Quinton Cunningham, candidate for Director-At-Large, Position 5

1. Provide us with some information about your history and your background with Fort Smith.

I've lived in the greater River Valley area for 32 years. I've always either lived or worked in Fort Smith. In 2017, I was homeless here. After living through it, I've been an advocate for the homeless, having worked alongside Hope on some of their policy proposals and as a former member of the Next Step Board of Directors. My wife and I have done independent animal rescue in the city since 2017, with over 25 animals helped off the streets.

2. What made you want to run?

I've been communicating with this board for over 3 years on animal and homeless issues in the city. To date, only two of them have ever tried to collaborate with me or even hear me out. I've seen them dive head-first into hasty decisions without the full picture, leading to complications. Sometimes, we don't even try to address the roots of the issue, but the visible symptoms. So, I decided to throw my hat in the ring to try and advocate for the changes we need from the inside, since outside input is often ignored.

3. What pressing needs do you see in Fort Smith?

A real solution to our homeless issue is first and foremost for me. We don't need punitive ordinances or half-hearted measures that only shuffle the problem away. We don't need to take ordinances form another city while conveniently ignoring their investments that help the issues. We need data-backed solutions that address the core issues like housing affordability.

Our stray crisis is only getting worse, and I feel we (even at the national level) have largely expected shelters and volunteers to step in and solve the problem. They can help, yes, but we should not be forcing them to try and handle a problem they will never be equipped to handle at this scale.

Finally, the complete lack of public trust in our government needs fixing. We didn't get here overnight, and it will take a lot of time to fix. T

4. If you were to get elected, how would you meet these needs that you see?

Homelessness: I would work directly with our local providers to try and find ways to support them that would ease the burden of our first responders. I would push for our city to look into the Community Land Trust model to see if it's viable for our area. That would help keep housing costs and rents down, while keeping that money local.

Animals: I will always back our spay and neuter vouchers. Some candidates have spoken against them, and that's short-sighted. I will also push for working with local volunteers and shelters to do more comprehensive TNR efforts to help keep our stray population down in the long run.

Government Trust: I will look into expanding the systems we already use to focus on transparency. Several cities close by have full transparency, using the same system we do. We have it, we need to use it. We need to publish data that citizens need publicly, from policy plans to where this money is going. We should ALL get the same information at the same time. This will keep law-abiding officials in the clear, keep citizens informed, and will clean up the optics a lot. From here, I would openly engage with citizens on topics that matter to them and collaborate with them more frequently, even if we don't agree on a topic.

General Elections for Mayor and Board of Directors will happen on Nov 3rd. If you are a resident in the Fort Smith Area, go out and vote.