Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 9/6/22
The Board voted unanimously to approve a zoning change to 8301 Moody Road to allow for a dental clinic. Director Martin voiced concerns about the plans for the site not being up to the standards needed to contend with a 500 year flood. Mr. Holmes, a representative from Mickle Wagner Coleman engineering responded that the plans are up to FEMA standards for 100 year floods. Director Morton asked if the planned development at the site would increase flood problems for neighboring properties. Holmes said that it would not affect nearby properties and that even in a 500 year flood it would not make the flooding worse.
Inspired by the mention of parking in the plans, Director Martin brought up his desire for the City to consider making changes in the policies regarding required parking minimums and maximums. Planning Director Rice agreed calling the current rules “antiquated” and said that Planning is already currently working on new “more realistic” rules in response to modern needs and habits. Director Morton said that “planning staff is moving in the right direction” and Director Rego said he is “glad to hear that there is some movement on that”. Director Martin mentioned the positive impacts on drainage that could come with less paved parking spots. Director Morton mentioned the decreased cost for development with less parking.
The Board voted unanimously to approve a zoning change to 3823 Armour to allow for Harbor House to add a 4 trailer mobile home park across the street from their existing facility to house people who are in recovery from substance abuse. There was very little discussion on the issue except for Director Rego’s quick praise for Harbor House and the expansion and Director Settle chiming in in agreement.
The Board voted unanimously to approve changes to the City’s employee vacation policy. The changes aimed at improving benefits to help lure and retain employees include allocating vacation time monthly instead of annually, new hires being eligible after 6 months of work, an additional 8 hrs of vacation time after 3 years of service, an additional 40 hrs of vacation time after each of the 5 ,10, and 20 years of service milestones, allowing vacation time to accumulate year to year (not to exceed 360 hours at any one time), and allowing any 40 hrs per year to be taken any time spread out during the year to meet the required minimum that must be taken as time off to be paid out for remaining unused time (up to 180 hrs may be cashed out) instead of the current requirement that it be taken as 5 consecutive days.
Director Morton expressed concern that the accumulation of 360 hours was too much. He expressed preference for a plan with more limited roll-over mentioning that making sure that employees go on vacation so that someone else has to take over their duties helps protects against inappropriate financial activities. Director Settle agreed that the 360 hour accumulation was too much mentioning that 40-80 hours and only being able to sell half of it is the industry norm. Director Dawson added that state employees can carry over 120 days of vacation time. Administrator Geffken said that the administration “will bring back other options regarding carry over” to the Board at a future meeting.
The Board voted unanimously with no discussion to approve a settlement to end litigation with the City of Barling. The litigation stems from that there has always been a requirement in the water sales agreement between Fort Smith and Barling for Barling to need to buy a set minimum amount of water. Back before Lake Fort Smith, when water conservation measures were sometimes needed, that minimum was ignored. Geffken said that during that conservation era it “made no sense to charge for water we were asking them not to use”. But after Lake Fort Smith alleviated the need for conservation measures the minimum was still not enforced. It was calculated that Barling owes Fort Smith $350,000. The settlement is for Barling to pay Fort Smith $325,000.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the resolution declaring their strategic goals that were decided upon at the recent strategic planning workshop. The 7 goals are-
1- To reduce chronic homelessness downtown by 5% by the end of 2024
2-To optimize staffing by hiring for positions including legislative liaison, grant writer, and cybersecurity expert
3. To market the city with the goal of having allocated the budget for that and hired the marketing firm by March 31, 2023
4. To develop a new consent decree communication plan to be implemented by January 2023
5. To strengthen code enforcement to reduce dilapidated abandoned properties
6. To identify industry incentives that can be used to attract businesses to underdeveloped areas of the city
7. To modernize animal control polices by drafting and approving measures by June 30,2023
Fort Smith resident Jo Elsken spoke to express her concern that the environment was not one of the priorities and goals. She encouraged the Board to “be environmentally proactive” and to consider looking at other cities and their environmental and sustainability goals. She expressed support for considering solar energy. She mentioned that the legislative liaison and grant writer could look into grant funding for environmental projects through the infrastructure and inflation bills.
She also suggested moving the town halls to before the beginning of the meeting instead of following it.
