Agenda Highlights 3/28/23

The Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting scheduled for 3-28-23 will kick off with the annual update from the Future Fort Smith Committee featuring reports from multiple departments on what they’ve done or are doing this year or are about to do in relation to the goals in the Comprehensive Plan.

The Board will discuss changes to the City Employee personnel policy in response to the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment. In the proposed policy, no employees would be allowed to use or be under the influence of marijuana at any time while on duty regardless of whether they possess a medical marijuana card or not. To stay in line with federal law, the proposed policy includes that all employees that are subject to DOT regulations may not use marijuana and will be terminated if they test positive.

To stay in line with State law, employees may not use marijuana even if they possess a medical marijuana card if they are to be employed in jobs that are categorized as safety sensitive or security sensitive. Some safety sensitive jobs include law enforcement officers, anyone who operates a motor vehicle or heavy equipment, Fire department employees, lifeguards, anyone working with food, and water and wastewater treatment operators. Some security sensitive jobs include Police department roles including dispatchers and clerical workers with access to investigation information, anyone working in criminal prosecution, and IT employees. Employees who are classified as safety or security sensitive will be required to disclose to the human resources department if they are issued a medical marijuana card and will be terminated for failure to disclose.

The Board will discuss the staffing shortages in the Utility Department. There are currently 43 vacancies out of the 298 positions at the Utility Department. 23.7% of the water line maintenance staff positions are currently open.

Utilities Director McAvoy states that the water department is often being “used as a safety net until something better comes along”. 43 people that left recently did so in under a year, with 28 of those leaving in less than 6 months. Of the employees that resigned recently, 47% did so to accept another job (with higher pay and benefits offered elsewhere being the main reason mentioned). Employees leaving for jobs in indoor and climate controlled environments was another challenge.

The Board will also discuss potentially splitting the Utility Department into two separate departments, one for water and one for wastewater.

There are some challenges to be considered if they were to be split. A split would create a need for 17-40 additional staff to split roles currently performed by a single person doing both water and wastewater duties. Also there would be a need for additional facilities, equipment, and vehicles. The biggest challenge would be that the Utilities bond debt would need to be refinanced and that would result in it being refinanced at a higher rate than the current rate. The City’s Bond Council Shep Russell advised against the split that would cause refinancing calling it a “very costly process” and “a money losing activity”.