Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 4/15/25
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting held 4-15-25, the Board voted unanimously to purchase 2 dump trucks from Carco, 2 backhoes from Stribling, 2 backhoe trailers from Scott Construction Equipment, and 2 service trucks from Red River Dodge Chrysler to fully equip two water leak repair crews. The total cost of the equipment will be $727,832.72. The funding for the purchase will come from cuts to be made to the Water Utilities department budget. This issue was discussed at the 4-8-25 study session meeting.
Director Martin asked how many leaks the equipment would allow the water department to take care of. Utilities Deputy Director Hall said that it would “exponentially increase leak repairs.”
Director Kemp asked how the purchase would affect the debt service ratio and the ability to meet the bond covenants. Utilities Director McAvoy explained that because the equipment is a one-time purchase it doesn’t affect the debt service ratio for the bond covenants.
Director George Catsavis asked what would happen to the old equipment being replaced. McAvoy answered that it would be used as back ups and that redundancy would also help save downtime and allow for more leaks to be fixed.
Director Settle expressed his desire to have one leak repair crew converted to a water line replacement crew instead. He suggested Utilities coordinating with the Streets Department when street overlays are being done to do pipe replacements at those locations at the same time to help save money. He also suggested buying pipe wholesale directly from manufacturers. He said that there has to be a way to do that even if it means the City itself setting up a pipe company to buy from them.
Director Good called Director Settle’s ideas about replacing water lines a “great idea.”
The Board voted unanimously without discussion to contract with Burns & McDonnell for construction observation services for a project involving 736 ft of concrete encased 66 inch steel pipe water transmission line running under the I-49 on and off ramps. The cost of the contract will be $124,424 but the City will be reimbursed entirely by ARDOT.
The Board voted unanimously to purchase 8 new replacement Dodge Durango police vehicles from Breeden Dodge, 2 new replacement Harley Davidson police motorcycles from Fort Smith Harley Davidson, one used 2023 Dodge Durango replacement unmarked police vehicle from Breeden Dodge, and all of the necessary upfitting and equipment for all of the vehicles. The total cost for all of the vehicles and equipment will be $575,324.09. $115,321.09 of that cost will be funded from court fees earmarked for the police department rather than out of the City budget.
Director George Catsavis asked about using vehicles seized through asset forfeiture for police vehicles. Police Chief Baker answered that they do use them for some unmarked vehicles when some that are suitable are available. Those vehicles belong to the 12th Judicial Drug Task Force and they allow the FSPD to use them.
During the Officials Forum section of the meeting, Director Kemp mentioned noticing some of the interstate off ramps formerly mowed by Keep Fort Smith Beautiful and now mowed by the City recently looked “pretty rough around the edges” and encouraged Administration to look into making sure those look nice.
Director George Catsavis asked if the City had been contacted by the State regarding potentially building the prison planned for Franklin County at Fort Chaffee instead. Acting Administrator Dingman said that he and Director Kemp had spoken to State officials at a meeting about a month ago and there had been some discussion about the availability of water and about the water transmission line that Fort Smith needs to build and the upgrade to the water treatment plant that Fort Smith needs. He said that that meeting was “just a discussion” and there was “no official exchange of information” and “no studies done.” Director George Catsavis asked about the State paying for those Fort Smith water projects. Dingman said that Fort Smith “made an ask” but that there was “no official discussion.” Director George Catsavis asked about the potential water needs of the prison. McAvoy said that it would be an estimated half million to a million gallons per day. He said that the City could not currently supply the water needed for the facility if it were built in Franklin County and that it “would be difficult” to supply it if the facility were built at Chaffee. Director Martin asked again for clarification that there had been “zero discussion” between the City and the State about building a prison in Fort Smith or Fort Chaffee. Dingman clarified again that there had been “zero.” Director Martin said that the idea was just something mentioned by one State Senator. Director Martin stated “I’m not for a prison in Fort Smith.”
Dingman reminded citizens about the public forums regarding the City sales tax issues on the May 13, 2025 ballot. They will be held 4-17-25 at 6pm at the Main Library, 4-28-25 at 6pm at the lecture hall at ACHE on Chad Colley, and 5-5-25 at 6pm at the Fort Smith Senior Center on Cavanaugh.
During the Executive Session, Brianca Hollis was appointed to the Future Fort Smith Committee. Bruce Shaw, Jim Rose, Mike Jacimore, and Barbara Turner were reappointed to the Housing Assistance Board. Vicki Newton and David Tyler were reappointed and Zach Ledford was appointed to the Planning Commission. David Channell and Kasey Wilson were appointed to the Sebastian County Regional Solid Waste Management Board. Marian Azab was appointed to the Transit Advisory Commission.
Immediately following the voting meeting, there was a study session meeting held for the Board to review the Water Utilities budget. This is the first of a planned series of study session reviews of departmental budgets. The discussion included proposed short term cuts including deferring expenses for training, travel, maintenance, and one-time small equipment purchases. Those proposed short term cuts will total $1,126,700. The bulk of the money from those cuts will be used to purchase the equipment for the two water leak crews approved during the voting section of the meeting.
