidate for Little Rock mayor in 2018 had during his campaign. He lost the election to this man, Mayor Frank Scott. Let's hear some of his thoughts on being the mayor of Little Rock.
[00:39:49] KM: Once you were sworn in, what was the first thing you noticed? Was everything as you thought it would be? Was there a big surprise?
[00:39:57] FS: Well, I would say when we first walked in the office, there were no big surprises. We clearly did not think or know that down the road, that we would experience a historic flood. We didn't think we would experience a global pandemic. We didn't think we’d experience social and civil unrest. We didn't think we would experience as a result of George Floyd across the nation. We didn't think we would experience a historic snowstorm. All of that has happened over the past two and a half years. As I often tell people, I'm just right waiting for locusts and flies to come.
[00:40:36] KM: Does feel like, we're getting close. What was the first thing that you decided to do? Well, I do know what it is. Just weeks into office, you made some big decisions, you implemented a new organizational structure to City Hall that seems risky. Why did you feel that was the right thing to do?
[00:40:51] FS: Well, the city yearned to have a mayor to operate within its legal law that the Mayor's Chief Executive Officer of the City of Little Rock. For quite some time that had not been implemented. We campaign, and every candidate that campaigned in 2018, campaign that the mayor would adhere to its ordinance that was passed in 2007, where the mayor was chief executive officer.
Within first couple of weeks, we implemented that plan. We also implemented our act plan, which means to be accountable, clear and transparent in all things that we do. We wanted to focus on organizational change, so we can obtain transformation. We want to ensure that city hall operated with performance management. Also, to ensure that residents received great customer service communications, and that we had the ability to advocate and execute on change management.
[00:41:48] KM: If you weren't the Commander in Chief, so to speak of the City of Little Rock, what were you doing before 2007? What were the mayors doing before 2007?
[00:41:58] FS: Well, I wouldn't say what the mayors were doing in 2007. They were just operating on a different structure. We both can't –
[00:42:06] KM: What did you call yourself after you became mayor?
[00:42:08] FS: Chief Executive Officer.
[00:42:10] KM: What were they before that?
[00:42:11] FS: Well, they were just the chief elected officer. Where they weren't operating within true operation, management, and leadership. It's nothing against them. It's just how the law was spelled out at that period in time. There were certain changes that had taken place. We implemented those changes that have been put on the books back in 2007.
[00:42:33] KM: You said, one of your most important decisions was the hiring of Police Chief Keith Humphrey from Norman, Oklahoma. Why was that so important?
[00:42:40] FS: Well, public safety is a top priority. You can't be a mayor of any city if public safety is not a top priority. Back in that period of time, because that was one of the first decisions I had to make in, I believe, in April 2020. We wanted to ensure that we hired a police chief that was going to be focused not only on public safety, but also community-oriented policing.
When we made that decision, we wanted to ensure that we built trust back with the community, but also demonstrated accountability on both ways. That's where we've seen a number of different things that have changed within the police department to take us to the 21st century, in 21st century community policing, I'm very excited about that.
[00:43:19] KM: Like what? You got rid of the no-knock warrants, right?
[00:43:23] FS: One of the things is that, as you recall, the city was under a lot of different investigations and had made national news in 2017.
[00:43:32] KM: For what?
[00:43:33] FS: Because of the arbitrary uses of no-knock warrants. Some, I will say, it just got us in a lot of litigious issues. We implemented a no-knock warrant policy that significantly reduced the arbitrary usage of those. Then secondly, it included a threat matrix as well, which became one of the top tier community-oriented policing models that have been modeled across the nation now.
[00:44:00] KM: What’s a threat matrix?
[00:44:02] FS: It's a matrix that determines when you should use it and when you should not. Certain things have to be done to dictate the usage of it. Of the no-knock warrant. Those boundaries were put in place to protect against the litigious nature of some of the lawsuits we were receiving from the community on how they were being used. Then secondly, we were able to implement from our cannibal clear transplant plan, Little Rock became the first city in Arkansas to obtain body-worn cameras. It's hard to believe that other cities didn't have it. It's even hard to believe that state capitol city didn't have it either. We were able to implement that. Then a host of other policies that have been put in place that focus on 21st century community-oriented policing.
