By Ray King
Last week, Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington said Council member Ivan Whitfield, who frequently opposes her on a variety of issues, does so because she defeated him for mayor in the last election.
Appearing on TalkBack Live with Floyd Donald Tuesday, Whitfield responded to that assertion.
Whitfield said he may have disagreements with the Mayor but he does have to represent his constituents in Ward 3.
One of those disagreements is over the $115,000 that Washington wanted to pay Robert Jones, who was her choice for police chief. Whitfield opposed that and explained why.
He said other reasons include a statement by Jones that coming to Pine Bluff was “a calling.” According to Whitfield, Jones said “he was led here by God” but he forgets to say at a cost of $115,000. Whitfield went on to say that he had made the statement before that he didn’t think Jones was coming to Pine Bluff and he repeated that again on Tuesday.
