Adam Fire Cat seeks Fayetteville City Council seat in Ward 4

Adam Fire Cat / Courtesy photo

Longtime political candidate Adam Fire Cat once again would like to hold a local government position in Fayetteville.

Cat, 45, hopes to take the Ward 4, Position 2 seat currently held by Kyle Smith, who is running for election to keep his seat for the next four years. He’ll also face challengers Holly Hertzberg and Paul Waddell.

Cat ran unsuccessful campaigns for City Council in 2018, 2012 and 2010. He filed in 2016, but withdrew his candidacy after moving to another ward. Cat also ran for mayor in 2008. This year he’ll face Smith, Holly Hertzberg and Paul Waddell for the west Fayetteville representative position.

Reduction of regulation, personal freedom and fiscal responsibility remain top priorities for Cat, as each have been pillars of his campaigns in the past.

“No doubt about it, going back as far as the 2008 mayoral race, I’ve preached the word of maximal freedom with respect to the goal of well-being,” said Cat.

If elected, he’ll push for single-stream recycling and won’t be afraid to vote against some amenities if the cost poses a threat to a balanced budget or paying for infrastructure improvements.

“Budgets should aim to break even each year, with our needs always before our wants,” he said. “No, the arts and parks will take a back seat until our budgetary requirements are met. No, we have to pay the light bill first.”

Ward 4 contains a large portion of west Fayetteville, including Razorback Stadium, Holt Middle School, Holcomb Elementary School, and the Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville.

The election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Profile: Adam Fire Cat

Position sought: Ward 4, Position 2
Age: 45
Residency: 26-year resident of Fayetteville; four-year resident of Ward 4
Employment: Host and Busser, Village Inn restaurant
Education: Former University of Arkansas student majoring in law
Political Experience: Candidate in multiple elections

Questions

This is your fifth run for City Council. You often cite a distaste for excessive ordinances as a driving force for why you continue to run. Is that still the case? Is there anything else you’d like to add?

To be fair to your question, that is still one of the driving rationales for which I remain consistently adamant. No doubt about it, going back as far as the 2008 mayoral race, I’ve preached the word of maximal freedom with respect to the goal of well-being. I’d be hard pressed to pass an ordinance solely on subjective opinion alone. One would have to do better than working backwards from a predetermined conclusion and cherry picking one’s data to create an ordinance I could get on board with. Having been said, I have actually managed to spit a few more ideas out of my gobstopper during my efforts to run for a political position in our fair city.

A return to the effort to change our current recycling methods to the single-stream method. The pilot program was, as the data sets clearly point out, an utter success. How does something that was notably superior in nearly every metric get turned down for application? If you ever find yourself curious on what those numbers are by the by, the city website always has a downloadable copy for your desired looksee. In the end, it was turned down because some people didn’t personally want it. It reminded me of the history of cake mix. When cake mix was first introduced, it was a monumental failure. No one wanted it, and the reason was discovered to be psychological in nature. If one employed the use of cake mixes, then by gods they must not be doing any actual work. At the time, people would rather make it from scratch than appear to be lazy. Just a different type of virtue signaling. Thus, a new plan was formed. They created a cake mix formula that required you to add egg to it. Sales for cake mix exploded from there, even though there was less ingredients. People are strange this way. This is not your momma and daddy’s recycling. It’s time to move on, and I’d like to revive and replace the arcane recycling program with its proven superior product. But this means telling people no. No, we’re not going to keep doing it because that’s how you’ve always done it before. No, we’ll be moving on to the more environmentally sound variant. No egg.

Hell, I’ve desired to take things a bit further… but I’ll spin that yarn another time.

Occasionally I’ve been known to speak of Free Geek, a rarely appreciated nonprofit electronic waste recycler in Fayetteville, which could use some volunteer help. They don’t get much thanks for their efforts, but I think they’re worth looking into if you’re seeking to do some volunteer work or can offer monetary assistance.

Many a’ time, I’ve spoke on the city budget, as I was running for mayor in 2008. Of course at that time, the city was about two hundred and one million, seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars in debt… rounded down. The city finally managed to tame that debt weasel in 2013, where we broke even for the first time since… gods… I don’t recall if we ever had. My budget studies only go back as far as Fred Hanna, and I can’t remember a time that wasn’t the case then. This is important to remember, as old habits can reemerge if one is not attentive. That is something I’ve repeatedly stated back in the day, and it hold true to the now. Budgets should aim to break even each year, with our needs always before our wants. And again, that means telling people no. No, you can’t have everything you desire. No, the arts and parks will take a back seat until our budgetary requirements are met. No, we have to pay the light bill first.

A plentiful plethora of reasons exist for which I run, of which I could write a novel were I so inclined. Let’s not mistake me for a one-trick pony, shall we?

Ward 4 is a fast-growing part of town. Would you describe it any differently today than you did in 2018?

I wouldn’t say it’s following any abnormal pace with the rest of the city if that’s what you mean. Cities evolve, but Ward 4 meets expected parameters as expansion goes. The only concern in terms of growth that I have at the moment is that the Wedington bridge access is about two lanes too small these days. The more that part of our town grows, the more cramped the bridge. Hell, just roaming up Wedington Drive on this side of the bridge during peak traffic hours is a damn tight fit, and that’s the nice words I’ll use for it. The bridge will have to be reworked, and I expect that should it need to be shut down for some form of unexpected maintenance (even partially), this side of town won’t manage so well where traffic is concerned. The “Mayor’s Box” can only do so much.

Which recent council decision(s) do you agree or disagree with?

Nothing specifically to report as of late, though given the nature of the political beast monster, that can change in a hot instant.