The CEO of Union Pacific Corp., the railroad transportation giant, told a Little Rock audience that he sees positive signs in the U.S. economy, particularly in the agricultural, chemical and auto business.

John J. “Jack” Koraleski, who has served as CEO since 2012, told the Arkansas Economic Development Foundation – the non-profit arm of the state’s economic agency – that early trends in his transportation portfolio are off to a good start in 2014.

“We think the agricultural markets are going to be pretty darn strong,” Koraleski said. “Overall, we think its going to be a pretty stable year for agricultural products.”

He also said a rebound in car sales are “almost back to what we would consider normal.”

But the energy business may be the biggest driver of new business for Union Pacific and the overall economy. Koraleski said shale production in the natural gas business has been steady across Union Pacific’s territory as fracking sand and chemicals as well as steel materials for pipelines have been a rising source of revenue.

He also said the coal business and a harsh winter have boosted the company’s bottom line. Koraleski said cold weather has been a big benefit to his firm, but he was no longer a fan of the freezing temperatures, despite its good economic news for Union Pacific.

“I’m ready to give up that strategy. I’m ready for it to not be cold anymore,” he joked.

Koraleski also noted that onshoring efforts – the move of foreign manufacturers back to U.S. soil – is expected to benefit Union Pacific and the overall economy in part due to competitive labor and low energy costs in the U.S.

“We’re starting to see more and more parent companies from the Eurozone look to the U.S. for manufacturing,” he told the audience.

KEYSTONE PIPELINE A ‘WIN-WIN’
The controversial Keystone XL Pipeline project has been a hot potato for business and political leaders nationally.

Koraleski said his company will win regardless of the project’s ultimate fate.

“If they build it fine, if they don’t, fine. We’re kind of in a very fortunate position,” he said.

Koraleski said if it is not built, his company will be a major transporter of the 700,000 barrels of oil coming from Canada to Mexico. If it is built, it will require 1,200 miles of pipe, rock, and concrete as well as provide jobs for 9,000 workers who will need trucks, tools, and housing.

“We haul all that stuff,” Koraleski said. “We’re lucky because we win either way.”

FACTS & FIGURES
Omaha-based Union Pacific reported its strongest ever quarterly and full year financial results last year. The company posted net income of $4.388 billion in 2013 on revenues of $21.96 billion. Those numbers were 11% and 5% higher respectively.

The company’s stock (NYSE: UNP) has been trading toward the high end of its 52-week high of $187.09.

Union Pacific has major and minor operations throughout Arkansas including in Hoxie, Jonesboro, Bald Knob, Pine Bluff, North Little Rock, Van Buren, Hope, Camden, and Texarkana. Union Pacific covers 23 states across two-thirds of the U.S. and has locations across North America.

Several years ago, it opened a 600-acre intermodal facility in Marion, Ark., that Koraleski said is the “standard” for the company’s new endeavors.

In Arkansas, Union Pacific employs 2,074 workers with an annual payroll of $230 million. It invested $173.3 million in capital expenditures in the last year.

Koraleski has served in a number of roles with Union Pacific, where he has worked since 1972. He has served as controller of Union Pacific Corp., executive vice president of marketing and sales, and executive vice president of finance and information technology for Union Pacific Railroad. Prior to that, he worked in the real estate and administrative departments.

Koraleski earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Men today have dropped the book on traditional roles and picked up the household shopping list, according to a recent study by Defy Media. “The Acumen Report: Brand New Man,” found that 65% of respondents said they now hold the primary shopping responsibility for the household.

About 54% said they shop for groceries and household supplies more than their spouse. An interesting finding in the study was a growing number of men (50%) said their spouses do not tell them what brands to buy and about that many said they ask family and friends for recommendations about certain products

Jason Long, CEO of Shift Marketing Group, said suppliers can’t afford to miss this demographic opportunity, yet many of the shopper marketing data still target female consumers.

Carol Spieckerman, CEO of NewMarketBuilders, said multiple studies that revealed the degree to which women influence purchases, even those that are made by men, created a “better safe than sorry” mentality among brands and retailers. She said the logic assumed that men would not be put off by female-centric marketing in non-gender-specific categories so the rewards would outweigh any risks. As a result, many retailers and brands have gone too far.

“I’m surprised by how many retailers refer to their customers as ‘she’ and ‘her,’ for example, and when feminized language is institutionalized, you have to believe that it marginalizes male customers in the end,” Spieckerman said. “The answer isn’t for the pendulum to swing too far back, though, as Burger King, Go Daddy and others have learned the hard way. Female-focused marketing may not offend men, but a big push in the opposite direction can get brands into trouble.”

CULTURAL SHIFT
“About 35% of men don’t have a significant other, many are marrying later,” Long said. “They routinely shop for what they need and that continues even after they get married.”

The average age of a marrying male today is 29, versus 25 in the 1980s. About 43% of the men between the ages 18 to 49 live with a spouse, and 22% live with parents. That leaves 35% of men flying solo when it comes to making brand decisions and filling up the shopping cart.

Long said the explosion in cable programming geared toward men in recent years shows the tremendous market potential that has has more or less snuck up on suppliers and the retail sector.

INFORMAL SURVEY
An informal survey by The City Wire found 66% of respondents who said the male in the household does nearly all of the grocery shopping, and at least some of the cooking.

“(My husband) Lynn does mostly all of the grocery shopping, I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually bought more than a loaf of bread and milk,” Jana Isabel noted in her response to the The City Wire survey. The Isabel’s reside in east Texas.

The same was true for Kim Borrelli, a Texas banker who said her husband Joe does 100% of the grocery shopping and 75% of the cooking.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love it,” Kim Borrelli said. 

Rod Coleman of Fort Smith also does most his family’s shopping for as long as daughter Elizabeth Coleman Voris can remember. 

“I do most of the shopping for us because I'm a stay at home mom and Justin just doesn't have the time with his job,” Voris said of her own household.

David Reese said he enjoys the grocery shopping and is always looking for an excuse to run to the store. Reese owns a real estate business and was raised in the grocery business.

Each of these respondents, except Voris are boomers but the two surveys found Gen X and Millennial men also prefer shopping more when time allows. Ashley Lemley, 28, of Fort Smith said her husband James does the grocery shopping and 99% of the cooking, Tim Sabo a Gen X executive from Dallas, said he also does most of the grocery shopping for his family of four.

INSIGHTS REVEALED
The Defy Media report outlined four key ideas about how men approach a new brand relationship. They refer to these as the 4 - E’s: Exposure, Education, Experimentation, and Eureka.

The first three E’s largely involve marketing. The research indicates men rely heavily on the information provided by brands to get them though the process. Researchers said suppliers can jump-start a man’s journey to a new brand relationship by giving him a reason to seek a new brand; educating him about the brands and product categories; catching his eye at the point-of-sale; and offering ways for him to evangelize the brands he loves.

Creating a need is key as researchers note that without a compelling new need, men have no motivation to change the brands they use. Many of the respondents said they consider seeking a new brand a drag, especially given the numbers of brands from which to choose.

Defy said men can and do ask for directions and they research products online. The biggest influencer of men in the Defy report was recommendations from friends and family, followed closely by advertising and coupons. Nearly 40% said they became aware of a brand after first trying it at friend’s house. About one-third said the brands they use are closely linked to those used by their parents, but just as many said they found new brands via social media.

THE EUREKA MOMENT
Once brand awareness occurs, researchers said men are quite comfortable “buying and trying.” The men interviewed said they love getting a deal, because they can experiment with little risk, the study noted.

Researchers said a guy won’t buy a product just because it’s on sale — there has to a need — and if the new product disappoints, he is unlikely to buy it again, even if it’s on sale. Men also can be enticed by advertising that speaks to them. More than half of the Defy study respondents said they had bought and tried a new beer because of the advertising.

The Eureka phase means that he has found a brand to love. Research shows that when a male shopper reaches the Eureka phase they are very likely to tell their friends and family. The survey found 79% had recommended beer, other beverages and snacks were recommended by 53% and 56%, respectively.

Spieckerman said most consumer brands are still erring on the side of female-centric marketing but she likes the way some retail concepts are taking a fresh and relevant approach to men.

“French apparel retailer, Loding, which just opened its first North American store in Toronto is a great example. Loding offers no promotions, sales or discounts and simplifies decision-making by pricing every item in a category (shirts, belts, shoes, etc.) at the same price regardless of style and even quality. Instead of using gimmicks or risky marketing strategies, Loding looked at how men like to shop and served up a solution,” Spieckerman said.

The effort to build a new jail in Crawford County has taken another step forward with the tentative selection of a location for the proposed facility. According to Sheriff Ron Brown, the county has selected a location just east of Van Buren on U.S. Highway 64.

"It's right within a quarter mile of the I-540/40 interchange," he said. "Also, it's adjacent to the city and it's within a few hundred yards of (Arkansas Highway 282)."

County Judge John Hall said the 8.5 acre site was offered to the county by two sellers, Sharon Lewis who is selling 3.5 acres for $225,000, and Sharon White, who is selling five acres for $50,000. The physical address of the property is 4301 Alma Highway.

Hall said while the tentative deal with the property owners, who offered their properties for sale to the county after the county put out bids to acquire land for the jail, there were several issues that had to be worked through before finalizing a plan to possibly place a new jail at the site.

First, the county would have to conduct an environmental impact study to make sure the area was suitable for a large-scale jail capable of housing hundreds of inmates.

Second, a proposed set of sales taxes to fund construction of the jail and subsequent law enforcement operations would have to pass in an election to be held May 20. The two ballot questions will ask voters to pass a half-cent sales tax for nine years to fund construction of the jail and a permanent quarter-cent sales tax to fund law enforcement operations in the county, including jail operations. If passed, the county's largest cities of Van Buren and Alma will see sales tax rates of 10.25%, among the highest local sales tax rates in the nation.

Hall said a third obstacle that would have to be formally overcome is a vote of the Quorum Court, though he said eight members of the Court were on a site-seeing trip to the proposed jail sites around the county and the consensus was the Alma Highway location.

