-
✎
October 9, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
The city's best investments are already on the table
Treat every city decision as an investment and the best returns are not new taxes. They are money already won, like $9.75 million in water-loan forgiveness, cash that earned $226 in eight months, and deals worth reopening. With what the city's debts actually cost.
-
✎
October 7, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
A city should give back more than it takes
Helena-West Helena has lost almost one in three residents since 2010, and the people who stayed are paying more. Before the city asks for more, it should go after the money it is leaving on the table and stop paying for things that buy no lasting fix.
-
✎
October 2, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
The water-bill rule the city says it needs. Here is a draft.
The city attorney says Helena-West Helena needs one written rule for fixing water bills and setting up payment plans. The city has never had one. Here is a draft ordinance in plain language and in full, and one ask: post it and give it three readings.
-
✎
September 25, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
The new line on your Entergy bill
The "Generating Arkansas Jobs Act" line costs a 1,000 kWh home $5.74 a month now, and Entergy projects about $20 by 2030. What it pays for, who approved it, what the city can and cannot do, and what you can do this month.
-
✎
September 22, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
If you elect me, grade me. Here is the scoreboard.
Why I am running for Ward 1, and the scoreboard to hold me to: four questions with public numbers under each — population, water rates, audits, grants — six conduct commitments, and the first three motions I would bring. Published before the election on purpose.
-
✎
September 16, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
The Chick-fil-A test
Monday night the council took no vote on the $12,500 hotel market study; it is headed for the A&P Commission, where I serve. Before it gets there, a parable about public money and private business — with the case law, linked, and the meeting on video.
-
✎
September 15, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
The city wants to pay $9,500 for hotel market research. Here it is, free.
An Atlanta firm proposed a $9,500 study of whether downtown can support a new hotel — research its consultants would build partly by interviewing local lodging. Seventeen years of my own nightly books answer it here, free, with the full six-page proposal scanned and the chart that carries the argument.
-
✎
September 11, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
Our Water Department Is Finally Making Money. Now It Should Act Like It.
Rates more than doubled, and the department that lost $1 million in 2023 now budgets a $1.4 million surplus. So why do "balloon bills" still land on customers with late fees and blame? Every quote plays the meeting video; every document is readable on the page.
-
✎
August 27, 2026 · by Robert Cheek
Pay for the rental. Then show us the books.
The council was right to rent a garbage truck. The harder questions: why the shopping started after the fleet failed — and why the rate-increase talk arrived without the city's own numbers.
How these differ from the records. A Council Watch record is neutral by form: the summary, the recap, the documents, and the complete transcript, with no argument attached. A perspective is one person's read of that record, signed. When the two disagree, trust the record — and tell us.