Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 6/20/23
The Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting held 6-20-23 began with a presentation honoring the Solid Waste Services collection employees Alex Barron, Dusty Grubbs, Sostane Brewer, and Sam Nelson that on May 25, 2023 heroically went into a burning house on North 30th to rescue a trapped elderly woman who was using an oxygen tank.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of a zoning change for 605 and 615 North 19th that will allow for an addition to the Harbor House facility. The addition will be built in what is currently a parking lot and will be a kitchen and dining area.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of a zoning change for 1208 Princeton Drive that will allow for the building that is currently Just Art and Dance art and dance lesson studio to also use a portion of the building for salon, massage, and spa services.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of a zoning change for 3706 Towson to allow for a vacant lot to be developed into a covered RV, boat, and vehicle storage yard.
The Board voted unanimously to increase the minimum base charge for non-emergency ambulance service from $450 to $600 and for emergency ambulance service from $625 to $750. According to Tim Hearn, Executive Director of Fort Smith EMS the out of pocket cost for Medicare/Medicaid patients will not increase and the out of pocket cost for patients with private insurance may even decrease due to the ability to take better advantage of contracting with insurance companies. Fort Smith EMS cited dramatic increases in costs of fuel, disposable supplies, ambulances, and salaries as well as a dramatic increase in bad debt as reasons for a need for the increase.
The Board voted to approve The Rock Inc. to be able to apply for a private club alcohol license to operate at 3028 North 6th, at the site that was formerly a club named Perry’s Place. The issue was presented, discussed, and approved at last week’s meeting, but there was confusion in the application that resulted in it being submitted and approved for the wrong address, the 2611 Towson mailing address of the applicant not the 3028 North 6th address where the club intends to operate. So the issue returned at this meeting a vote with the correct address. The vote passed with all voting in favor except for Director Christina Catsavis who abstained from voting. She also abstained from last week’s vote on this issue and offered no explanation for either abstention.
The Board voted unanimously in favor of applying for a $20 million grant from the federal Department of Defense through their Community Cooperation program to be used for the water line relocation and resurfacing of Towson Avenue. The entire project is estimated to cost $24 million. If the grant is won, it would leave only $4 million still to cover. Director Morton called it a “welcome grant opportunity”. Director Good said that we are “ready to move forward. I think we’re going to be successful.”
The Board voted unanimously to approve for Fort Smith Farmers Market to apply for a $250,000 grant from the State to go towards the construction of the first of 2 covered pavilions to be built on the City owned lot at Garrison and 2nd Street where the Farmers Market currently operates. The cost of the first pavilion is estimated to be a total of $783,220. The City will be responsible for paying a matching share towards that cost if the grant is received. Kathy Mazik from the Farmers Market spoke about the “community minded group” that makes up the market and its vendors . Mayor McGill called the market a “great place to visit” and said the pavilion would be a “great amenity for our city”.
The agenda included a vote on contracting with Mickle Griffin for $498,700 for the engineering phase of Segment 3 of the Chaffee Crossing Trails project. The cost for the whole project for Segment 3, a 4.4 mile section of the trail, is estimated to be a total of $4,849,970. However, Director Settle motioned to table the item so that it could be discussed first at an upcoming study session. He expressed a desire to discuss it further because of the high total cost of the project. He asked “Is it really where we want to spend our dollars building a trail?”. Director Morton agreed that Settle’s “point on the cost is worth looking at” but urged that it be added to a study session as soon as possible saying “we’ve got to move forward on amenities as fast as we can”. Director Martin said that it does seem extremely expensive and asked Deputy Parks Director Duester about the cost. Duester said that there are a lot of terrain challenges, easements to acquire, and road crossings that add to the cost. Director Rego asked if the cost is “wildly misaligned” with similar scope and scale trail projects in our region. Duester said that it was in line. Director Morton asked if there would be multiple bidders on the construction phase. Duester said there would be.
The Board voted to table the issue with all but Directors Rego and Christina Catsavis voting in favor of tabling.
The mostly hotly discussed item of the night was regarding the audit of Fort Smith Animal Haven, with whom the City contracts for animal shelter services. This issue was discussed during the Officials Forum portion of last week’s meeting but is back for official action at this week’s meeting. The options on the agenda for the Board to vote on were that the Board could vote to accept the internal auditor’s report, or vote to reject the internal auditor’s report, or vote to extend the deadline allowed for completion of the audit from the most recent deadline of 6-16-23 to a new deadline of 6-23-23. However, right away Director Morton motioned for a 4th option, that the Board could vote to publicly issue the audit report with the entire FSAH response attached.
Aubrey Watkins spoke to urge the Board to release the audit. She said that “people my age” (she appeared to be a millennial)”want competent animal services in their communities”. She expressed concern about “suppression” of the information in the audit.
Elle Watkins drew attention to the many members of the audience in attendance in support of “healthy animal services”. She expressed concern for the rescuers who are giving their time and effort and supported transparency for the work they do.
Johnnie Rogers mentioned that the audit began on July 22 and said it is “time to release it”. She said citizens want transparency. She drew attention to that Director Morton and Barbara Altman of FSAH both serve on the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education Board of Trustees together. Director Morton confirmed they are both among the 12-14 members of the Board of Trustees but of Altman said that he “knows her in passing, but that’s it.”
