The first hat has been thrown into the ring for November's Bella Vista mayoral race and it belongs to John Flynn, who announced on Jan. 13 he will be seeking the position of mayor after serving two terms on the city council.
Current Mayor Peter Christie said in November of 2021 he would not seek a third term, instead announcing his intention to run for the State Senate District 34 position, which was newly created for the north-central portion of Benton County.
Flynn, whose second term on the council is coming to an end, holds one of three council positions set to expire at the end of this year. The other two are held by Larry Wilms and Steven Bourke.
Flynn was a corporate attorney for 37 years and general counsel of three different corporations. He also served on the legal staff of two Fortune 500 corporations and has taught Finance and Business Law in graduate school at the University of Arkansas for the past 11 years as well as serving as chairman of the Benton County Board of Equalization for the past three years.
He said he feels his background makes him a strong candidate to run the city of Bella Vista.
"One of the reasons I thought about running was that I had a background in law and a background in finance, and I thought those would be a good background," he said. "I honestly think that of all the people on the council my resume is the strongest. I've lived in Bella Vista a long time, which people like, I have more education than anybody else, and the education happens to be in areas that are good -- finance and legal -- and I've been involved in city politics longer than anybody except Jim Wozniak."
During his eight years on the city council Flynn was elected Mayor Pro Tempore for six years. He has also served as chairman of the Bella Vista Streets Committee for all eight years as a councilman and has been a commissioner on the Advertising and Promotion Commission (Discover Bella Vista) for three years.
"Thinking back over the whole time on the council, because this is also the whole term for myself and Peter Christie as mayor, too, I think a lot has been accomplished," Flynn said. "One of the things Peter's done really successfully is to strengthen the police and fire departments quite a bit. For a long time the Property Owners Association ran the city. They only had so much funds, plus they don't get some of these kickback funds from the county and state like a city does. It made you realize the police and fire were under powered because of a lack of funds. I think Peter's done a really good job of getting those departments pumped up."
Flynn believes strong safety departments are part of the attractive quality of life currently being enjoyed by the residents of Bella Vista.
"The reason it's nice and attractive is that the quality of life, divided by the price, is better than the great majority of places," he said. "So what I'd like to do as mayor is emphasize improving the quality of life in Bella Vista. And it's already good for the price."
He continued, "Now the price has gotten a little higher the way the market's been for housing -- although that's true in a lot of places -- but I still think we've got a great quality of life for the price. And when you're the mayor you need to always be focusing on that. It includes public safety, and we have great public safety now. But when you're good at something, you don't take it for granted."
Overall, he said, most of the citizens "are very law abiding and very supportive of the police and fire," and that those departments are "well run and doing a good job."
When asked if he had a list of things he would like to address if elected mayor of Bella Vista, Flynn said it may be too early at this point to delve into all of the issues, but he did say the city should continue to be mindful of its revenue situation.
"One thing is our income is relatively finite. We've been doing pretty good lately," he said. "It's been going up all the time and is mostly driven by sales tax. But I think you have to be careful not to get over your skis too far as far as spending too much money goes."
He also said the city's broadband situation continues to be an important issue, especially with the rising number of residents working and shopping from home.
"I know the mayor would like to do something with the broadband to make it better," Flynn said. "We have some dead spots, and nowadays with people going to school from home and ordering things from home it's become a bigger issue. We've been a little surprised that some of the vendors have been very reluctant to go into an area when there are only so many houses and so many people. So we do have some dead spots in town and we'd like to do something about that."
Flynn also said the city must scrutinize any funds received through the American Rescue Plan to see where they best can be used.
"This federal money, the American Rescue Plan, one plan we don't get any money from because during covid we actually did better than we did the year before," he said. "You had to be losing money to qualify. We were pretty fortunate that way. But the other one we do qualify for is going to be about $5.9 million and you need to spend it over so many years. I think that's going to be something we're going to have to really put our thinking caps on and try to spend that in the most prudent way, because there are obviously a lot of needs."
Flynn also said the idea of converting more residences from septic systems to sewer lines is a topic that will have to be addressed in the near future.
"What I would like to see is for more of Bella Vista to be on sewer," he said. "Last I heard about 32% of Bella Vista was on sewer. That would make a lot of problems go away. The toughest part of that is the far west side, the Highlands. Peter Christie told me to cover that area with sewer you'd have to build a new plant. The existing plant couldn't handle it. But if you think about it, cities have sewer and rural areas have septic. The reasons for that are environmental and health related. We've got to have sewer eventually. Does it cost money? Yes, it does. But somehow, in the long run, Bella Vista is going to have to be on sewer. And now the west side seems to be poised for growth because of the bypass."
Flynn moved to Rogers in 1996 and then to Bella Vista in 2005. He and his wife, Linda, have three adult children. Currently he is vice president and on the board of directors of the Bella Vista Foundation and is a docent and a member of the board of directors of the Bella Vista Historical Museum. He is also a member of St. Theodore's Episcopal Church, Bella Vista Rotary, the Bella Vista Fly Tyers Club, the Bella Vista Tennis Association and the Bella Vista Men's Golf Association.
"I think I have the strongest background for the city and I know the mayor and my fellow councilmen all have a high opinion of me," Flynn said. "I do have a philosophy about governing. When I first got into politics I thought, 'You know, I've got to figure out what I'm doing here and what was the point of it.' I have two different philosophies I go by, and this really comes in handy when you've got what I call a tough vote. I want to do what the majority of citizens want done. The second one is I want to do what is in the best interest of the majority of the citizens. Those are very similar but not quite the same. But I think where some politicians go wrong is on that first one."
He added, "I think most people who know me see me as a reasonable person, not too 'out there' one way or the other, and they know I'll get along with people and work with people and that's what they want."