Increased crime in west LR rises to lead topic in 3rd District JP race

An uptick in crime in west Little Rock is the forefront issue in the race for the District 3 seat on the Pulaski County Quorum Court between Lynn Jacuzzi and incumbent Kathy Lewison.

It’s one of two races for for justice of the peace positions on the 15-member body, which oversees and allocates the county’s roughly $70 million annual budget. Justices of the peace receive a salary of $12,000 per year; however, that amount is currently being considered for a $2,100 raise for next year. Terms are two years.

For the past several months, Jacuzzi and Lewison have been going doorto-door, campaigning the old-fashioned way. It’s something Lewison, who first ran for the office in 1994, has been doing for more than 20 years.

This year, she’s so far knocked on at least 2,500 doors in her district, which runs from I-430 and West Markham Street roughly to Cantrell Road and Taylor Loop Road. And after the same routine for so many years, she says she knows nearly everyone in her district.

“For me, west Little Rock is my family, and I love what I’m doing,” said Lewison, a Democrat. “It’s hard walking door-to-door for a lot of candidates, but I love it, because I love connecting with and seeing everybody.”

As both candidates have been pounding the pavement, they’ve heard similar concerns over increasing crime in the district.

“I’ve been going door-todoor, and people are concerned about public safety,” said Jacuzzi, a Republican.

“That’s probably what I hear the most,” she added,

mentioning several recent shootings in her district — including one at a Sonic drive-thru that critically injured a carhop in July.

One solution she mentioned was ensuring that the county’s crowded jail has room for violent offenders by possibly ridding it of the state’s backlog of inmates. As of last week, about 30 percent of the 1,084 people in the jail were state inmates.

“I want to make sure that we have the funding for our jail. I don’t think everyone needs to go into jail, but we need to have a space to put the violent offenders who need to go to jail,” Jacuzzi said.

The increase of crime in the district is not lost on Lewison. Three burglaries of her home on Shackleford Road have made her acutely aware of the issue.

“I’m very aware of those issues because I’m living them right now,” she said.

Lewison aims to take a more preventative approach to the matter. She stresses continued focus on the county’s youth services program, which has received $884,000 in grant funding since Feb. 2015, as well as improving the county’s drug court and possibly developing a mental health court in the future.

Another area of interest for both candidates is the efficient spending and allocation of the county’s budget.

After a career as an optician working in several clinics in the state before founding her own family-owned business, Jacuzzi touts her business acumen when it comes to balancing budgets.

“I have experience working in the different practices I’ve worked in. I’ve balanced budgets in those practices, I’ve made payrolls in those practices, and I’ve been a part of all the inner workings of what it takes to keep a business going,” Jacuzzi said.

In 1981, Jacuzzi and her husband, Remo, founded Jason International Inc., a hydrotherapy-products dealer. Both have since retired from the business but continue to participate in its shareholder meetings.

Lewison defines her spending policy as that of a “conservative Democrat.” As a single mother having raised two kids on her own, Lewison said, she keeps a hawkish eye over the county budget as she has her own checkbook.

“I watch over that money like it’s my own, having raised two children with not a lot of money,” Lewison said. “The first time I ran in 1994, my whole campaign was ‘Why don’t they just let a single mom get on that Quorum Court who can manage a checkbook?’”