The fourth issue is whether the county's architect will find the location feasible for not only the jail, but a new sheriff's department. Hall said the announcement of an architect for the project will take place Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Brown said the location, in his opinion, is far more preferable than the jail and sheriff's office current location on Main Street in Van Buren.

"The (proposed new site) also has a paved crossover to cross the median, so deputies leaving the office needing to respond to the east side of the county can cross right there. Also, for a response to Rudy, we're right at (Highway) 282. And it gives us interstate access for far western parts of the county."

Hall said the proposed location would give "every city in the county …access to the jail and it will have centralized access. Van Buren is right there. Mountainburg and (other cities) can all come down Interstate 40 and get to it. It's got the access and the easy way to get in and out. You won't have to spend time behind the railroad tracks (in downtown Van Buren) or in traffic."

The judge said the county had submitted a tentative contract to the landowners, though he said anything could happen at this point.

"We signed a deal to do this, but I have not received the papers back from the landowners. The real estate (company, Coldwell Banker, is) handling it. They're the ones doing it. They've submitted the proposal and costs. …But there's nothing that can't change if somebody decides something different. But I have received no documentation back from the owners that they would accept what we proposed (with price)."

Brown said the county had also placed a contingency clause in the contract giving the county an out should the still unnamed architect say the site is not large enough to house the jail. But Brown believes the site is large enough not just for the new jail, but also for expansion.

"Back in 2012, maybe the latter part of 2011, I hired an architect company to show them what our needs were. We used a similar site to that and they said it would leave us a large enough site and room around it to accommodate the (future) need."

A dearth of political candidates for legislative seats, tough allegations against the poultry industry, thoughts on “New Tech” schools and an excited trucking exec are part of the March 7 Friday Wire for the Fort Smith region.

NOTES & ANALYSIS
• The (almost) non-election election cycle
The list of folks who filed to run for legislative seats in districts representing the Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith areas turned out to be shorter than a grocery list on a $5 budget.

It must have been disappointing for those who thought the creation of a two-party system in Arkansas would result in more competition for legislative races. Of the 30 Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas House and Senate districts up for election in 2014, only 12 are contested. And of those 12, six are contested in the GOP primary only. And of the six that will have a November general election contest, only four will see a Democratic-Republican matchup. The other two will see a Republican candidate square up against a Libertarian candidate.

In the Arkansas Senate, 17 of the 35 seats up for re-election. Of the 17, only four will have a November contest. In the 100-member Arkansas House, only 38 seats will see a November contest.

Overall, Republicans had 132 candidates file for 98 different federal and state offices, while Democrats had 88 candidates file for 81 different federal and state offices, according to a report from Talk Business writer Jason Tolbert. Libertarians had 19 candidates file, the Green Party has two candidates, and only one candidate filed as an Independent.

Kudos to those who were pining for Republicans to “win” the political filing season. However, if you were hoping for a healthy slate of candidates under the belief that competition improves the chances for better government, well, better luck next cycle.

ICYMI
Following are a few stories posted this week on The City Wire that we hope you didn’t miss. But in case you missed it ...

• Positive permit tally
February building permits came in at a combined $7.405 million for the cities of Fort Smith, Greenwood and Van Buren. The total is an increase of 12.04% over the same period last year, which saw only $6.609 million in permits across the region's three largest cities. The total is also an increase of 8.96% from February 2011's total of $6.796 million.

• Negative statewide tax revenue trend
The growth of year-to-date tax collections in Arkansas is on a downward trend, and the February gross revenue number was below the budget forecast. The February report also showed a continued decline in collections related to consumer spending.

• Political education partnership
Three faculty members with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and The City Wire will collaborate to deliver a series of political-based essays and reports beginning in March.

NUMBERS ON THE WIRE
$4 million: The cost of constructing Rogers New Tech High School. The district retrofitted an existing building in two different phases in order to build the "New Tech" high school, which Rogers Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Kathy Hamlon said was an alternative to the construction of a traditional new high school, which would have cost the district tens of millions of dollars.

12%: The increase in building permit values from February 2013 to February 2014. The increase was largely seen in Fort Smith, where $5.962 million in permits were issued, while Van Buren saw permits totaling $978,376 and Greenwood saw permits totaling $464,485.

$1.6 million: Contract amount awarded by the city of Fort Smith to River Valley Sports Complex, a non-profit, to build a softball and baseball event complex at Chaffee Crossing.

OUTSIDE THE WIRE
• A meat racket?
Christopher Leonard's new exposé on the chicken industry, The Meat Racket, doesn't devote much ink to the physical object on our plate, the chicken meat itself. Instead, Leonard focuses on the economic machinery that delivers the meat to us, or, as he puts it, "the hidden power structure that has quietly reshaped U.S. rural economies while gaining unprecedented control over the nation's meat supply."

• Southern issues
Look, there are lots of things to love about the South. It's clean and quiet. There's delicious food, good people and often amazing weather. But that's exactly why it makes us so sad to think about all the ways in which the region is struggling today.

• Selfies Bring Ashtags to Lent
Gaby Driessen stopped by St. Peter's Church here and a priest put a thick smudge of ash on her forehead — a traditional way Catholics and other Christians physically show their commitment to the faith on Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Then she did what many 24-year-olds would. She took a self-portrait, or selfie, with a friend and they posted it on Instagram.

WORD ON THE WIRE
“I’ve been with the company for nearly 17 years, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been so excited about the opportunities that lay in front of us today that are within our reach.”
— Arkansas Best Corp. President and CEO Judy McReynolds said during a March 4 investor conference in Orlando, Fla.

"He's an intimidator. He's a ruthless man. He's former KGB. He has to be reminded that after the Cold War that most of Eastern Europe has chosen to move to the West.”
– former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza said during a Wednesday lecture at the University of Arkansas

“While I appreciate that the President finally heard my concerns about his proposed cuts to Social Security, I’m frustrated to see more of the same in his budget blueprint. Once again, we see lopsided tax increases, as well as cuts to the Corps of Engineers, the Small Business Administration, and drinking water improvement programs — to name a few.”
– U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in criticizing the 2015 federal budget proposed by President Barack Obama

Members of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce received an update Friday morning (March 7) on the current state of the so-called Private Option, Arkansas' answer to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), where money that would be spent on Medicaid coverage for poor Arkansans is instead used to purchase private insurance for individuals generally earning less than $15,000 per year.

According to Craig Wilson of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, before implementation of the private option, more than 400,000 Arkansans were living without healthcare. And according to Wilson, the years and even decades before the implementation of the Obamacare at the federal level and passing the Private Option legislation in the state's General Assembly had left many people with high premiums, cuts in services and spending caps on their insurance policies, which were becoming more and more expensive with time.

He said overall, the goals of Obamacare were good but hard to implement all at once. Those goals included improving the quality of care and access to care while reducing costs.

Due to the way the federal legislation was crafted, Wilson said many Arkansans qualified for some level of subsidy to assist with costs under Obamacare, which allows individuals to obtain coverage assistance even if their income is up to 400% of poverty level. The Private Option maxes out at 138%, he said.

But he said while many individuals may have been opposed to Obamacare, he said it would be hard to show that Arkansas' Private Option was not a good alternative. He highlighted two specific reasons why it was necessary for Arkansas to have taken the lead nationally in the creation of the Private Option, which is now being looked at by several states as a model for providing health care to its citizens.

"The cost of care for others when they show up at the emergency room and don't get the preventative care that they need prior to that … that's what costs. It's not the uninsured are not accessing care, they were just accessing it in the most inefficient way possible by showing up at the emergency room," he said, before highlighting the numerous delays in the full implementation of the federal healthcare legislation. "So because of the issues that we had before and because of the changes and delays in the Affordable Care Act, we know that we must take the reigns as a state and do something for our citizens to meet their healthcare needs."

Wilson said making private insurance available to the hundreds of thousands of Arkansans who are likely eligible for coverage under the Private Option would save those individuals and taxpayers at large bundles of money as this program not only provides coverage, but also "teaches (people) how to use insurance effectively."

He also said the Private Option is fully funded by the federal government through the year 2016, which gives Arkansas time to implement the program at virtually no cost to the state's taxpayers.

As a whole, Wilson asserted that the Private Option is reforming the healthcare model in the state of Arkansas and will ultimately have a positive impact on individuals, businesses and the economy. He said the program was digitizing much of the medical records in the state through mandated requirements and was opening coverage to a variety of different insurance providers who previously had not been in the Arkansas marketplace.

In all, he said there was nothing Arkansas could have done to keep the Affordable Care Act from becoming law and by making significant changes to the program through state legislation, the state economy would recapture as much as $1.1 billion worth of money that had been going out of state.

Already, as of late February, Wilson said 26,000 people had enrolled in the Health Insurance Marketplace and "had been transmitted to the (health) insurance carriers."

Regarding the Private Option, Wilson said there had been more than 190,000 applications by late February, which he said "demonstrates the need that was out there." Of those that applied, he said 127,000 had been determined eligible for the Private Option. Of those, about 11,500 were determined to be better served by Medicare due to having serious medical conditions while another 94,000 of the eligible individuals have been enrolled in private insurance, well more than a third of what Wilson said was anticipated.

"We're very much nearing the halfway mark, and getting over the halfway mark, in terms in meeting the expectations for enrollment. And what that means when you look at both the Private Option and those individuals who are receiving subsidies through the Health Insurance Marketplace, that's about 130,000 individuals that received coverage in the private marketplace. That money is turning over in the private market and those people are getting coverage, they're getting care."

For anyone who has ever wondered how the order of candidates is determined on a ballot, the answer came at the Sebastian County Election Commission Friday morning (March 7) as the ballot draw for the 2014 primary election was held.

According to Election Commission Chairman Lee Webb, the ballot draw dates back to the 1960s and is mandated by state law.

"The statute that prevails on the ballot draw basically just says draw for positions. It's been changed about about 14 times since 1969," he said.