[00:44:49] KM: This is another one you did. You did a 5% increase in sales tax collections, resulting in 4 million more in the city treasury. You did collections on sales tax. Look, he's nodding. It’s the radio. You can't nod.
[00:45:05] FS: Well, exactly. We responded with more growth through the economic growth. With more jobs, means more sales tax revenue. More jobs mean more discretionary income for our residents to provide for their families and to provide for the businesses that they are serving.
[00:45:23] KM: Yeah, we've got a surplus in sales tax, not nearly enough. What is this one?
[00:45:28] FS: We've seen growth in sales tax. I want to make sure when we use that word, it's not a surplus of money. It's showing that we've increased services through jobs and more purchases have been made, because more people have jobs to go out and make purchases.
[00:45:41] KM: All right. Got you. I think, a lot of people go out of the City of Little Rock also to purchase. They used to always come to the City of Little Rock. Everybody would drive into Park Plaza, or to shop in Little Rock.
[00:45:56] FS: I think, what's really happened now is more online purchases, is what we're seeing everywhere. We're keeping a steady growth, because as I shared earlier, our population increases another 100,000, almost the size of Nashville.
[00:46:10] KM: Ain’t that crazy?
[00:46:11] GM: Just during the workday.
[00:46:12] FS: Just during the workday.
[00:46:13] GM: Yeah, that's crazy.
[00:46:15] KM: Plans for a national opportunity zone conference to highlight Little Rock. What does that mean?
[00:46:21] FS: The federal government issued opportunities zones are the simplest way for those in the business world. It's expanded 1031 Exchange.
[00:46:31] KM: It's what the Hud zone used to be.
[00:46:32] FS: Exactly. Or Parma zones. That happened in August of 2019. We were able to start an opportunity zone task force to increase development in opportunity zones. That was the precursor to our Asher Avenue revitalization plan, as well as our South to 630, East of 30 economic incentive packages to increase growth in those low to moderate income census track areas. We're trying to make sure that we grow in every area of our city, whether it's College Station, [inaudible 00:47:01].
[00:47:02] KM: Absolutely.
[00:47:03] FS: Panky, or Pleasant Valley. We want to make sure that it's happening. That opportunity, I think, you're referring to that happened in August 2019. That was the precursor to our announcement in August of 2020 for the Asher Avenue revitalization plan. We actually, I don’t know if you're familiar with Merce Arkansas was one the first organization to take advantage of that plan. They recently just opened on Asher Avenue. We're getting ready to demolish the old advance auto on Asher Avenue, which has been a haven for crime. We are making sure that we're seeing growth in every area. Just like what we’ve seen with the Costco in West Little Rock, we want to see growth in on Asher. We want to grow –
[00:47:43] KM: Banks don't want to go down there.
[00:47:45] FS: Well, that's the reason why we have the opportunity zones, and we're making sure that we've been working with banks. That's the reason why we had banks and bankers on our opportunity zone task force. That's the reason why you starting to see more development. I wouldn't say banks don't want to go there, because there are a number of different banks that are now super focused on empowerment zones, opportunity zones, and also, what they call CRA. There's a lot of investment that’s going on. There's more work to be done. That's the reason why we've been so focused on investment in every year, but also, the particular areas of low to moderate income.
[00:48:19] ANNOUNCER: One more quick break on the program, and then we'll be back with a final word from Stodola, Sabin and Scott, this unique Up In your Business program with Kerry McCoy, looking at the mayoral tenure of Mark Stodola for more than 10 years mayor of Little Rock, Warwick Sabin who ran for governor in 2018, and our current governor, Frank Scott. Back after this word.
[00:48:43] ANNOUNCER: It's that time of year. Honor your veterans. Flagandbanner.com has an opportunity for you to save some money as you do that. Sitewide, you can save 15% with the code VET15, up until November 2nd. Wonderful ideas like, military gifts, military indoor flag kits, service star flags and banners, military grave markers, all kinds of support our troops flags. Sitewide means you can do lots of shopping and choose lots of different ways to honor your veterans. Right now through November 2nd, save 50% off sitewide by using the code VET15.
Now some parting thoughts from our guests on today's program, Mark Stodola, Warwick Sabin and Frank Scott. First up, an interesting question from Kerry McCoy to Mark Stodola. When you're the mayor and your time is completely taken up by the job, how do you relax?
