Beautification group is on the chopping block

Clean and Beautiful Commission director Kelly Kennedy pleaded her case this week to the city’s Public Works Committee members explaining why the organization was vital to the community, but some committee members and Mayor Shirley Washington said she didn’t see the benefits.

Earlier this month, committee and City Council member Joni Alexander said she saw no need for its existence when the majority of the commission’s 27 sites were overgrown and have not been maintained on a consistent basis.

Kennedy blamed budget cuts but admitted that there had been problems within the organization.

“Some of the sites that were on the list with the current two contractors were not being done like they were supposed to be done,” Kennedy said. “I do see work that needs to be done outside of mowing, edging and weed eating.”

The Pine Bluff-Jefferson County Clean and Beautiful Commission maintains medians and landscapes throughout the city, including eight along the Martha Mitchell Expressway. Parks and Recreation Director Samuel Glover said his staff has been maintaining the Martha Mitchell sites, Harding Avenue and Eighth Avenue as well.

Kennedy said she spends roughly $220 to maintain each site but had to scale back those efforts because of the budget cuts from the county.

“It has grown in expenses and we have never wanted to be a burden on the city asking

for money so we have tried to work with what we had each year,” she said.

According to financial documents provided by Kennedy to the committee, the city contributes $23,382, the Pine Bluff Street Department contributes $17,860 and Jefferson County contributes $8,930 for a total of $50,172.

Office space rental, which Kennedy says she hardly occupies, is $7,500 per year. Kennedy’s yearly salary of $23,520 is paid from the overall total, which at the time of the meeting had a negative balance, with money owed to the city of Pine Bluff.

Public Works Committee Chairman Fred Reeves said Kennedy’s salary runs through the city and Clean and Beautiful still owed an undisclosed amount to the city for payroll.

“From the numbers standpoint, with payroll being over 50% of your annual budget and rent being $7,500, that’s what I mean when I say the cost isn’t justifying the benefit,” Alexander said.

Kennedy presented projects and programs the commission had participated in over the past few years and also gave the committee a project and maintenance plan moving forward through 2022 to address all of its locations. She reported that all of the areas would be mowed, weeded, edged and cleared of litter every two weeks for the season.

“As far as I’m concerned, Kelly, your job needs to be eliminated,” Washington said. “I think we can do it in a much better way.”

Washington said she has watched many of the sites for the past two years in which many were unattended or rarely tended to. The mayor said she has had conversations with Kennedy before to the point that she feels the city can “hold their $23,000 and direct it towards someone else.”

“Mr. Glover has worked on many of the sites,” Washington said. “This is because they were totally uncared for.”

Washington spoke about a site on East Harding Avenue being trashy and half-mowed most of the time. She also talked about weeds growing in the middle of trimmed hedges and a large pine limb that had been down for six months and was finally picked up two weeks ago.

“They would mow around it and I thought that’s a shame they won’t pick that up,” Washington said. “There were a few other limbs out there. I even stopped and picked up some stuff myself.”

Compared to what the Clean and Beautiful Commission has done in the past, Washington said she didn’t see the same efforts.

“I don’t see much that you, Kelly, are doing for this $23,000 that we’re giving,” Washington said. “We can be doing something else with that money, maintaining these sites a whole lot better than they are being maintained right now.”

In Kennedy’s defense, Reeves said he does see a lot of benefits for the existence of the commission.

“It’s a nonprofit, so people can give to the commission and have that written off,” he said. “There are certain circumstances we’ve had monies given that may not have been given otherwise.”

He said if they lose the director, they will more than likely also lose the Clean and Beautiful Commission. The Clean and Beautiful topic will be placed on the committee’s next agenda meeting.