The statute does not require any fancy way of doing it. Some counties place names on pieces of paper and then draw from a hat. In Sebastian County, candidates or their representatives (a local party chairman or a family member) drew a wooden number from a box to determine the position of their name on a ballot.

As for determining which candidate draws first, Webb said the commission asks whichever candidate filed for office first, meaning a candidate could get to draw from the box even if they got their filing completed with the County Clerk just one second before their opponent.

Webb said it was not common to see a large number of candidates actually showing up for the ballot draw, with only about five candidates present for Friday's draw.

"Usually, it's all (the) local candidates. And not all of those actually show up. You see the county office holders — the Assessor (Becky Yandell) and the Treasurer/(Collector Judith Miller) — were here today, I believe they're the only ones that were here. …So we had a good turnout considering everybody that was from the county (incumbents) showed up to draw."

As for whether the position on the ballot actually has an impact, Webb said he's not ever seen evidence to prove that it does.

"I haven't actually seen anything in writing, but you know there are some people who believe being first on the ballot gains you a little bit. By a little bit, 1-3% maybe. That's just my opinion."

That said, Miller — who drew the second place on the ballot behind challenger Steve Hotz — said she thought the position made a big impact.

"I was first (in the last two elections)," she said of her ballot position. "Yes, it helps. But I'm also an incumbent, so I get to put my title on the ballot. That helps. …I don't know (how many votes the position gained), but I carried both of the elections over 70%, around 72%. So I don't know. The first time I didn't have the (title on the ballot). The second time I did. I still drew 72% (of the vote)."

Asked if there could be a more effective way to determine ballot position, Webb said he doubted it.

"It's a pretty effective and quick way," he said. "Like I say, each election commission does it differently. We used to do just pieces of paper with numbers wrote on it. …People (said) grab the one (piece of paper) that's bent, so we kind of moved toward some wood blocks where you can't tell which is which and it works out. There's not ever a problem. No one ever complains. If they drew 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, they accept it and say OK, that's where I am on the ballot."

Following is a list of contested races and how they will appear on the ballot in each race's respective primary:

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Governor
• Mike Ross
• Lynette "Doc" Bryant

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
U.S. Representative in Congress, District 4
• Tommy Moll
• Rep. Bruce Westerman

Governor
• Curtis Coleman
• Asa Hutchinson

Lieutenant Governor
• Rep. Andy Mayberry
• Rep. Debra Hobbs
• Congressman Tim Griffin

Attorney General
• Leslie Rutledge
• Patricia Nation
• David Sterling

Treasurer of State
• Rep. Duncan Baird
• Circuit Clerk Dennis Milligan

Auditor of State
• Rep. Andrea Lea
• Ken Yang

State Senate, District 9
• Rep. Terry Rice
• Sen. Bruce Holland

State Representative, District 76
• Bobby Altes
• Mathew W. Pitsch

County Assessor
• Ken C. Colley
• Assessor Becky Yandell

Treasurer/Collector
• Steve Hotz
• Treasurer/Collector Judith Miller

Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Mike Ross received the endorsement of the statewide teachers’ union on Saturday and his probable Republican challenger wasted no time tagging Ross with a “liberal” label.

Ross – whose mother was a teacher and whose father was a teacher, principal and superintendent – said he would be rolling out planks of an education plan later in his campaign, but his focus would be on “reducing the state’s achievement gap” and encouraging innovation. Ross said his education platform would also include more local control over curricula and flexibility to meet community needs.

“Both my parents were public school educators, so I understand, appreciate and respect the important role our educators and education support professionals have in the future of this great state, and I am very proud to accept their endorsement,” said Ross in accepting the endorsement of the Arkansas Education Association (AEA).

“Strengthening public education in Arkansas will be one of my top priorities, because we need a well-educated, highly-skilled workforce to attract the jobs of the future and to ensure our children can compete in a rapidly-changing global economy. I want our children to start sooner and finish stronger, with more children attending pre-kindergarten classes and making sure every Arkansas high school student graduates both college and career ready.”

AEA President Brenda Robinson, a Little Rock school teacher, announced the group’s endorsement, touting Ross as the best candidate to improve public education in Arkansas.

“Mike understands that when parents and educators work together, they give students a great chance to grow and learn, so he will expand opportunities for collaborative family, school and community partnerships,” said Robinson. “He supports quality after-school programs, summer learning programs, and early childhood education. For all these reasons, the AEA believes that Mike Ross will fight to continue the progress Arkansas public schools are making in preparing our children for today’s competitive economy, and AEA members and leaders will work tirelessly for his election.”

Ross faces Democratic primary challenger Lynette Bryant of Little Rock in the May 20 primary.

Ross’ likely Republican opponent – Asa Hutchinson, who faces GOP challenger Curtis Coleman of North Little Rock – issued a statement through his campaign spokesman calling Ross “out of touch.”

Describing the AEA as the state affiliate of the “left-leaning National Education Association,” Hutchinson spokesman Christian Olson said the teachers’ endorsement didn’t support Ross’ contention that he is independent.

“Congressman Ross demonstrates yet again how out of touch he is with Arkansans. This union endorsement is another example that Congressman Ross pretends to be an independent in Arkansas but given the chance will side with his liberal friends,” said Olson. “In this case he has joined with the national teachers unions who put their liberal ideals ahead of our kids.”

The Democratic Party of Arkansas responded to the Hutchinson campaign statement. DPA spokesman Patrick Burgwinkle said, “Congressman Hutchinson’s attack on Arkansas teachers is shameful and he should apologize. Saying Arkansas teachers put anything ‘ahead of our kids’ when you have an education record as bad as Congressman Hutchinson’s is cynical D.C. politics at its worst.”

Hutchinson served in Congress representing Arkansas’ Third District from 1997 to 2001.
“When Congressman Hutchinson went to Washington he left Arkansas’ teachers and students behind. Congressman Hutchinson voted to cut education funding repeatedly, even voting several times against increased funding for special education, after-school centers, Head Start and class-size initiatives,” Burgwinkle added.

The Ross campaign provided a transcript of Ross’ remarks after the AEA endorsement. It also provided comments made by Tom Dooher, executive director of the AEA.

Mike Ross, Democratic gubernatorial candidate:
“Now, moments before I got here, Asa Hutchinson has already put out a statement blasting these teachers and education support professionals behind me. What Asa fails to mention in his statement is that he came to Little Rock, he sat in that room over there, and he interviewed and asked these teachers for their endorsement. And, after he didn’t get it, here’s what he now says: he says these teachers are nothing more than union bosses and that they remind him of Pelosi & Obama. Look it up. Next thing you know he’ll be blaming the ice storm on Pelosi & Obama.

“I think Asa Hutchinson has spent too much time living, working and voting in the Washington, D.C. area, because he seems to think this is a race for President, or Senate or Congress. But, Congressman Hutchinson, let me be clear, I don’t know about you, but I’m running to lead the state of Arkansas.

“This race has nothing whatsoever to do with Washington. The last thing we need is to see Washington partisan politics right here in this State Capitol. I’m committed to working with everybody – Democrat, Republican, Independent – to get the job done. He says in his statement – Asa says that these teachers do not care about our children.

“Asa Hutchinson, you can attack me. I’m willing to take the hits if that’s what it takes to improve public education in Arkansas and to create more good-paying jobs in this state. “But, do not attack these teachers and education support professionals standing behind me today – the same teachers and education support professionals that you sought an endorsement from just a few weeks ago.

“So, today, I am publicly demanding that Asa Hutchinson apologize to the teachers and education support professionals of Arkansas. Thank you very much.”

Tom Dooher, Arkansas Education Association Executive Director:
“My name is Tom Dooher, I’m the executive director of the Arkansas Education Association, and we have [a] few questions for Congressman Hutchinson.

“Is it left leaning that all of our children in Arkansas have early childhood education opportunities? Is it left leaning that they have a safe school and that they’re transported safely with qualified bus drivers? Is it left leaning that we have our children with the opportunity to go to college or get a career-ready education when they leave our public schools?

“So, Congressman Hutchinson, the teachers and education professionals behind me ask you those questions and we want you to come and help us develop a world education system here in Arkansas. And, we are supporting Mike Ross because he believes that our children are the future and that Arkansas’s great economic development will land on the children of our state. Thank you very much.”

Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Peco Foods will invest $165 million in the construction of a new fully integrated processing operation near Pocahontas in northeast Arkansas. The operation is expected to employ about 1,000 when completed.

A fully integrated facility means the company will have a processing plant, hatchery, feed mill and farm operations in the area. The processing plant and hatchery will be located just outside of Pocahontas’ city limits and the feed mill will be in Corning, according to a statement issued Monday (March 10) by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

The AEDC note also said groundbreaking on the feed mill site is set for April and the first stages of work on hatchery and processing facilities will begin in July.

The announcement was made Monday in the Governor’s Conference Room at the State Capitol, with Mark Hickman, president and CEO of Peco Foods, Gov. Mike Beebe, Delta Regional Authority Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill and leadership from Randolph and Clay Counties attending.

“We are extremely pleased to formally announce this new project today,” Hickman said in the statement. “Arkansas is an excellent place to do business, and we look forward to providing new jobs and an economic boost to Randolph and Clay Counties. As we have experienced firsthand with our complex in Batesville, this state is home to an outstanding workforce that shares the goals and values of our company. I want to thank Governor Beebe and his team for their assistance in making our Northeast Arkansas expansion a reality.  We look forward to a long and very successful partnership.”

Peco acquired in 2011 the poultry operations in Batesville from Townsends, which had filed bankruptcy. Peco reportedly paid $51.4 million for the operations. In addition to the Batesville facility, the company also operates a feed mill in Newark, Ark.

Peco Foods is the 8th largest poultry producer in the United States and privately held and family operated. The company has a processing capacity of 24 million pounds of poultry per week in its six other slaughter and processing plants located in Alabama and Mississippi.

“When Peco Foods acquired an existing Arkansas facility a few years ago, it made a significant investment in the workers of Northeast Arkansas,” Beebe said. “That investment has ultimately led to this major expansion. We are here today because Peco Foods knows the workforce in Randolph and Clay Counties has the necessary skills to take the company to the next level of success.”

