It was an honor to be asked last month to speak at the opening dinner for the annual winter meeting of the Arkansas Municipal League. It’s one of the largest conventions in the state with more than 1,100 people registered.

With the governor’s office and Legislature now fully infected by the hyperpartisan politics of Washington, D.C., it’s a relief to be around mayors and city council members. The real innovation in government these days is going on at the municipal level. While they’re busy fighting silly culture wars at the state Capitol, mayors and their council members are making things happen.

They can’t hide behind paid spokespeople as our governor does. They see constituents on a daily basis in the grocery store, at church and at high school basketball games. Partisanship isn’t an option. The mayor is only a phone call away and must focus on solving actual problems.

Among the best is the man who introduced me, Mayor Jonas Anderson of Cave City. He has been mayor of his hometown (which proclaims itself as Home of the World’s Sweetest Watermelons) since 2017. Anderson served for seven years prior to that as a member of the city council.

Last year, Anderson became the Municipal League president. He was elevated from first vice president at the start of 2023 to serve the rest of a term left vacant by Virginia Young, who was defeated in late 2022 in her re-election campaign as Sherwood mayor. In June, Anderson was elected to serve a full term.

The Municipal League was established in 1934 to assist cities by providing information and representing them at the state and federal levels.

According to the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “The impetus for forming the league came from mayors and chambers of commerce. Larger cities could afford to interact directly with higher levels of government, but smaller cities realized they needed to organize to make their interests known.

“Other states have similar organizations, so there were models available to the founders. One of the founders was Kenneth Warner, who taught political science at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville from 1931-34. He was executive director of the league in 1934-35.”

Anderson, 40, has made it a priority to recruit the next generation of local government leaders. He told this newspaper last year: “Bringing in younger people is the only way we can keep this going.”

I met Anderson several years ago when I went to Cave City to research a cover story for this newspaper’s Perspective section. This town on the line between Sharp and Independence counties has long been among my favorite places in Arkansas. It was incorporated in 1907 and had 278 residents in the 1910 census. As Arkansas becomes urbanized, most small towns have lost population in recent decades. Cave City grew from 1,503 residents in 1990 to 1,922 in 2020.

“The town takes its name from the Crystal River Cave, which is directly beneath it,” Mike Cumnock writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “The cave has played a pivotal role in the history of the community. For thousands of years, it served as a temporary shelter, source of water and place to visit. Settlers in the 19th century used the cave for food storage because of its cool temperatures.

“For years, a well into the Crystal River was the major source of water—other than collected rainwater— for the area. There was a fascination with an endless source of water that remained a constant 57 degrees. The limestone cavity is well insulated and is undisturbed by activities that are more than 75 feet above it. In the early 1800s, the cavity was referred to as Horn Cave, named for the family that owned land above.”

Anderson graduated from Cave City High School, earned an associate of applied science degree in computer information systems from University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville, and then earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

He formed a band with friends and wound up traveling extensively. Anderson says those travels “helped broaden my understanding of people and places I had never seen before. It changed my life.”

Anderson began work last year as chief technology officer for the Bank of Cave City. He was earlier lead technical support specialist for Virtual Arkansas, helping manage the technology needs of thousands of public school students, teachers and staff. Anderson also has done technical work for the educational cooperative that serves that part of the state, the Cave City School District and Highland School District.

Julie Johnson, a former Anderson teacher, told this newspaper in 2017: “Jonas is the man you leave a bag of gold with when you’re going to be gone for 10 years. … He has a lot of new ideas, but he knows he can’t throw them all out there at once. … He will work tirelessly with other city employees to make Cave City one of the best small towns in Arkansas.”

Anderson indeed turned out to be a model small-town mayor.

“Maybe it’s due to the pervasiveness of social media, but there seem to be more complainers out there than doers,” he says. “It’s easier to focus on the negatives than it is to look for opportunities and take the lead on turning them into positives. I hope more people in my generation will put themselves forward to help lead their communities. We need level-headed people who will honor the work of those who came before us while recognizing the possibility of our own perspectives and contributions.”