Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 4/1/25

At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting held 4/1/25 and led by Vice Mayor Rego in the absence of Mayor McGill , the Board discussed a resolution inviting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Attorney General Pam Bondi to Fort Smith to discuss the consent decree with City officials and staff.

Patrick McGuire spoke in support of the resolution saying “We need every bit of help we can get from anywhere.” He also suggested extending an invitation to Vice President Vance. He acknowledged that inviting the federal level officials to come here in person is “asking a lot” and suggested that if they do not come to Fort Smith that a delegation be created to either come to them in Washington DC or hold the discussion remotely via video.

Chris Cadelli spoke in support of the resolution calling it a “good idea” but also calling the officials attending a “long shot”. He suggested also inviting the DOGE team to look at consent decree spending and water department billing and meter reading efficiency.

Krystal Cadelli spoke in support of the resolution calling it a “fantastic idea.” She also advocated for eliminating waste in the budgets and making budget cuts.

Director Settle voiced his support for the resolution.

Director Christina Catsavis mentioned that at the recent National League of Cities Conference where Zeldin spoke he emphasised “cooperative federalism” in which the federal, state, and City levels of government rather than working “in different spheres” work all together.

Director Martin voiced his support for “coordinated communications” with elected and appointed officials to keep them regularly thinking about Fort Smith.

Director Good expressed concern that inviting Zeldin and Bondi might be “overstepping the protocol” by skipping over inviting the newly appointed EPA Region 6 appointee Scott Mason first. Director Settle disagreed with Director Good saying “This is what we need to do at this time.” Director Settle said that the City has been going through the proper channels for years without the desired results. He said that he has heard that Bondi and Zeldin are looking at consent decrees across the US and that “this will get us a lot of traction real fast.”

Director Kemp mentioned that he recently spoke with Lieutenant Governor Leslie Rutledge and State Attorney General Tim Griffin and they said that they would also be willing to reach out to Zeldin and Bondi.

Director Rego spoke in support of “multiple avenues” of communication needing to be taken and suggested possibly amending the resolution to include also inviting Vance and Mason. Director Christina Catsavis expressed interest in including Mason mentioning having seen an interesting article about him in the Cherokee newsletter recently. Director Martin added that Mason is from Oklahoma. Director Good mentioned that since Mason is brand new to his position, the City has not dealt with Mason yet. Director Good said that he is “all for” including Mason in the invitations.

Director Christina Catsavis motioned to amend the resolution to also include inviting Vice President Vance, Scott Mason, and Governor Sanders. The Board voted unanimously in favor of amending the resolution. Then the Board voted unanimously in favor of the resolution to invite Zeldin, Bondi, Vance, Mason, and Sanders.

The Board voted to reallocate the expenses for the credit card fees from 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 to the General Fund instead of coming out of the Water and Sewer Operating Fund and Solid Waste Operating Fund. Now credit card fees are passed on to the customers instead of being paid by the City so it will not be an issue to be accounted for in future budgets. This issue was discussed at the 3-18-25 meeting.

Finance Director Richards said that the impact of the reallocation would basically be about a million dollars coming out of the general fund while relieving the Water and Sewer and Solid Waste funds.

Chris Cadelli and Krystal Cadelli spoke and advocated for the $4.2 million in spending for water slides to be put back into the general fund and taken instead from the Parks budget.

DIrector Christina Catsavis asked how the reallocation of credit card fees would affect the water department’s debt service ratio. Richards said that the ratio is currently set to be at 107% and with the reallocation would likely hit the required 110%.

Director Good expressed his view that Board voted for the water slide purchase as a tourist attraction rather than as a parks amenity of the type that voters voted for the sales tax for Parks to fund. He said as a tourist attraction, the slides are funded correctly out of the general fund. Director Christina Catsavis said that she is not clear on the legalities of the Parks tax but suggested looking into whether Parrot Island could pay back the general fund for the slide purchase. She mentioned that last year only $2850 came into the general fund from Parrot Island. She said that the “general fund bails them out anyway” and mentioned the $180,000 from the general fund spent on pipe replacement at the waterpark in 2024. She asked that with the additional slides set to bring in several hundred extra park guests per day if the City could “claw some of that back” from the increased admissions sales to pay for the slides. Vice Mayor Rego reminded that the water slides and any potential funding or allocation changes regarding those is separate issue from the issue on the agenda to be voted on regarding allocation of credit card fees.

Director Kemp expressed his support for reallocating the credit card fees as a method of reaching the required debt service ratio for the bond covenants. He suggested that the City sell unused properties to help build back up the general fund.

Director Rego expressed his opposition to the reallocation because he is not in favor of the general fund supporting items 100% when the cost of the item was “germane and related to the other fund.” He said that water, sewer,and solid waste were where the fees were happening. The fees were primarily being charged to process water, sewer, and solid waste bill payments.

The Board voted to reallocate the responsibility for the credit card fees to the general fund with all but Director Rego and Director Good voting in favor of the reallocation.

The Board voted unanimously without further discussion approve for The Goat House to apply to transfer their private-club alcohol license from their current location at 9501 Rogers to a new location in the building that formerly was Civil Axe at 1121 Garrison

The Board voted unanimously in favor of three separate sewer contracts with Hawkins-Weir for design services on consent decree sewer projects. The one for Sub-basin P008 is for $407,450. The one for Sub-basin P009 is for $188,750. The one for Sub-basin FL02 is for $227, 950. The funding for the projects would come from the sales tax for consent decree sewer work.

Director George Catsavis asked about the amount of sewer work being done that is not for the consent decree. Utilities Director McAvoy answered “Most of our capital projects are for consent decree.” He said that the main few projects that are not toward the consent decree are things that are ARDOT reimbursed and emergency water line breaks.

The Board voted unanimously to add an additional $492,000 to the streets overlay contract with Forsgren to include the removal and replacement of dilapidated concrete storm drainage pipe.

The Board voted unanimously to enter into design services agreements with McClelland Engineers for streets overlays for $117,415, with Garver for streets overlays for $83,300, with McGuire Engineering for $95, 730 for streets overlays, with McClelland for $86,085 for a drainage study on Homestead Terrace, and with Hawkins-Weir for $144,200 for drainage improvements west of South 66th between Fresno and Phoenix.

The Board voted unanimously to contract with Crawford Construction Company for 736 ft of concrete encased 66 inch steel pipe water transmission line running under the I-49 on and off ramps. The $2,213,560 project will be reimbursed in full by ARDOT resulting in no cost to the City.