A vote on unionization at O.K. Foods that was expected to take place in late 2013 is now likely to take place later this year, according to a union that has been organizing employees at the company's facility in Fort Smith, as well as facilities in Muldrow and Heavener, Okla.

Anthony Elmo, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), said the delay was a result of the company providing the UFCW with a larger than expected manifest of employees in the run up to the planned vote.

"In the process of giving us the list, which they have to do by law, that list was 600 (more) people (than the union was aware of). We didn't feel we could have a fair election (on whether or not to unionize) until contacting those workers to see if they supported the union or not. So that's where we are."

He said the unionization efforts began long before the proposed vote was to take place, with the Fort Smith location seeing the beginnings of the unionization push in about January or February of last year, while the Oklahoma sites started to see the push in the Fall of 2013. The purpose for pushing the unionization effort, Elmo said, was about fairness.

"Across the three plants, we got people coming to us," he said. "Their main issues revolve around wages, being low for the jobs they're doing. There was also a general level of unease."

Elmo said the UFCW, an international union that represents 1.5 million grocery and food production workers in the United States and Canada, was responding to the requests of many workers in the three facilities with a goal to "get workers the best possible contract, wages and benefits from their employer. Our philosophy is they have more leverage as a group than individually."

"Right now, they have a one to one relationship. The employer holds all the chips. All the employee can do is quit. We don't feel that that is right. We feel they should reform. We want to help these workers to fix OK Foods and make it a more fair workplace — with better insurance, a better retirement package. We want a more fair future."

Christopher Roy, officer-in-charge of the Memphis office of the National Labor Relations Board, confirmed the unionization efforts in a telephone call Thursday (March 6), though the NLRB was unable to provide publicly disclosable documents on the OK Foods case by publication.

"A petition was filed (to hold an election on whether to unionize or not) and then after the petition was filed, we undertook efforts to arrange with the parties a mutually agreeable date, time and place to hold the election," Roy said.

Elmo said while the petition has been withdrawn, it was not due to any unnecessary pressures from OK Foods but instead was simply due to the large number of people who he said had a right to know about the vote and what it could mean for their future.

And he said it is a future that the majority of employees in Mexico of OK Foods' parent company, Industrias Bachoco, have already decided should include a union.

"OK Foods, the American side, is not unionized (at any locations). But Bachoco, that company is a majority union company. Sixty percent of their employees are unionized with very fair contracts," according to Elmo.

Industrias Bachoco, which was trading on the NYSE at $43.10 late Thursday, had estimated earnings per share of $2.92 and total net income of $146.03 million, reason enough for Elmo to suggest that workers at the Fort Smith and Oklahoma facilities vote in favor of unionization when the issue comes back up later this year.

"(OK Foods is) a very successful company," he said. "It's part of why Bachoco bought them. I don't think paying better wages is going to hurt this company. I think it helps. It will reduce turnover. Right now, this company blows through employees. They are constantly bringing in new help. My argument to this company would be if these people thought these jobs were better and more stable, the turnover would go down and you would see increased cost savings from that. From a corporate perspective, I would say they may want to give this a look."

OK Foods did not respond to a request for comment.

Fielding more candidates and having more contested primaries has the Arkansas GOP in new territory in modern history and experts argue if the trend could be short-lived or permanent as well as what the new dynamic may mean for the top of each political party’s ticket.

After filing period closed last week, Republicans fielded 132 candidates for state and federal offices, while Democrats field 88 contestants. That’s a dramatic turnaround from the last two cycles.

In 2012, 136 Democrats and 124 Republicans filed for those offices, while in 2010, Democrats dominated with 196 candidates for state and federal office and only 108 Republicans in the field.

Also in 2014, the Arkansas GOP will see more than four times as many contested primaries than Democrats. There will be 19 contested Republican primaries between all of the federal, statewide and legislative races on the ballot. Only four races will size up for Democratic primary challenges. Only one contest – the Democratic Governor’s race – will be a statewide election.

“We’ve done a 180 from the Arkansas John Brummett and I grew up in,” said Rex Nelson, president of the Political Animals Club of central Arkansas. Nelson is also former political editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and former communications director for then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. “For decades, all the action was in the Democratic primary, the ole tantamount [to victory] ... we’re seeing a transformation that I think is going to last for decades.”

“The issue is whether we’re having more Republican primaries simply because the Republican nomination is now the big thing to have. The Republican Party is the one that’s in charge, it’s vibrant. Or, is this a proliferation of specific battles over the private option,” said Brummett, a political columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

THE PRIVATE OPTION POLITICS
Several Republican incumbents received primary challenges owing to their votes for the controversial private option health insurance program.

The private option, often referred to by opponents as an extension of Obamacare, takes federal Medicaid money and supplements private health insurance plans in an exchange to assist lower income workers. Votes in the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions ginned up competition in the Republican primaries for several supporters, and it has also matched up Democrats in the general election with Republican opponents.

Three Senate seats drew primary candidates for GOP incumbents – Sens. Bruce Holland, Missy Irvin and Bill Sample – who have voted for the private option in the past, while a fourth open Senate seat pits one of the plan’s chief architects – Republican Rep. John Burris – against two primary challengers.

In the House, three GOP incumbents face primary opponents. Two of them – Reps. Andy Davis and John Hutchison – previously voted for the private option, while one – Rep. Jim Dotson – did not.

PARTY SQUABBLES OR PARTY STRENGTH?
Does the higher level of primary participation work for or against Republicans in the 2014 election cycle?

Dr. Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College, said it could be an advantage for the GOP this fall.

“Generally, one party having a higher level of primary activity does indicate vibrancy for that party and a sense that the nomination is of particular value. That dynamic is clearly at work for the Arkansas GOP right now,” Barth said.

“That said, if the intra-party competition is grounded in factionalism, particularly ideological in origin, that can be a sign of some difficulty for the party moving forward,” he added. “There are clearly some signs of such GOP factionalism at present – on issues such as the private option – but we simply don¹t know how pronounced they are. If they are significant, there are certainly viable Democratic candidates in many of these races to take advantage of it.”

“To me, these primaries are foreshadowing the general election strengths and weaknesses for each political party,” says Clint Reed, a Republican strategist with Impact Management Group. “This simply shows that the natural political enthusiasm favors the GOP.  This typically shows up in a general election GOTV [get out the vote] advantage for whichever party has this natural enthusiasm.  This enthusiasm is being generated by the referendum on Barack Obama’s presidency.”

Greg Hale, a Democratic political consultant with The Markham Group, thinks the GOP party primaries are a sign of disunity, not enthusiasm.

“The Republican Party is divided – traditional Republican versus Tea Party – and they will be slugging it out at one another in the primary,” Hale said. “Meanwhile, Democrats are united and have a better sense of identity and are focused on winning in November.”

MIKE AND ASA
While there are primaries down ballot in statewide races on the GOP side as well as in two Congressional races – the Second and Fourth Districts – many eyes will be on the margin of victories for the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial front-runners.

Democrat Mike Ross received a surprise May 20 primary challenge from Lynette Bryant of Little Rock.  Some political observers believe with only the Governor’s race and three House seats being drivers of Democratic primary turnout, voter participation among Democrats could be anemic.

Reed is convinced Ross will win solidly in May, but he is unsure about the momentum Ross will carry into the fall.

“I believe it’s relatively indifferent for Ross in the primary – for all intents and purposes he is the Democrat nominee for Governor,” Reed said. “He should win with 70-75% of vote. The real danger for Mike Ross is a passive Democrat electorate in the primary and that carries into the fall.”

Hale, whose firm has ties to the Mike Ross campaign, says primary night won’t affect Ross’ long-term plan one way or another. He said Ross has been focused on building a campaign infrastructure for the November general election.

“I think it’s been pretty clear to everyone that Mike Ross has had a long term strategy in place since he announced last April – especially in terms of fundraising, endorsements, messaging, branding and grassroots building. And, we’re already seeing the proof. Last summer, Ross was down by eight – now the latest polling has him up by three,” Hale said, noting that recent spending of nearly $1 million by the Republican Governors’ Association against Ross is indicative of his gains.

For months, Asa Hutchinson has known he’d be challenged for the Republican nomination Curtis Coleman of North Little Rock.  A third challenger for the Republican Governor’s nomination, Rep. Debra Hobbs, pivoted to the Lt. Governor’s race during filing period.

Hale said that Hutchinson’s primary is likely to be more reflective of what he perceives as a power struggle in the GOP.

“Asa has a much tougher primary than Mike Ross. Asa has had trouble winning over his base from the beginning, and his refusal to take a position on the private option has hurt him even more with them, particularly with Tea Party voters. So, primary night should tell us just how unenthusiastic the Republican base is for Asa – that’s the race to watch,” said Hale.

Reed has a different take.

“The expectation is that Asa will win the primary. The real question for Asa, in my opinion, is how much money does he have to spend to meet the media’s expectation for victory,” said Reed. “It is much more important to reserve resources for the bruising battle ahead with Ross than try to meet an artificial victory percentage in the primary.  So, the margin is less important for Asa than Ross.”

“The thing I will be watching in the primary is not how well each candidate does versus their opponent, but the overall voting numbers within each primary. That will be story,” he added.

The May 20 primary is little more than seven weeks away and the area's first political debate of the 2014 political season took place Monday afternoon (March 10).

Republicans Bobby Altes and Mat Pitsch, the only two candidates for the District 76 House seat, debated nearly an hour on topics ranging from teacher pay to tax cuts to the Private Option in a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Fort Smith.

On the topic of the Private Option, which takes federal money intended for Medicaid expansion and instead uses that money to place low income Arkansans on private insurance, both candidates agreed it was a good alternative to just accepting the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

Pitsch — who unsuccessfully faced Altes' father, Denny, in the 2012 Republican primary for the District 76 House seat — said while the legislation passed during the 2013 legislative session and re-authorized last week was not perfect, he said he would have voted for the legislation because it met two criteria which he said all legislation should meet.