[00:49:43] MS: You get a little bit of downtime. I'm usually, is usually at about 11:00 night and I try to get to watch the news, although I can get it on my –
[00:49:54] KM: Phone.
[00:49:55] MS: I can get it on my phone now. It's not like, I can't watch it. I’ll either watch one of the late-night comedians, or I like American Pickers.
[00:50:06] KM: Really?
[00:50:08] MS: Yeah. Sometimes I watch that. I've got a bike. I got actually two bicycles. I like to get on a bike. I'm not on it as much as I'd like to be. I need to get on it more frequently.
[00:50:21] KM: Look what I got you.
[00:50:21] MS: Kerry. Oh, I get a flag.
[00:50:23] KM: You get a desk set.
[00:50:24] MS: A desk set of flags.
[00:50:26] KM: Yeah. There's Arkansas. What's that? It's Iowa. You get your –
[00:50:30] MS: Yeah. I went back there for reunion the other day. I didn't recognize anyone. Needless to say, I'm sure they didn't recognize me.
[00:50:36] ANNOUNCER: As for mayoral candidate in 2018, Warwick Sabin, Kerry summed up his personality.
[00:50:42] KM: You're a problem solver.
[00:50:43] WS: I do like to solve problems. That’s true.
[00:50:45] KM: I can tell. You're like, “Oh, give me the city of Little Rock.” You're rubbing your hands together. I want to solve the problem. One word to sum you up.
[00:50:55] WS: Determined.
[00:50:56] KM: I like it. I've got a present for you.
[00:50:59] WS: Oh, that is so cool.
[00:51:00] KM: It's a desk set.
[00:51:01] WS: I know exactly what that is.
[00:51:02] KM: That's the United States in the middle. Arkansas, because you love it, and New York where you were born.
[00:51:07] WS: That's really cool and very thoughtful. Thank you.
[00:51:11] KM: You're welcome.
[00:51:11] WS: I love that. Nobody's ever done that for me before.
[00:51:13] KM: Thank you for coming on.
[00:51:14] WS: Thanks for having me.
[00:51:14] KM: You are so interesting. I look forward to being your friend forever.
[00:51:18] WS: Thank you.
[00:51:18] KM: Thanks again, Warwick. Warwick Sabin, good luck.
[00:51:21] WS: Thank you. This was fun.
[00:51:22] ANNOUNCER: Finally, a couple of thoughts from our current mayor, Frank Scott.
[00:51:26] KM: What do you want your citizens to take away from this interview?
[00:51:30] FS: We all continue to take pride in our city. We want to focus on unity, growth and transformation.
[00:51:38] KM: You said earlier, what the preferred way is to connect with your citizens. You'd have social media, and what did you say your social media was?
[00:51:47] FS: Social media on Twitter @FrankScottJr. Instagram @FrankScottJRLR. Facebook at Frank Scott, Jr. LinkedIn at Frank Scott, Jr. If you send a smoke signal, we'll respond.
[00:52:00] KM: Thank you so much for coming on.
[00:52:01] FS: Thank you. Thank you so much.
[00:52:02] KM: Gosh, I always enjoy – I can talk to you forever.
[00:52:06] FS: I’ll send you again, hopefully, one day a trinity.
[00:52:08] KM: Yeah? Oh, yeah. See you again. Yeah, I’d tell our listeners, I saw you preach at Trinity. He didn't have one note. He never looked down at a note and it was off the chart good. I've seen you speak a lot. You're really good. I brought your gift.
[00:52:20] FS: Oh, wow.
[00:52:21] KM: Now, I don't know if I'm being a traitor to Arkansas, but this is a Tennessee flag, because you went to Memphis State. It's a US flag and an Arkansas flag and a Tennessee flag desk set for you to take.
[00:52:32] FS: Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.
[00:52:33] KM: You're welcome. In closing to our listeners, thank you for spending time with us. We hope you've heard, or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening and that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on Up In your Business. Until then. Be brave and keep it up.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:52:51] GM: You've been listening to Up In your Business with Kerry McCoy. If you'd like to sponsor this show or any show, email me. That's gray@flagandbanner.com. Kerry's goal is simple; to help you live the American dream.
[END]
