What to know about Rogers' mayoral candidates

Incumbent Greg Hines faces challenger Chris Latimer in the race for mayor of Rogers.

Why it matters: With about 73,000 residents, Rogers is NWA's third-largest city.

Greg Hines

Rogers mayor Greg Hines still has things he wants to do for the city before he walks away from job, he told Axios.

• He hopes to use the term to prepare the city for long-term succession planning by declaring that this will be his last bid for the top seat.

What they're saying: If elected, Hines would like to usher in a new bond issue, which would be the extension of a one-cent capital improvement tax. Some of the projects intended for the 2018 bond haven't yet been completed due largely to rising labor and material costs, Hines said.

• He also hopes to set some "guardrails" for how the city spends its reserve capital, which is about $80 million now, he said.
• Another item on Hines' agenda is to help restore the city following the tornadoes in May that caused an estimated $33 million worth of damage just to city facilities.

On the city budget: "I want to make sure that that, by ordinance … the city council is able to determine how much of [the reserves] should be strategic reserves that can only be used for certain things, how much of it could be used for, 'hey, there's a nice, shiny toy over here we'd like to have' … because that's, that's a lot of money."

Background: Hines has served as mayor of Rogers since 2011. Before that, he served on the city council for 12 years.

• For 10 of those years, Hines was a police officer and director of public safety for Benton County.
• He's lived in Rogers his whole life, he told Axios.

Chris Latimer

Chris Latimer wants to make Rogers a safer city and reactivate its gang task force. He claimed there is increased gang-related activity in the town and noted a safe city ranking from this spring that didn't include Rogers.

What they're saying: Latimer told Axios public service and being involved in the community are important to him. As it grows, Rogers is facing crime and infrastructure issues, and Latimer feels like the city needs new leadership.

On safety: "If you have a crime rate that is elevated — that is higher — you don't have a prosperous city a lot of times … you don't have a city that people want to move into, that businesses want to open business in.

• "I really want to make sure that Rogers continues to be a thriving, safe environment and a safe city for our residents."

Background: Latimer is a real estate agent and a Benton County Justice of the Peace for District 4.

• He was in ministry for 12 years, most recently at Key Point Church in Bentonville. He stepped away from ministry in 2020 and ran in the Republican primary for state representative in 2020 but lost.
• Latimer has lived in Rogers for 16 years, he said.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that Rogers is the third-largest city in the region, not the second-largest.