"Does it create jobs or prevent the loss of jobs? And does it overreach and grow government?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, this is a complex situation because those two aren't in tandem on this question. …It's a creative solution to keeping (businesses) open. …I go back to my scenario (where) we're preventing the loss of jobs. I would have voted for private option."

Altes said the Private Option was not prefect, but "it's the best option we have."

The son of the current representative said he hoped other options would present themselves as time went on, such as insurance reform, in order to eventually move away from the Private Option, "but the Private Option right now is going to take 250,000 people off of Medicaid and put them with private insurance and it will save the state in three years, it is supposed to save the state $670 million. That's quite a cost savings over the Affordable Care Act, but I hope there's another option and I hope to explore that with other legislators in Little Rock. Again, it's not a perfect solution, but it's the only solution we've got right now."

Beyond talk of the Private Option, Altes veered into a discussion on teacher pay and the new Common Core curriculum adopted in the state of Arkansas, which he said gives the federal government control over local school curriculum. Regarding teacher pay, Altes said he was in favor of not only increasing teacher pay in Arkansas but also adding incentive pay.

"I'm also for rewarding teachers' performance. I believe that should they meet their standards, those standards set by the state, that they should be rewarded accordingly."

While Altes said he was against the Common Core curriculum, he did not specify an alternative to the new national standard which he said is controlled by the federal government, a statement that is opposite of how the standards were developed. According to the Common Core website, "State education chiefs and governors in 48 states came together to develop the Common Core, a set of clear college- and career-ready standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts/literacy and mathematics."

"I'm against the Common Core curriculum because it takes control out of the state hands and puts it in the hands of the federal government," Altes said. "In addition to taking control away from the states and putting that into the hands of the federal government, it sets lower standards for our students."

Pitsch took a different approach in the discussion of education, referring to a policy initiative that is largely in line with that of Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson — increased emphasis placed on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.

"We have to train in the trades and the skills, as well," he said. "So we as a legislating body need to truly understand what our economy is, what our citizenry need, and we need to understand what the performance is of schools. Are they getting the jobs done or are the students coming out with a degree, a high student loan debt? What are they going to do with that?"

On the issue of tax cuts, Altes was insisted that the state's income tax rate is too high for Arkansas to be competitive with surrounding states in attempts to recruit business and industry. He proposed a 2% income tax cut which would keep enough revenue for state government.

"I think our state needs to cut back and balance the budget, I think that we need to cut our taxes. I think that by cutting our taxes we can stimulate the economy. Spending money is not the way to stimulate the economy, but cutting taxes will stimulate the economy and produce more jobs and that's what we need here in Arkansas."

Noting that the state's budget is required by law to be balanced, Pitsch said the state must also have the money for education and infrastructure.

"We have got to compete with the states around us," Pitsch said. "My opponent brought up that our taxes are higher, but if I'm an outside CEO — and I've been a CEO, I've built a factory in another state before — when I look at another state, I want to know (if) I am going to find a quality workforce? Check. We've got that. Am I going to find transportation? Because when I make stuff a third of my business is bringing raw goods, I perform my magic to it and I ship it out. Do I have good highways, do I have good railroads, can I fly my parts in and out? Is my transportation there so I can compete on a global basis?"

Pitsch also touched on incentives, which he said the state should be performance-based instead of leaving the opportunity for companies to not deliver on their promises. He specifically pointed to the never opened Mitsubishi manufacturing facility at Chaffee Crossing, which was supposed to manufacture components for wind mills.

Following are quotes from both candidates on other topics discussed during the debate:
• Altes on a proposed inland port to be built along the Arkansas River and other area transportation issues: "Our ports that we have right now are underutilized. I think that that might be a future project. I think that right now, it's unnecessary and that it might be a waste of taxpayer money. As far as I-49 goes, they've got a Bella Vista Bypass, they've got a small section here in Fort Smith and they've got a small section down in Texarkana. They are…I heard an estimate of 20 years and then I was talking to that former highway commissioner and he said not in my lifetime. As I proposed, I think if we set aside $10 million a year, that we can get this done. And it will be good for our economy, but I don't think that just building rivers and building roads is going to cause jobs to come floating down the river. We're going to have to get serious, roll up our sleeves, cut up our budget a little bit, lower our taxes and that will cause our economy to come back. To be stimulated."

• Pitsch on diversifying the Fort Smith economy and casting a vision for the future: "Is anybody tired of saying we're the manufacturing base of Arkansas? How about we say we're the osteopathic medicine base? How about we say we have a unique university? How about we say we've become (an) arts and tourism (hub) with the Marshals Museum? We need people to cast a vision when they're in leadership. Now I'm a manufacturing guy. I get it. I'm also a former dean of a college. I get it. But we also have people in this community, Steve Clark downtown, building a corporate headquarters at the end of Garrison Avenue in a building that's old and antiquated. Let's have some vision in our visionary leaders. Let's have some young people led by elected officials to help them do something."

Residents often have a few minutes to take action and seek shelter once a tornado warning has been issued. But a piece of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives aims to increase the time individuals have to prepare for the worst.

House Resolution 2413, a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Tulsa, aims to increase warning times beyond one hour by funding a research program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to Steve Piltz, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, such advances would be a drastic improvement over current warnings.

"The average (today) is about 14 minutes, give or take a minute or so," he said. "Some will have 30 minutes and some will have zero minutes."

While encouraged by the move to improve warning times, Piltz said any advancements would be extremely difficult to improve warning times.

"To actually do forecasts, you'd have to do it down to the individual clouds. It would take a tremendous amount of data and computer models. It's a very tall order."

And that tall order will be expensive, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which has estimated that implementing the legislation from 2014-2019 would cost $530 million.

Chief Meteorologist Drew Michaels of KHBS/KHOG-TV in Rogers said the variety of factors involved, including financial resources, will probably limit efforts to improve warning lead times in the near future.

"Research is always ongoing, but I still think we're a bit out. We've made some great, great strides in upgrading radar technology," he said. "With dual-pole radar, you can see so much more of the storm. But we're probably still beyond that. I'm not sure, with the amount of money you throw in, if it's really feasible."

Michaels said any effort to increase the amount of times from the issuance of a warning to the actual strike of a tornado would likely involve a combined effort of computer data and storm spotters in the field, similar to what is used today.

"I think you'd need a coordinated effort with spotters, as well, to be watching those clouds as they break the (atmospheric) cap, as they develop. I don't know (how much lead time is possible). I still think an hour's worth of time, we're still beyond that. Do I think we'll get there? I think so. I just don't know when."

Dennis Gilstrap, director of emergency management for Crawford County, agreed with Michaels' assessment.

"It depends on the data that they have," he said. "But if they say they are going to try to get all warnings an hour out, I don't see how they can do that, personally."

He specifically mentioned how he has watched from his office as storm systems rolling across Oklahoma have broken apart before entering Arkansas and vice versa, redeveloping quickly with little to no warning.

Michaels pointed to an instant messaging system local emergency managers and media outlets are using that connects them with the National Weather Service, which he said has increased communication and getting vital information out to the public quicker.

"They have a chat program that allows different emergency managers and television meteorologists to be on there and pick their brain," he said. "We're actually getting that information even faster, which is great. That really is the Weather Service doing their due diligence. Being interactive more than they were in the past. When you have a coordinated effort, it helps."

Piltz said should the legislation pass and scientists make advancements in tornado forecasting, the programs already in place could allow the weather service to get warnings out quicker without causing a panic among the public.

"I could see a tornado warning being as it is (with an average 14 minute lead time), but a manager of a large venue (such as an outdoor concert venue), you can't get them to shelter in 14 minutes. So they would have higher end information coming to them."

Local members of Congress have so far been noncommittal on supporting HR 2413. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, said he would "monitor this bill and other life-saving legislation closely." Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Dardanelle, said through his spokesperson that he was still reviewing the legislation and would "carefully monitor all legislation dealing with impact of severe weather on Arkansans' lives."

Bridenstine said the research must move forward to save more lives in his home state of Oklahoma, which was hit with a series of tornadoes in May of last year, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people and causing billions of dollars in property damage.

"By making weather research and the protection of lives and property NOAA’s top priority, the bill before us today takes a small but important first step toward achieving this goal.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican representing much of eastern Oklahoma including the western section of the Fort Smith region, said "we will not be commenting at this time."

As for whether Congress will be able to pass the measure, which has already made its way out of committee and is waiting on a vote in the House, Plitz said it would be difficult to get passage.

"Oh gosh, I don't know. It's something that gets difficult because you have Congress telling an agency what it should be doing."

Bell Buckle, Tenn., doesn’t sound like the launching pad for the career path of a CEO for the world’s largest protein company and one of Arkansas’ largest employers.

However, it provided the foundation for a storied career for Tyson Foods CEO Donnie Smith, 54, who started with the Springdale-based meat giant in 1980 when he was fresh out of college.

“I was a broiler service man calling on growers and trying to help them do a good job growing chickens,” Smith recalls.

Bell Buckle is smack-dab in the middle of Tennessee. It boasts a population today of 500 residents and is known for its annual RC Cola and Moon Pie festival. The land surrounding the town – as its name might suggest – is fertile farm and pasture land with a lot of activity in the cattle and poultry business.

The lessons learned by Smith in tiny Bell Buckle proved instrumental for guiding his career to the top post of Tyson Foods, a dominant worldwide brand and business founded three generations ago by the legendary John Tyson.

GETTING TO TYSON FOODS
A pre-vet major at the University of Tennessee, Smith figured out by his sophomore year that he ought to consider a different pursuit. Guided by his college advisor, a poultry science extension service representative, Smith pivoted to a degree in animal science.
His advisor noted that Tyson Foods had a complex in Shelbyville, Tenn., about an hour-and-a-half from where Smith grew up.

“I started working them really hard my last year of school,” Smith said.

He graduated from UT on Dec. 12, 1980; married his wife, Terry, on Dec. 20; and started working for Tyson Foods on Dec, 28. It’s been that kind of pace for Smith’s entire career.

