Agenda Highlights 4/8/25
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting to be held 4-8-25 at Fort Smith Senior Activity Center on Cavanaugh, the Board will discuss a package of spending cuts proposed by Director Rego. The package is being called Curbing Unrestricted Taxpayer Spending (CUTS). The plan involves 12 of the 13 departments that receive allocations from the Water and Sewer Operating Fund (W&S) being required to cut their 2025 budget by 15% and also to do an additional one-time 5% budget cut and redirect the funds from both the 15% cut and the 5% cut to the W&S to be spent on consent decree sewer work. The Engineering Department which also receives allocations from W&S will be required to cut their 2025 budget by 8% and also do an additional one-time 5% budget cut and redirect the funds from both the 8% cut and the 5% cut to the W&S for consent decree sewer work. Police, Fire, Parks, Streets, and Solid Waste do not receive allocations from W&S.
The cuts from the Board of Directors would generate $98,516 for W&S. The cuts from Mayor would generate $123,127. The cuts from City Administration would generate $327,660. The cuts from Internal Audit would generate $121, 495. The cuts from Human Resources would generate $175, 741. The cuts from City Clerk would generate $83,951. The cuts from Finance would generate $374,803. The cuts from Purchasing would generate $158,128. The cuts from IT would generate $1,846,799. The cuts from Communications would generate $86,123. The cuts from Citizen and City Services (formerly known as Sustainability) would generate $50,772. The cuts from Planning would generate $217,399. The cuts from Engineering would generate $243,540.
Also individual cuts for 25% for spending on dues and subscriptions in all departments, a 10% cut of the Mayor’s special events budget, and a cut of $100,000 from the Convention Center are proposed. Cuts are proposed for two projects at the Transit Headquarters, one for the construction of the access road and one for a slow-fill fueling station. The total cost of those two projects would be $2,952,830, but about 80% of that cost would be reimbursed by the federal government.
Utilities Director McAvoy, Deputy Director of Systems Hall, and Deputy Director of Utilities Engineering Johnson will present about the equipment needs, costs, and other potential plans to address water leaks. At this time they do not feel additional staff is needed but each team of 4 employees working on leaks needs a one-ton service truck, a 5-ton dump truck, and a backhoe and backhoe trailer. The crews all share one extend-a-hoe. The department has been experiencing challenges in being able to repair leaks because of lack of and failure of equipment.
The Board will discuss the City Staff request to make a Request for Proposals regarding the feasibility, funding for, and implementation of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure System for water metering. The existing Automated Meter Reading system has been experiencing failures that have resulted in inaccuracies and customer service issues. The inaccurate readings require extra labor to conduct rereadings and manual readings and for customer service in dealing with the billing issues. Some irrigation meters have been found to have registered zero usage for 2-3 years. Some meters have registered zero usage so customers were not billed in those months where no usage was registered but then when the correct meter reading was obtained customers received large catch-up bills. The billing department has had to adjust $600,000 dollars in bills due to incorrect billing from meter read discrepancies. Advanced Metering Infrastructure was previously discussed some at the 11/12/24 meeting.
