Fayetteville Alderman Lioneld Jordan's working class roots influence his approach to politics

Written by Richard S. Drake
Little Rock Free Press - November, 2006

Lioneld Jordan, representing Fayetteville's Ward 4, has now been on the city council for six years. In that time the city of Fayetteville has faced a lot of major issues, but through it all, Jordan has remained as he ever was, a man of deep passions and convictions - a sterling example of a working class representative.

Though he is wiser about how things are done on a political level, he says that his core beliefs are the same as ever. "I still believe in public participation in our form of government.

"One thing that I have learned, in the last six years, you kind of go in with some preconceived ideas that you are going to do this, or you're going to do that, and sometimes you come to the stark reality that that may not just occur. I have learned through all this process is sometimes you have to lay yourself down on the altar of public service for what is best for the people of the city."

He concludes his thought by saying, " It's not an I thing, or a me thing, or what I can get, but it's an us thing. It's the city pulling together toward one vison, to make this a better city."

Lioneld Jordan has lived in Fayetteville for over 30 years, working for the University of Arkansas for over 20 years. The 2000 campaign was his first foray into city politics. In a 2001 interview, he described that election campaign as "quite a hoot," in addition to being exciting and extremely labor intensive.

He also says that he learned how to run a political campaign on "coffee and cookies."

It is obvious even after just a few minutes speaking with the Fayetteville alderman, with Jordan, that he feels a strong passion for people, especially fellow members of the working class.

It isn't just lip service when Jordan speaks of his dedication to the working class. For a long time he has been involved with the University of Arkansas employee union, AFSCME 0965, and has served as the head of the union.

As alderman, he works hard to bring the issues to the citizens of his particular constituency, in the form of monthly ward meetings, in which he and his fellow alderman, Shirley Lucas, discuss current issues with voters.

"We have had close to a hundred of those. We have developers come in, sometimes we even have people come in from other wards. We have looked at everything from the smoking ban to the new Sam's Club. The development community comes in and makes presentations and shows the people exactly what they are wanting to build and they get to critique it, and they get to know what is going on in the ward.

"I go through the [City Council] agenda, and I tell them what's coming up, and it has worked extremely well." The monthly ward meetings are held at City Hall.

Jordan says that his fellow ward alderman, Shirley Lucas, works very hard, and is a good complement to him. "I have a whole lot of trust and
confidence in Shirley Lucas."

Fairness for the rank and file has long been one of Jordan's main concerns, whether it be the need to attract hi-tech industry to Fayetteville or the need to pay residents what has been called a "living wage."

Speaking of Congressman Tip O'Neill's book, "All Politics is Local," he says that is an important lesson for elected officials to remember. "It doesn't make any difference to me what they call me about, I will call somebody to get in touch with them. Whether you can help them or not, I think an alderman is on call, 24/7, that's our job.

"Sometimes you can't help them, but you can at least direct them to a place where they can get the help. That's what I try to do. I don't know everything. I don't pretend to. Lord, if people elected people for how smart I was, or how good looking I was, or how much money I had, I'd never get elected!" He laughs loudly.

What has he found most frustrating about being involved with city government?

"Sometimes there is a lot of red tape you have to go through. I want something and I want to move quickly and get it done and sometimes the wheels of government don't work like that. But I learned through my labor background that we are taught one thing, you take what you can get. You work in little nibbles, and then eventually, you get where you want to go.

"But you have to be patient with people. You have to love the people, and you have to love to serve them. If the crux of your decisions are made on caring for and serving the people, you'll do okay. And then if you keep them informed of where you are, in any certain stage, well, they've cut me a lot of slack."

Even though he has been heavily involved in Fayetteville politics for the past six years, Lioneld Jordan is as dedicated to labor issues as he ever was. "I still believe in a living wage, I still believe in the rights of workers. I know this is a Right to Work state, but that doesn't mean that workers don't have rights."

In fact, Jordan says that his stance on labor is even stronger than ever.