After a few years as a broiler service rep, Smith was promoted to feed mill manager in Shelbyville before then-CEO Leland Tollett called Smith to Tyson’s headquarters in Springdale in 1987 to work with the company’s grain purchasing group. Smith mastered the challenge and by the mid-1990’s he was in charge of additional purchasing groups – not just grain feed, but bags, boxes, food ingredients, maintenance items, and more.

In 2008, Smith was asked to take another role in Tyson’s retail group working with the poultry and prepared foods divisions – two of Tyson’s four major business silos.

By 2009 – after his early mentor Leland Tollett returned for an interim CEO stint – Smith’s broad and balanced skills made him a natural selection for the role he has today. Smith, however, says he really didn’t see it coming.

TURNING IT AROUND

It won’t take 10 seconds into a conversation with Smith to recognize his enthusiasm and animation, not to mention his endearing Tennessee twang. Throughout our talk, Smith is self-deprecating and humble, quick to credit his management team and employees, but full of zest for the subjects at hand.

High-energy is another adjective that leaps to mind. He is intense in his personal engagement with others. As we walk briskly through the corporate headquarters on a tour, Smith interacts often with employees in the hallways, kitchen areas, and research and development division.

The Springdale headquarters has a large volume of masterpiece art adorning its hallways. A whimsical statue of a chicken-cow – an artist’s rendition of a morphed animal with a chicken’s comb, beak and tail attached to a cow’s body – would make the perfect prop for a hilarious cover photo, especially if Smith would agree to sit on top of it and wave like Bronco Billy.

“I’ll do it,” Smith says after I suggest the shot. We have a good laugh as his PR handlers wisely encourage us to “move along” to the next destination.

When Smith took over as CEO in late-2009, Tyson Foods was struggling – like most businesses – from the recession that reshaped the American and world business landscape. Tyson finished that year with a $547 million net loss. Its debt was massive and it had only invested $368 million in capital expenditures, a significant drop-off from the previous year.

CULTURE FOCUS
Smith says a focus on two primary areas helped the company move forward since the bumpy years when he inherited the CEO mantle. Number one was culture.

“I think creating a culture where people are willing to take some risks – not crazy risks, but reasonable, controlled risks – not afraid to fail, knowing that we’ve got to try different things, we’ve got to try to innovate … we knew we had to create a culture where people know we care about them, and they were willing to take a chance and try something new,” Smith said.

As an example, he points to a time in 2009 when light truck weights were eating into the profitability of the company’s poultry business. He says Tyson was averaging about 24,000 lbs. a truck. Smith and his management team made the decision to enlist ideas from the customer service representatives who were on the ground dealing with the light truck weight issue. They were asked how to improve transportation efficiency, says Smith, and in return ideas ranging from shifting order patterns to re-working production plant operations emerged.

“Now we average close to 34,000 lbs. a load in that business,” Smith notes. “The bosses didn’t do that. It was the bosses turning the people loose.”

He underscores that listening to clients and customers and responding with solutions has been a part of the culture, too.

“I think God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, so we try to shut up and listen,” he jokes. “It’s hard to tell through this interview because I’m talking like a machine gun.”

CONTROLLING COSTS
The other half of the equation leading to Tyson’s turnaround financial performance centers on a commitment made in 2010 when Smith was in his first full year as CEO. He said there was broad consensus that a realignment of the company’s cost and capital structures had to be brought in line.

“I remember not long after they put me in this job, I brought the senior team together and said okay we’re going to have our first strategy talk. And here’s our strategy: we’re not going to talk about strategy for at least a year. We don’t need a strategy. We need to fix this business. Forget about grandiose ideas about who we could be in five years because if we don’t fix this thing, there ain’t going to be five years. Just go get good at what we do,” Smith told the troops.

He emphasized that the turnaround investments and changes he’s helped guide have little to do with controlling grain and feed costs related to the beef, poultry and pork industries. As important as they are, Smith says Tyson Foods has spent the last four years fixing its internal operations in order to become more efficient and profitable.

“I’m talking about things that we had complete control over that we just weren’t focusing on at the time,” said Smith, who highlighted changes in line efficiencies, labor resources, plant spending, and yields as examples.

In four years, Tyson Foods has shaved more than a billion dollars worth of debt from its balance sheet and lowered its debt-to-capitalization ratio from 44% in 2009 to 27.9% in 2013.

Sales have climbed nearly 29% higher during that time and net income has reversed from that $547 million loss in 2009 to a $778 million profit in 2013. Its stock price has climbed from a low of $4.40 per share at one point in 2009 to a high last year of $31.83. It has approached $40 per share so far in 2014.

“It’s been about getting back to the fundamental basics of blocking and tackling of running a good business,” said Smith, who is also quick to point out that he is undeserving of any individual accolades for the improvements.

“I don’t think any one person can ever get credit for what a team or group of people accomplishes,” he said.

Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said Tuesday (March 11) that the retailer failed in three of its five main operating objectives last year — sales growth, leveraging its expenses and operating income growth. And while he promised the retailer will do more to leverage expenses this year, Holley said the biggest focus from its U.S., Sam’s Club and International segments will be to improve dismal same-store sales.

Holley, speaking at the Bank of America Consumer and Retail Conference in New York, said sales have rebounded strongly in recent weeks now that the snow is melting and the sun is shining.

Wal-Mart has forecast flat comp store sales for the 13-week period ending May 2, after citing sluggish January traffic because of weather-related store closures and SNAP (food stamp payment) reductions, which mean less money to spend for roughly 20% of the retailer’s shopper base.

He said Wal-Mart’s agenda this year is highly focused on accelerating its small format and linking them up with expanded digital and mobile capabilities. These two initiatives comprise more than half of the company’s $12.4 billion in capital expenditures for the fiscal year.

He said expanding new brand offerings is also key in driving shopper satisfaction and ultimately traffic and sales. Wal-Mart added several brands last year including active wear clothing from Avia and Russell, and Calphalon and Faberware cookware. Holley said more brands are coming and the retailer will only use private label to fill gaps in value within certain categories.

HEADWINDS, HEALTH CARE
While Holley is optimistic this year will be more profitable than last, he did mention several headwinds the retailer is likely to face, with the primary hits being foreign currency fluctuations and added costs for ongoing compliance issues.

Oddly enough, Holley said Wal-Mart was taken by surprise that more than 100,000 additional employees signed up for health care under the Affordable Care Act. He said that was an unexpected cost increase of $300 million this year.

When Analysts asked Holley why Wal-Mart was surprised didn’t anticipate the expense, he said Wal-Mart is not aware of every employee’s situation and what other insurance they may or may not have outside the plan that Wal-Mart offers.

Wal-Mart has said it financially performs better in times of slight inflation as opposed to deflationary climates. Holley said deflationary pressures could hurt sales revenue in 2014. That will likely remain true in certain competitive categories such as electronics or laundry detergent, but food and fuel inflation is on the rise.

A new report from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations shows the food price index rose sharply in February driven rising commodity prices across the globe. The index, based on the prices of a basket of internationally-traded food commodities, saw price upticks in all commodity groups, with the exception of meat, which fell marginally. The largest increases since January have been seen in sugar (6.2%) and oils (4.9%), followed by cereals (+3.6%) and dairy (+2.9%).

Analyst said the higher commodity costs take about six months to reach the consumer, except for meat and dairy, which is passed to the market within two weeks.

GROWTH OPPORTUNITY
Holley said Wal-Mart is in a strong financial position to invest in future growth which will occur at the “intersection of physical and e-commerce.” He said the small format acceleration married to improving e-commerce and digital services is the winning prescription. 

Retail analysts warn that the value shopping channel is already a crowded space, with Amazon and other online retailers taking market share from big box, small box and warehouse clubs.

That said, Holley told the group that there was still room for hundreds, if not thousands more small format Wal-Mart stores. He added that the small formats offer fuel and pharmacy along with an in-store kiosk that allows shoppers to order any product Wal-Mart offers elsewhere. The tests underway in home delivery, storage lockers and depot pick-up locations are going well, according to Holley.

“You are going to see a lot more of these pick-up stations built here in the U.S.,” Holley said.

Commuters using Interstate 540 in Fort Smith and Van Buren should prepare for lane shifts starting Wednesday (March 12), a sign that the more than $78 million rehabilitation project is inching closer to completion later this summer.

According to District 4 Engineer Chad Adams of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, project construction manager Kiewit Corporation will begin the process of moving northbound traffic to the outside, northbound lane of the interstate between Rogers Avenue and the I-40/I-540 interchange on that day. But just because northbound traffic is moving back to the northbound lanes does not mean the project is done, he said.

"I would say it is still on schedule," he said. "That is a statement I really want to get out there. Switching traffic doesn't mean ... we're not a week or two from opening the (remaining closed traffic) lanes. But we're getting closer."

He equated the transition to home construction.

"It's like when you see a house being built and you see walls go up and the roof go up. You (still) have a couple more months of inside work. So yeah, there's progress, but there's still stuff that has to be done before we can open it up to two lanes both directions. But there is good news. It's a positive thing."

Adams said the work that still needs to be completed will require more work in the median, thus the requirement that traffic patterns adjust. The work includes installing cable barriers in the median to prevent crossover accidents, as well as installing guard rails and adding an additional layer of asphalt to the southbound lanes.

With the movement of traffic and the transition of workers to the median, drivers will notice construction workers more often than before, Adams said.

"Right now, people have been separated from the workers," he said. "Now (the workers) are going to be in the middle. Traffic's going to be on the outside lanes of both directions. Contractors will be somewhat more exposed to the traffic. So we ask people to be aware and on the lookout for those things. Workers will be in a different place then they are used to seeing them. (Drivers should) consider that they are coming from different places, too. You're always used to them coming from the right side, where now they'll be coming from the middle."

The risk to workers and drivers could increase due to the lack of concrete barriers separating the two, though he said drivers should actually find the lanes roomier than before, allowing them to have a shoulder to use should an accident occur or a car break down, an option that has not been available since construction started in late January 2013.

