Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 3/8/22
The top issue of the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session meeting held 3-8-22 was discussion on the Sales Tax Advisory Committee to be created to watch and report to the Board on the money coming in from sales taxes and how that money is being spent. Director Martin sought clarification on the intended scope of the committee. Administrator Geffken clarified that it would keep an eye on all of the sales taxes coming into the city, the 1% for streets, bridges, and drainage, the city’s 78% share of the 1% Sebastian County sales tax, and if they are renewed, the .25% for Parks and Fire and .75% for Police and consent decree sewer work.
Director Settle suggested that rather than the 8 members mentioned in the administration’s initial ideas for the committee the committee be made of 9 members. He expressed his preference that no elected officials be included on the committee. Director Morton argued that it would be “perfectly appropriate for the Mayor to be a member” and that the Mayor is good to have on it since he is a “symbol of the city”. Director Good expressed that he didn’t have a problem with the Mayor serving on the committee but would prefer that it not include any Board of Directors members.
Director Morton expressed a desire that citizens that are members of other City boards and commissions still be able to also be members of the Sales Tax Advisory Committee. He mentioned his opinion that multiple CPAs might be good choices for the committee and that members of the Audit Advisory Committee might be ideal. Director Settle argued that he would prefer to keep Audit Advisory separate from the Sales Tax Advisory Committee and not have dual membership. Director Good agreed with Director Morton. Administrator Geffken explained that the City Ordinance only allows for any person to serve on one board or commission at a time, but that it allows for the Board of Directors to override that rule if there is someone with a special talent or expertise that they really want to appoint to an additional committee.
Director Martin mentioned that other cities he’s seen with a similar Sales Tax Advisory Committee do their reports annually rather than the suggested quarterly report. Director Morton expressed his preference for quarterly, mentioning that that’s how public companies do it with things like SEC reports. He did say he would prefer the suggested second meeting every quarter that is just to approve the first meeting’s minutes and the finalized report to be presented to the Board of Directors be just held electronically.
Directors Morton and Martin and Administrator Geffken clarified that the Sales Tax Advisory Committee would just oversee that the taxes are being spent on the appropriate departments, like that the tax that is designated for the Fire Department is being spent by the Fire Department, the tax designated for streets is being spent on Streets, the tax designated for consent decree sewer work is being spent on sewer work required by the consent decree. It is, as Director Martin said, “not to cast value judgments”. The committee will not be making recommendations on purchasing choices like how the Police Department spends their money on specific programs or on a specific brand of cruisers or where the Parks department puts a specific amenity. They will only be watching for that the expenditures “meet the stated goals of the tax”.
It was agreed that the new committee would start meeting March of 2023. Director Morton suggested that the city administration do a dry run internally during the 3rd quarter of 2022 to iron out kinks and be fully ready to present the necessary information to the Sales Tax Advisory Committee when it was ready to meet.
Though study sessions usually do not include input from the public, this particular meeting was planned with the intention to allow the public to chime in. Fort Smith resident Joey McCutcheon spoke and mentioned that he wanted to make sure the new committee was subject to FOIA and that there was proper notifications of public meetings and that they are recorded. He said he liked the scope of the committee including the street tax. He expressed a preference for 9 member and a quorum of 5 to help eliminate tie votes. He said he didn’t have a problem with one elected official being included, but wanted it to be a “community committee”. He wanted the members to be named as soon as possible. He shared his desire that the appointments not be handled in executive session (as they normally are) but held in public and reasons given who has been chosen and why. He expressed an interest in keeping the information presented to the committee simple enough that anyone without an accounting background could still understand it, “not an information dump”. He expressed his appreciation for the meeting with public input being held and appreciation for the transparency.
Fort Smith resident David Ingram spoke and shared his concern about the sales tax saying that he felt a “real negative vibe going on in our country and community” about taxes. He said that the “committee in place before the vote in May is a deal maker” . Speaking of the sales tax renewal, he expressed his opinion that “If it’s voted down, you all know we’re in big trouble”.
Mayor McGill responded that “Fort Smith is always a little bit different” and “We have a tendency to get it right” and “always come together to make sure the city’s on the right path to a great future.”
Fort Smith resident and Future Fort Smith Committee member Keley Simpson spoke mentioning that hearing from Police Chief Baker about police department needs at a recent Future Fort Smith meeting made her think of the possibilities if the tax renewal passes. She expressed concern about the negativity she hears and that she would like a brochure to refer to when talking to others about the tax. She said that there’s a “lot of work to do to combat misinformation and negativity”.
Mayor McGill responded that there will be a campaign to get accurate information out about the tax. He said the city will be making materials available. He also mentioned that the members of the Board of Directors have been speaking to civic groups about the renewals and that he’s been hearing a “positive vibe”.
The Board agreed that the committee should be made up of 9 citizens, one from each ward and 5 at large, and that nine should include at least one CPA, plus the Mayor and that three members would serve 3 year terms, 3 would serve 2 year terms, and 3 would serve one year terms (and all would eligible to apply for re-appointment). Mayor McGill chimed in in support of the larger committee that more people on the committee means more people disseminating the information. The committee will be lead by a Chair and have a Vice Chair and a Secretary. They will meet twice a quarter and present their report quarterly.
The Board decided to vote on approval on the creation of the committee, including the composition of the committee, bylaws, and rules, at next Tuesday’s meeting. Then they would start accepting applications from citizens for appointment to the new committee and would vote on the appointments at the April 26,2022 meeting.
Marc Mulherin, of OVG 360, the General Manager for the Fort Smith Convention Center, gave a presentation on the Convention Center. He said “This year’s been a tremendous unique situation overall as a whole” . With the pandemic things did not go according to plan. The financial performance was drastically below expectations. But they were able to cut expenses and the slower time allowed for lots of growing and attention to the facility. He was most excited about the new in-house food and beverage program. He said that he is “excited to move forward”. He mentioned that 80-85 events are already fully confirmed for 2022 and that it is their goal to fill in the rest of the year’s schedule with mostly smaller events for a total of 130-140 events during the remainder of this year. He spoke proudly of the convention that was supposed to be held last October but has been rescheduled for this October that will have a very high attendance and should be a good revenue generator for the convention center and good for the local economy (including a predicted 1000 group hotel nights). He said that Fort Smith Convention Center is “now competing with Rogers and Little Rock”.
The agenda for the meeting originally included an annual review of the Best Practices Document, but since Director Rego was absent, the Board agreed to table that discussion until the next study session instead .