Jordan's union, AFSCME 0965, achieved some public notice in the late 1990s when the UA attempted to lay-off a number of key employees in the physical plant. Though Jordan's job was not among those threatened, he felt strongly enough about it to stand with his fellow employees. Because of the union's united strong stance, and the support it received from the community at large, the university rescinded the layoff order.

Jordan is currently president of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council, which represents a large number of unions in the Northwest Arkansas area. In fact, immediately after this interview was concluded, he was on his way to a meeting of the group.

An active group, it also endorses political candidates. Jordan says that it recently sent out questionnaires to all political candidates, so it could be determined who was pro-labor, and who was not.

He says that in the current climate, many people in Arkansas have a fear of joining a union. "I truly believe that if the people get involved, we can change the way things are now. I hear a lot about this being an ‘ownership' country, well actually, the labor movement helped build the middle-class that helped build this country."

But he sees a larger separation growing in the United States between the classes. " The very, very wealthy, and the very, very low income, and the middle class is starting to evaporate and disappear."

Does it frustrate Jordan to hear so many working class people, who seemingly should know better, say things like, "We don't need unions any more. They are a thing of the past."

"Well, the first thing you have to say is without the unions, you wouldn't have your paid holidays, your 40 hour work weeks, you wouldn't have your child labor laws in this country. You have to realize that once something like that leaves, there is a tendency for it to revert back to what it was."

He says that the labor movement needs to be more pro-active about being in the community, talking about health care, jobs, and wages. " But it's important to fight for our jobs. When you fight for our jobs, and you fight for the labor movement, you are fighting for your families."

Getting down to specifics on the "living wage," Jordan elaborates. "We have done some studies in Washington County. We have been told that with two people working, a family of four can not make less than $34,000 a year. We were behind the recent minimum wage being brought up, and we were strong in our support of that.

"I just wish it had been seven dollars an hour, or more. I don't think there's anybody who can live in this city comfortably making less than ten dollar an hour."

But he is very much aware that are far too many in Fayetteville who are making less than ten dollars an hour. "That needs to be addressed. One of the ways we can address it is by attainable affordable housing. That's the latest thing that I have gotten tremendously interested in. I've talked to some of the folk from the development community, and I believe that we can gain some attainable housing, but it's going to take some work, and it's going to take some compromise from everybody.

"But I truly believe that everybody should own a home, and everybody can have a truly decent living wage and be able to properly feed, clothe, and educate their children. That's a core belief of mine, and they won't ever shake it out of me."

Casual observers might note that there seems to be a dearth of working class individuals involved in politics. How would Jordan address that observation?

"I run across lot of people who say, 'I don't come,' or 'I don't vote,' or 'I don't do this,' or 'I don't do that, because it doesn't make any
difference." But it does make a difference, and whatever people think about the government, if they get involved, they can change it.

"We have seen it time and time again throughout the history of the world when the people got motivated to change something, they changed it. There was the Civil Rights movement, and they changed things. There was the labor movement, and they changed things. But it takes the people getting involved.

"If I stress anything to people, it is ‘get involved with government.'" Jordan mentions the ward meetings that he and fellow alderman Shirley Lucas hold once a month as a way for ordinary people to make their voices be heard.

"When I am in a room with people, and we are exchanging ideas, I draw strength, I draw power, from those people, and it's kind of like you and the people become one." Jordan also hopes that people will see himself and others in government as an example, and run for office themselves.

What has surprised him the most about serving on the city council?

"The amount of hours that I have to spend doing the job. I spend between thirty and forty hours a week doing city council work, plus I have a forty a week job. That's what it takes. All the committees you serve on. This week I had two meetings on Monday, two meetings on Tuesday, two meetings tonight and one on Saturday."

He also mentions the amount of reading each alderman must do to prepare for the meetings.

His proudest achievements are the individual ward meetings he and his fellow alderman hold for citizens. But surely, Jordan should also take pride in inspiring other working class citizens to take part in the political process.