Having the wider lanes, Adams said travel times should be reduced between the region's two largest cities.

"(Instead of a concrete barrier), the drums are set up to block the other lane. Now there is a way to get vehicles around or out of the way. It will feel wider. People will feel like they have more room. They'll move more quickly. With that barrier wall, people pucker up and slow down. People will now drive closer to the speed limit."

The original completion of Summer 2014 still appears to be on track, Adams said, even in spite of winter weather.

While weather has not slowed the project, other unforeseen obstacles have slowed the project slightly.

"It's just things that you encounter when you get into the construction. There was a column that was, I believe, on the bridge for Highway 64 (in Van Buren). One of the columns, there was a bald area where concrete popped out. We had to repair that," he said, adding that other bridge decks had to be repaired at the I-40/I-540 interchange.

"The bridge is taking more traffic than it's used to. And sort of weak areas are exposed quickly then. So we've made arrangements to get those repaired while the bridges are closed to traffic. It's just somewhat routine things that you expect to happen when you go through a project."

Adams said the project, which officially kicked off Jan. 28 of last year, may be a nuisance to many commuters, but he said the project is being completed in double the time most other projects of comparable size would be due to a special bidding process, emphasizing project completion by mid-Summer 2014.

"The project had what we called A+C Bidding. It's basically a method for us to consider time and the cost — road user costs — that are in the way when we are doing construction. We let the contractor tell us how fast they think they can do it. It's considered in the contract. Kiewit bid 153 working days. I don't remember how many other bidders there were, but every other bidder bid 300 working days. So you're talking about half the time (compared to what) the other contractors will do."

Fort Smith city directors spent much of a noon Board of Directors study session debating and discussing what they would like to see a board governance policy. The idea of a board governance policy was originally proposed by City Director Pam Weber during a Board retreat in 2013.

According to City Administrator Ray Gosack, the adoption of a "board governance policy provides for transparent, responsive, and accountable representation of the public," he said in a memo to the Board. "It embodies the principles and procedures that help the board and staff function effectively."

But the proposed policy, which in its draft form is 17 pages long, went too far according to Weber and some other directors who expressed interest in having a more general governance policy that would introduce new city directors to their work on the Board rather than detailing with precision what they are allowed and not allowed to do as city directors.

City Director André Good said he felt the proposed policy drafted by city staff was far too strict.

"Some of these restrictions, they seem to be ... some of these policies seem to be pretty restrictive in what we can and what we cannot do, especially where on the mandate to work professionally, work with integrity and work with the best interest of our citizens."

He pointed specifically to section 7.1 on page seven of the document, which deals with structured contact between the Board and the community, as well as 12.1 on page 10, which says all requests for a city representative at "ceremonial events will be handled by the Mayor's office."

Good said the language made it appear as though all requests for the directors to appear at any community function would have to go through the Mayor instead of just being allowed to determine their own schedule. Mayor Sandy Sanders said he viewed the verbiage as dealing more with individuals who will represent the city at conventions and other events.

With more discussion, Weber spoke up and explained what it was that she wanted in her request for a governance policy.

"What I was really wanting was something just for a new board member, (a brochure) or a pamphlet that when you got on the Board you could have something you could refer to — these are my responsibilities, these are my duties, this is who I contact with questions. It was more of that type of thing. This feels a bit more restrictive than we talked about in the retreat."

City Director Keith Lau said he didn't understand why other directors were troubled by the document, adding that as a policy position it was something he and other Board members could choose to disregard since it was not an ordinance or law, adding that a detailed document such as the draft would allow him to know in much greater detail what his role as a director was rather than bugging Gosack and administrative staff with questions as they came up.

After much discussion, the Board asked Gosack to prepare a shorter document no more than four pages that the Board could compare with the longer document at its May brainstorming session. Suggestions from Board members for the document will be submitted to Gosack no later than March 31.

In other business, Finance Director Kara Bushkuhl addressed the method for balancing the city's budget at the request of the Board following several contentious budget meetings during the latter part of 2013, which saw Lau questioning the city's ability to proclaim a balanced budget when using unused expenses from the previous year to balance the next year's budget.

"The city has allocated current revenues plus the prior year balance in each operating fund as a means for providing total resources available for appropriation in each fund," she wrote in a memo to the Board. "This is a usual practice in municipal budgeting. However, some municipalities restrict appropriations to the level of the current year revenues and do not include the prior year balance as a resource. This is termed as a structural balance."

As a result of not using the funds, she said the unused balances "would remain in (their) respective fund and are normally used for one-time expenditures or capital improvements if they exceed the reserve requirement."

She said moving to the structural balance method could result in less conservative revenue estimates and could lead departments to spend 100% of their appropriations regardless of need. She said it could also result in lost personnel during economic downturns at times when the public may seek additional services.

No action was taken on whether to change budgeting methods. The discussion was somewhat limited following the lengthy discussion of the Board governance policy. Bushkuhl is scheduled to address the Board during another study session in April, when the topic is likely to be discussed in greater detail.

The Fort Smith Planning Commission passed a set of planned zoning districts Tuesday (March 11), both of which faced opposition from residents in neighborhoods surrounding the proposed districts.

The PZDs, one located along Massard Road and another at the site of Fianna Hills Country Club, must still go before the Fort Smith Board of Directors for final approval on April 1.

The Fianna Hills PZD is necessary for developer Lance Beaty with Fort Smith-based FSM Redevelopment Partners to turn the aging country club into a four-story facility that will revitalize the property at a cost of about $20 million.

At issue for many in attendance were the guest suites to be included in the new facility. The suites, Beaty said, would only be available for use by members and their guests and would not be available for use by the general public.

Resident Jerry Rusnick asked specifically how such a rule, which is written into the PZD ordinance, would be enforced. According to Planning Director Wally Bailey, Beaty's application for the PZD included information stating that a governing body at the Fianna Hills Country Club would enforce such requirements, though he said should the PZD regulations not be followed, the city would have the option of pursuing legal action against Beaty's company after initial attempts to resolve the situation non-legally.

Sebastian County Justice of the Peace Danny Aldridge, whose home is the second home along Essex Drive leading away from the country club, said he did not want the PZD approved because of what it could do to his home value, as well as his contention that his view would be obstructed by the larger building. Aldridge also argued that permitted uses within the UDO could open the facility to other uses beyond what Beaty has proposed should the development ultimately fail.

"The PZD has many permitted uses that is spelled out and has a number that's conditional and some that are (not)," he said. "And it is dually noted that the country club and the golf course are permitted uses. But also in there, a permitted use that they've asked you to do is have a group home for a family and defined by the city's own people, that is a residence that can house up to eight mental or physical state custodial inmates. Now I do not want that kind of facility two doors down from my home. If that was in there as a conditional use, where it would have to come back to you, it would be different. But it's not. It's a permitted use."

Bailey addressed the issue, stating that "group homes" are permitted in all city residential zones, adding that the city is complying with federal law and the homes are not permitting the housing of criminal offenders but instead handicapped individuals.

While there was opposition to the PZD, with about half of the more than 50 in attendance raising their hands in opposition to the project, the other half of those in the room raised their hands in support of the project.

Resident John Higgin pointed out that if the PZD was not approved and FSM Redevelopment Partners is unable to move forward with the project, there is a chance the current owners could close the country club, leaving the golf course open to residential two zoning, which would permanently alter the golf course in a way he said was worse than any construction at the site of the current clubhouse.

Another resident, Champ Hinton, said he lives right next to the country club and was in favor of the development.

"I'm for these guys 100% and I totally understand what they're doing. I don't see how the city could put any objection to a $20 million facility that's going to be outstanding in the state run by a golf company that's a national organization that doesn't run anything but prestige courses," he said. "I think it will be a benefit to the city and I know it will be a benefit to Fianna Hills. And it will supply 75 to 100 jobs. That sure won't hurt. We need those in the city."

The commission approved the PZD in a vote of 9-0.

The other PZD approved Tuesday night included far less detail on the planned development to take place at 4401 Massard Road. The property, which is zoned for multi-family use, is proposed to be turned into an office and retail park.

According to property owner Cliff Cabaness, president and CEO of Trinity Multifamily, he has received a lot of interest from individuals more interested in the property for commercial use.

"Some high end medical and commercial (businesses) have made contact," he told The City Wire, though he added that no contracts have been signed for any construction on the property.

Many of the residents who spoke in opposition to the plan have said the noise of a commercial and office complex would disrupt the neighborhood north of the facility.

Resident Tim Post insisted that the Massard Road area was more residential than commercial. He was among a group of 42 residents who presented a petition to the commission asking that it restrict the types of businesses to be included businesses that he said would "not have any weekend or evening disturbance."

Restrictions included within the PZD include limiting building heights to no more than three stories to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations (the PZD is in the flight path of Fort Smith Regional Airport), making all buildings have a pitched roof with no visible equipment on the top of the facilities, allowing a buffer between any development and the neighborhood of a few dozen feet and limiting any convenience store development to the south of the PZD and making sure any lighting only bleeds onto Massard Road and not into the neighborhood adjacent to the site.

The commission passed the PZD with eight votes and one abstention.

Sparks Health System is again looking for a CEO following the resignation this week of Charles Stewart, himself the second CEO to resign from the hospital since May 2013.

In a statement to The City Wire, Sparks Director of Marketing and Communications Donna Bragg did not disclose details of the resignation of now-former CEO Charles Stewart from the hospital in Fort Smith and its sister facility, Summit Medical Center in Van Buren.

"Charles Stewart resigned from his position as CEO of Sparks Health System this week. We appreciate his contributions to our health system and wish him well in his future endeavors."

Asked about circumstances regarding the resignation, Bragg declined to provide specifics.

Stewart started at Sparks in September, replacing former CEO Gary Blan, who lead the two hospitals for less than three months before he resigned.