Directors Rego, Morton, and Dawson all voiced that the environment is important to the Board and that they focused on narrowing their priorities to pick a few top items that could be accomplished most quickly. Director Morton mentioned solar as important and that there “is a savings to be had there” and also mentioned the impact of environmental concerns on flooding. He said that a full time grant writer is going to be a help because “we know this money is out there” and that it “takes someone focused on that full-time to be effective on that.” Administrator Geffken said that the City is already working on solar. They just finished getting the data on the first proposal and will need to go through the competitive bidding process and to work with OG&E.
Director Martin expressed agreement with moving the town halls even if it did require shortening the time limit to 2 or 3 minutes per speaker. Director Dawson added and City Clerk Gard confirmed that it would require an ordinance change. The ordinance change needed will be added to the agenda for a future meeting.
The Board voted unanimously to approve use of the flooded residence buyout program to purchase the home at 612 Martin Drive for $187,500. The property has previously suffered damages caused by flooding and is located in a place where it would cost the city more to fix the drainage issues than to purchase the property.
Director Morton clarified that the money for the purchase is coming from the $250,000 per year budgeted for the flooded residence buyout program that is unrelated to the 13 houses that are set to be purchased with a FEMA grant that has been applied for. He also mentioned that though this $250,000 is budgeted for every year this is the first year that he can recall the money actually being used and suggested that the money budgeted for that that goes unused be carried over in the fund the next year. Director Settle agreed and suggested that there be a limit on the carry-overs so that the fund does not get too large, mentioning a possible half-million dollar limit. Director Rego mentioned hoping that some qualified properties on the North Side take advantage of the program. Administrator Geffken added that a FEMA BRIC grant has also been applied for to fund helping with more flood damaged properties.
Director Dawson asked the homeowner Judy Glover if homeowners insurance covered losses from the flooding. Glover responded that the property had flooded 14 times and that she could not afford the $1000 per month it would take to obtain insurance on the property.
Director Settle asked what the city will do with the property. Geffken answered that they will tear down the house and it will become a green space and ultimately part of a retention pond. Settle expressed concern about the city acquiring more properties they have to mow and encouraged re-purposing properties including suggesting houses on stilts in flood prone lots. Director Morton suggested planting trees on the properties.
There was a little confusion as Fort Smith resident Kristen Kitchens spoke on an agenda item she thought pertained to drainage on Cavanaugh near Whirlpool so she expressed her concerns about making sure nearby residents and property owners are kept well informed about the levels of TCE contamination present in that area. The agenda item was actually about a drainage improvement involving a wire basket filled with rocks for soil stabilization related to reducing Mill Creek erosion. But Administrator Geffken did clarify that the ADEQ do provide reports regularly on the TCE contamination.
The Board voted unanimously to approve a purchase of 8 automatic vehicle annunciators from Hanover Displays that will provide passengers on board the buses audible and visual notification of bus stops in real time. 80% of the total cost of $108,813.30 is expected to be reimbursed by a federal grant.
During the Official’s Forum section of the meeting, Director Catsavis mentioned having been contacted by two businesses at Chaffee who said that the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Executive Director made inappropriate and derogatory comments. Catsavis asked for an investigation of the FCRA concerning the matter. Geffken asked City Attorney Canfield if the City has the authority to conduct the investigation. Canfield said that he would need to review the FCRA Trust document to determine the investigative procedures. Catsavis asked how long that would take and Canfield answered a few hours. Director Dawson argued that the City Board of Directors has no authority over the FCRA, that the proper channel is to let the FCRA Board know about the claims against the FCRA Executive Director and let them investigate it. She said “They need to handle their own business.”. Catsavis argued that the City has authority as one of the beneficiaries. Dawson said that the City is only a beneficiary if the FCRA is dissolved and until then does not have authority.
Directors Dawson and Settle both praised the new large CNG bus that is the first to arrive of the new fleet. Settle said “That bus is amazing.”
Director Settle said that he brought the issues with Act 605 discussed at a recent Board meeting up with the Arkansas Municipal League and that they were very receptive and he thinks there will be a push from the AML for changes on that during the upcoming State legislative session.
Director Good discussed the need for diversity in our City departments. He encouraged the Board and department heads to ask “Does our organization reflect the population we serve?”. He mentioned that diversity includes not just color, but gender and age. He mentioned that the Police Department has gained leaps and bounds in improving diversity through their intentional efforts but that the city overall is still failing in that department. Mayor McGill agreed adding that “every think tank talks about diversity” and its importance in being welcoming to attract growth and manufacturing jobs , saying “everybody is talking about diversity, equality, and inclusion from an economic standpoint more than anything”.