The discussion also included proposed long term cuts from reducing the number of full time employees in the water department. The proposed staff cuts include 26 positions, 11 of which are currently filled (the rest are currently vacant) for an 8.7% reduction in staff. None of the 26 positions to be considered are positions that are legally required to satisfy the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Drinking Water Act, or the consent decree. The proposed staffing cuts would total $1,839,500 if all 26 positions were cut and would total $969,500 if only the positions that are currently vacant were cut.
Director Rego had to leave due to a migraine at the start of the study session portion of the meeting but before he left commended the work put in on the Utilities cuts and called them “probably a model for other departments”. He also voiced his support for cutting only the positions that are currently vacant.
Director McAvoy said that Utilities did not spend $5 million dollars of their approved budget last year. They have not spent their entire budget for the last 4 years. He said “ We have to plant for the worst case scenario based on production.” He said that when budgeting for chemicals and electricity they look at historical trends and weather predictions to try to budget based on possible usage.
Director Christina Catsavis said that the $425,002 budgeted for travel “seems excessive.” McAvoy said that most of the proposed cuts were from cuts to training and travel.
Director Kemp asked if the cuts are sustainable also for the 2026 budget. McAvoy answered “No.” He said that people have to have training for certifications and licenses and that this year they made cuts based on finding who has the bare minimum needed to renew for this year. He mentioned that $325,000 in cuts for security cameras at the pump stations were doable this year because they are still running fiber to those sites but they will be needed next year for proper security. Many of the cuts are for “deferred” maintenance that will still need done later. Utilities Deputy Director Thukral mentioned a cut for $40,000 for lab equipment that though it’s deferred this year will need purchased next year. McAvoy said that his department will try to spread the deferred spending over a 2 year period as much as they can. Director Kemp asked if the department “had to go further, what’s next?” McAvoy answered “It would be personnel and it would result in loss of service.” He said that even with the proposed cuts the Health Department and Department of Environmental Quality already called and asked him about the cuts to assure that they would not cause Fort Smith to not meet their requirements. McAvoy said that leak repair crews could be the first cut because it is legal to have leaks. Director Kemp asked about the financial impact of cutting down to only 3 leak repair crews. Utilities Deputy Director Hall answered that it would be a cut in the $300,000-$400,000 range. Director Kemp said that he is not for cutting leak fixing personnel.
Director Christina Catsavis advocated for requiring trip reports saying “I would like to know how much travel is actually necessary.” She also asked about bringing the utilities conferences to Fort Smith. McAvoy said that Fort Smith is not big enough to host the big upcoming one, only Hot Springs and Little Rock can accommodate it. However, he said that Fort Smith could host others. He mentioned that a couple of years ago the AWEA specialty conference was held here and was “well attended.” He said that the organizers try to rotate the smaller conferences to different locations around the state. Director Christina Catsavis said she is “excited to see the cuts” but also said she is “disheartened we’re not looking for those to be permanent.” She asked about challenging regulatory rules. McAvoy said that the City would be fined and forced to do the required things if they did not meet the regulatory requirements. Director Christina Catsavis asked if one certified person could satisfy the regulatory requirements for multiple positions. McAvoy said that they do do that. He said that the trouble with that usually comes from that they cannot be two places at once and are often required to be physically present at each treatment plant or job site.
Dingman said that department heads recognize that budgeting for 2026 “will be looked at a little differently” and understand that they will be having to craft a budget that will make a “stronger attempt at moving towards” having no deficit.
Director Good praised the department heads. He recognized the demands put on staff by the Board. He mentioned the negative effect of staff cuts on morale. He said “Waste and fraud, personally, I don’t see it.” He said that the department heads are “frugal” and encouraged the Board to “trust in department heads.”
Director George Catsavis said that he has heard from Utilities employees who are concerned that their jobs might be cut. McAvoy said that he had discussions with the staff members whose positions are included to be considered in the proposed cuts so that they could hear it from him and didn’t have to find out about the proposed cuts when the Board agenda packet came out. He said that other staff heard about it and have been concerned “Is this the first round?” of staff cuts. He said that it has had a “negative impact on morale throughout the department.” He said “I have lost sleep over this.” He voiced his recommendation for the option that included only freezing or removing the vacant positions because they have “no impact on any living person right now.” He said that only eliminating the currently filled positions through attrition (just not rehiring for that job when the current employee leaves) “would help me sleep at night.” Director George Catsavis said “The last thing I want is to lay anybody off.”
Director Christina Catsavis said she is not in favor of layoffs and voiced her support for eliminating filled positions through attrition. She called the cuts “a good start.” McAvoy said “I don’t wanna play a game with the Board” and that his department “made the cuts we can make” and didn’t want to present an overly cut budget and then just come back to the Board and ask for more money.
Director Settle requested that for the budget review discussions that all of the departments present a year by year analysis of their staff positions for every year since 2007.