Blan was hired by Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates (HMA) as the Arkansas Market CEO on March 19, 2013. According to HMA, Blan stepped down in late May, with the announcement made public on May 23, 2013. Blan was picked to succeed Melody Trimble who was promoted to president of HMA's Southern and Western Group, which includes 26 hospitals in seven states. Trimble’s promotion was effective Jan. 1, 2013. The seven-state region is Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

Prior to joining Sparks and Summit, Stewart had joined HMA's Poplar Bluff, Mo., hospital, overseeing the completion of a new $173 million HMA facility. His sudden resignation in Fort Smith comes as a surprise, especially considering comments he made when he first started at the two hospitals last year.

“Prior to that (Blan’s departure), Melody was here for a number of years. ... I plan to be here for a number of years. Most of the places I’ve been, I was there for several years,” Stewart said.

It is unknown whether the change in ownership for the hospitals made official early this year had any bearing on Stewart's decision to leave. The new owner, Community Health Systems, was almost double the size of HMA at the time of purchase. Its portfolio of hospitals includes four Northwest Arkansas facilities — Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville, Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, Siloam Springs Regional Hospital and Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson.

Bragg said the company has not named a new CEO, adding, "Our work to identify a new CEO will begin immediately, and it will include input from our Board of Trustees and medical staff leadership."

She detailed what she said were attributes those searching for a new CEO would seek in a candidate for the position, which is now open for the third time in a year.

"In our search for our next CEO, we will look for an experienced and motivated hospital leader who will help Sparks Regional Medical Center and Summit Medical Center continue in our commitment to serving the community with excellent health services."

During the time without a CEO, Bragg said the hospital would continue to provide a high level of care for patients in both hospitals.

"We appreciate the dedication of our physicians and employees through this transition as they continue to provide high-quality, compassionate care for our patients."

Sparks Health System includes Sparks Regional Medical Center, Sparks Clinic (an employed multi-specialty physician group), Sparks PremierCare physician-hospital organization, Sparks Home Health and the fully hospital-integrated Marvin Altman Fitness Center. Summit Medical Center is a fully accredited, 103-bed acute care hospital. Its parent company leases the Van Buren facility in which Summit Medical operates.

Shares of Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH) was trading mid-day Wednesday at $37.62, down $1.03. During the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged from a $51.29 high to a $36.52 low.

Real estate is a local business, but two global marketers Trulia and Zillow have been hard at it transforming aggregated local data into booming businesses and brands of their own. However, the national players aren’t always supported by the local industry.

Harold Crye, president of Memphis-based Crye-Leike Real Estate, recently backed away from providing Trulia and Zillow with listing information in the Memphis market. He said the firm will continue to evaluate its Jan. 28 decision over the next few months in terms of any pushback from its customers.

“I can tell you so far there has been a 99% approval rating in Memphis since we pulled the plug on Zillow and Truila — very little pushback,” Crye said. “Trulia has asked to meet with us on this issue, but it was postponed because of weather. We are supposed to meet later this month.”

He said for now there are no plans to cut the services in other markets while they evaluate the move in Memphis.

LISTING INACCURACIES
Crye said there are plenty of reasons to walk away from third party listing sites, and top of the list are the “glaring” inaccuracies.

“The information they provide is not clean, it’s not accurate and it’s not up-to-date. They have home listings on their sites that sold six months ago, sometimes a year ago. The listing price has been wrong on occasion and the estimated values are low in some cases or occasionally too high,” Crye said.

Trulia told The City Wire that it works with hundreds of brokers and multiple listing services to improve the accuracy of their listings.

“We are continuing to work with Crye-Leike in its other markets, to improve the accuracy of its listings on Trulia,” said Alon Chaver, vice president-industry services at Truila.

Chaver adds that firms like Crye-Leike can leverage the Trulia platform and the 35 million unique monthly visitors who are looking for homes and agents to deliver ever increasing value to their agents and the sellers they represent.

Zillow told The City Wire that accuracy and timeliness of listings are very important to the company.

“We work with MLSs, brokerages, agents and homeowners to get the most complete set of listings possible. We update listings every 15 minutes with new information we receive,” said Amanda Wooley, spokeswoman for Zillow.
 
Crye also doesn’t like that these platforms allow local real estate experts to be pushed aside by those willing to pay for exposure on third party sites. He said the listing real estate firm that gave them the data is scantly represented on these sites.

Dozens of firms from Minneapolis to Alabama have been walking away from Zillow and Trulia over the past 18 months, citing the inaccuracies and other concerns. One of the more vocal markets on this issue has been Austin, Texas. The Austin Board of Realtors recently announced that as of April 30, it will no longer distribute its members’ listings to third-party portals through the syndicator ListHub.

The Realtor board cited concerns about unethical business practices and inaccurate listing data on third-party sites. Agents who still want to use these sites can do so on their own.

Crye said he gave his Memphis agents that same option.

‘ZESTIMATE’ VALUE
One bone of contention among the agents surveyed for this story is Zilow’s zestimate.

“One of my agents had a client who asked that their listing be supplied to Zillow, the agent showed them the low zestimate value which was $20,000 below the list price of their home and the seller opted not to give Zillow the listing,” Crye said.

Nicky Dou, broker with Keller Williams in Bentonville, said the zestimate is “nonsense” as anyone can post home improvements to these sites, even if they are not made.

Zillow said the zestimate is calculated using an algorithm that looks at facts about the house itself from public records (square footage, beds/baths, tax assessments, last sale price of the home itself, timing of the sale) along with user-submitted data. Zillow encourages home owners to claim their home on Zillow and submit updated home facts, such as home additions or remodels.

Wooley said Zillow has undated information on 25 million homes. It calculates zestimate values three times a week and publishes accuracy statistics down to the county level on the site. Nationally, Zillow said it has a median error of 7%.

ENCROACHMENT
The Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors (NABOR) is aware of issues with Zillow and has discussed steps it can address regarding accuracy and encroachment concerns from third party sites. NABOR does give local MLS data to Zillow, Truila and other third party sites.

“As a board we have a set of rules that third party aggregators are supposed to sign. Zillow has never signed it. These rules deal with keeping the data we supply up to date. The next step for our board will be to enforce these rules from the third party sites. The ball will be in Zillow’s court,” said Doyle Yates, president elect for the NABOR.

He serves on the National Board of Realtors and said the industry trade group is prepared to fend off further encroachment. Yates said efforts are being made to beef up Realtor.com, which is the industry’s own national listing service.

“The only way we will be able to keep third party aggregators like Zillow at bay is have a more accurate alternative like Realtor.com where we can direct buyers and sellers,” Yates said.

He said the industry is cautious about courting Zillow, after seeing what happened to the travel agency sector with the rise of online sites Hotwire and Expedia. Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff cofounded Hotwire in 1999, sold it to Expedia in 2003 and helped form Zillow in 2005.

NECESSARY EVIL
Kevin King, broker with Weichert Realtors King Realty Group in Fort Smith, said the local board of Realtors voted to provide the multiple listing data to third party sites.

“We felt like getting the most exposure possible for our clients was the right thing to do. It comes at a cost to the agent, and broker but we felt the clients deserve the exposure,” King said.

Zillow and Trulia garner heavy traffic from around the globe as these companies aggregate local MLS data into a more international database. 

“The downside is that we are providing the data free of charge to these sites, who then profit by selling leads and exclusive access to any agent willing to pay the fees,” King said.

King agreed that the data on the site can be in accurate, and said that’s why there is still a need for local real estate professionals.

Jason Smith, broker for Crye-Leike in Fayetteville, uses Zillow and Trulia and pays handsomely to get the leads and exclusive access that Zillow provides to Premier Agents. He admits that data on the sites are often inaccurate, but said Zillow is the No. 1 most visited site for real estate listings and he believes getting the most exposure possible for his sellers.

“Buyers and sellers still need to deal with a local professional, even though they may start their search on a national site. I advertise on Zillow to get the leads and for me it’s well worth the money spent,” Smith said.

He received two leads Wednesday morning (March 12) and one of those came from an interested buyer for his own listing. Smith said if that potential buyer purchases that listing his commission will be $15,000, versus $7,500 if another agent finds the buyer.

King and Smith said using the third-party sites for added exposure is a necessary evil today as so many consumers crave information.

‘NO, THANK YOU’
Dou, a top selling agent at Keller Williams in Bentonville, says “No thank you,” to supplying Zillow or Truila her listing information. She cited issues with the zestimates and other inaccuracies that keep her from using these third-party sites.

“I personally do not like Trulia or Zillow. We try to educate our buyers where to search online and where not to search. Both of these are on my ‘no’ list,” Dou said. “I have had several listings that appear on both of these sites as rentals when they are actually only for sale. Scam artists have hacked in and posted these as rentals.”

Instead of giving away her listings to a third party, Dou and her husband Jerry have set up her own sites that are tied into the local MLS and use other technology applications. She said marketing properties is the name of the game in real estate sales, but that doesn’t mean you have to play ball with inaccurate sites like Zillow and Trulia.

Dou also utilizes YouTube, Facebook, Craigslist, ActiveRain, Pinterest, Real Estate Blogs and many other portals to get her listings in front of as many buyers as possible. 
As for national real estate sites, she said Realtor.com is not too bad as it is usually up to date.

Crawford County Judge John Hall announced the hiring of James Langford of Collierville, Tenn.-based SouthBuilt TEAM LLC to be the architect for the county's proposed jail.

The jail, which would be constructed only if county voters approved a set of sales taxes totaling 0.75%, is estimated to cost $20 million to build and will be built along U.S. Highway 64 east of Van Buren.

Langford's past experience includes the construction of county jails in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Locally, the University of Tennessee-educated architect was involved in the design of the Washington County Adult and Juvenile Facilities, as well as the Scott County Detention Center.

According to his resume, he "has over two decades of experience in project management, programming, planning and design."

Financial terms of the contract between Langford and the county have not yet been released.

Voters in Crawford County will decide on the jail tax, which has failed on three different occasions, on May 20. If passed, the sales tax rate in Van Buren — the county's largest city — would be 10.25%, among the highest local sales tax rates in the United States.