Phil Richards, the CPA working with FSAH the past few weeks on the audit spoke. He said “Nobody wants to suppress any information at all” and that the shelter “want opportunity to respond to what’s in the audit”. He said that he spent 3 hours yesterday working with Internal Auditor Shockley and they were able to go over 15 or 20 of the 1200 transactions in the audit.
Director George Catsavis asked Richards if he was “saying the audit is not accurate”. Richards answered that there are absolutely inaccuracies. Director George Catsavis asked how this gets resolved. Director Martin said that Shockley works for the Board of Directors and “we take her expertise and we make the decision”. He said it is “incumbent to get the audit released” to know what the “next step is going to look like”.
Director Rego said the “question is not determining who is right or wrong” but “around procedure around release of information”.
Director Morton mentioned the Board receiving an email from Audit Advisory Committee Chair George Moschner asking to wait to release the audit until it could all be reviewed in detail with FSAH. Morton also mentioned having seen email evidence of City Administrator Geffken telling FSAH that they would not be charged for city provided utilities. The $37,000 in utility charges were included in the audit as being owed to the City. Morton expressed concern that the same logic “may be logic applied to other items” in the audit. Shockley said that the water/sewer part of the contract was “kind of ambiguous”.
Morton voiced his support for moving forward with releasing the audit soon saying “I don’t believe spending more time reviewing these is going to make any difference”.
Director Martin confirmed with Shockley that she has the responses from FSAH that would allow for the resolution Morton motioned for that would call for releasing the audit report with the FSAH responses attached. She confirmed that she does have them all. She said that she could be ready on Friday.
Director Good said the issue is “about the organization itself” and “about the rescuers” saying “rescuers provide incredible service”. He spoke positively about making a recent surprise visit to the shelter facility and seeing the veterinarian and lots of volunteers working hard. He stressed the importance of avoiding “finger pointing” and instead keeping focus on the “health and welfare of these animals and the community.” He expressed the goal of the audit is to get information from the audit and use it to do better.
Director Rego expressed his view that it is “prudent” to have oversight of public/private partnerships. He said that while there are likely to be areas that need to improve he has “no doubt” the volunteers “wish to improve”. He said the future is “far more important” than engaging in disagreement about the past.
Director Martin said “I hold dear where our money goes” and that citizens “deserve to see where their money is going”. He called the release of the audit “vital”.
Director George Catsavis asked who at the City reconciles the monthly reports noting that nobody had caught some errors until the audit. Shockley said that the Police Department does and said that there probably had been some “missteps” in the procedure in place and that improvements are being made to the process. Of the audit report, Director George Catsavis said “This needs to be released” and “People don’t trust government if you’re hiding things” and “Let’s get this done and over with.”
Director Christina Catsavis confirmed with Shockley whether she met with the FSAH veterinarian. Shockley confirmed that she met with him 3 or 4 weeks ago.
Director Morton asked Richards about the total shortages shown in the audit as owed to the City by FSAH. Richard said that the summary shows $94,000 owed to the City, but the FSAH response to the audit is that the overbilling by FSAH was only a total of $13,342.81 , not $94,000. He said that FSAH is ready to reimburse that $13,342.81 and “move forward with improving their operation”. Director Morton spoke in support of the City accepting that $13,342.81 right away to start with. Director Martin disagreed with collecting any money at this time. He expressed concern that that might look like they accept that $13,000 is the right amount overbilled. He said “I don’t want to get into remediation tonight” and supported reviewing the results of the audit and then discussing about those results and what actions might be taken.
Director Settle said “This audit is taking too long.” and that it should have taken 2-3 months at best. He said that animal issues are issues that divide the City and the Board every time. He also said that animal issues are “not just a Fort Smith problem” mentioning similar troubles with stray animals around the state and nationwide.
Director George Catsavis motioned for an amendment to the resolution to release the audit with all of the FSAH responses included that would specify that the audit along with the attached responses would be released on Friday 6-23-23 at 5pm. The amendment to add a time deadline passed with Directors Morton, George Catsavis, Christina Catsavis, and Martin voting in favor of adding the deadline and Directors Good, Rego, and Settle voting against adding the deadline.
Then the Board voted on the motion as amended, to release the audit and include all of the FSAH responses on Friday 6-23-23 at 5pm. The motion passed with all but Director Christina Catsavis voting in favor. So the audit report including all of the FSAH responses will be released on the Internal Auditor website and distributed to the Board of Directors on Friday at 5pm.
Though he voted in favor of the motion, Director Morton said they will be “issuing an inaccurate audit”.
During the Officials Forum section of the meeting, Director Settle called for discussion to be added to a future study session regarding issuing a resolution with stronger wording to clarify the resolution that the City wants to the FCRA to deed the property for the Deer Trails Golf Course that it will be kept as a golf course. He said there was some confusion at the recent FCRA meeting that the City might not keep it a golf course. Director Morton agreed with Director Settle and suggested that a second resolution be crafted that states explicitly that the property would remain a golf course so long as the 501 C3 organization running the course is financially viable to keep it open at the standards at which it is currently operated.
Director Morton also expressed his view that the City needs to move forward as fast as possible on the new dog parks. He expressed frustration with how long it is taking to get the planned parks on Old Greenwood and at Chaffee even basically usable as dog parks.
