Fowler: Bella Vista needs to build its tax base

BELLA VISTA — Council member Doug Fowler said he’s lived in Bella Vista for 13 years and he grew up roughly an hour away in Seneca and Monet, Mo.

He attended Southwest Missouri State University in Springf ield and got a marketing degree before starting a 34-year sales and information technology career with Kraft Foods, which took him to various metropolitan areas across the country, he explained.

That job’s skill set, which involved taking massive quantities of data and understanding the important parts to bring to customers translates readily to city council, he said.

Fowler was elected to the city council in 2016 and has four years’ experience under his belt.

“If you have never served on a city council before, you are going to spend a year, year and a half getting your feet on the ground,” he said.

Fowler said he’s spent a massive amount of time getting to know city staff, learning about the work various departments do.

In addition to serving on the council, Fowler chairs the city’s advertising and promotion commission, Discover Bella Vista.

The city is experiencing tremendous growth, Fowler said, and needs to build its tax base to provide for that growth.

“It costs money to maintain our police, our fire, our city streets, our library, our city staff, et cetera,” he said, noting that Bella Vistans are spending their money outside the city and paying for those services in neighboring communities.

While residents and officials may be getting frustrated, he said, Bella Vista is beginning to build a reputation and could attract more development in the foreseeable future — but the city needs to be proactive about it.

“People are looking at us. They’re curious now, they understand that Bella Vista has a lot of opportunity,” Fowler said.

The lack of existing retail may be a surprisingly valuable trait, he said, because developers and the city have a lot of options.

“You can kind of write your own script,” he said.

On a longer term, Fowler said he fully expects Bella Vista to remain an extremely desirable place to live.

“The primary responsibility of a city council member is oversight,” Fowler said. “It is to understand the makeup of the city budget, when and how the money is being spent, and are we spending the public’s money responsibly?”

Efficiency is extremely important for a city like Bella Vista, which doesn’t have the same amount of income as some neighboring cities, he said, noting the current administration does a great job of building an efficient budget.

Council members need to thoroughly research topics that come up for discussion, he said. A lot of ordinances are very straightforward, but many can be incredibly complex, he said.

It can be helpful to have conversations with key players and involved parties, or to review what other cities have done in similar circumstances.

It’s also essential for a council member to understand they are part of a governing body - ordinances need to be crafted in a way that the whole council can agree to it, he explained.

“Through conversation, negotiation, if you will, you’re able to get to something that will work for everybody, or at least a majority,” Fowler said.

Council members need to be responsive to residents as well, he said.

“There are specific responsibilities that city council members are tasked with,” Fowler said.

While he has aspirations, it is important to be grounded about them, he explained.

Fowler said his primary goal would be to continue to guide the city forward responsibly and address residents’ concerns in a responsible, respectful manner.

“At the end of the day, I have put so much time and effort, it would be a shame to waste it and not to continue forward and make progress on everything I have learned and know,” he said.

Fowler