The Fort Smith City Board of Directors passed an ordinance Tuesday night increasing the number of Civil Service Commission members from five to seven.
It was a 4-3 vote in what some have called an effort to gain control of the commission. It has been called an end-run effort to allow police chief Nathaniel Clark to bypass the commission and have freedom from outside the department for supervisory positions.
That issue dominated the discussion, and the controversy, at the regularly scheduled board meeting.
The voting bloc of Keith Lau, Andre’ Good, Mike Lorenz and Tracy Pennartz led the drive to pass the ordinance.
When the matter came up for discussion, Director Keith Settle immediately proposed tabling the issue until it could be properly vetted in a study session.
Settle, expressing concern that the issue was placed on the agenda on a Friday before a holiday weekend and didn’t allow time for proper discussion of the issue and the disseminating data for the reason for the change, was frozen out by the bloc voting.
The four one-minded directors shut that down with a 4-3 vote, with directors Don Hutchings, George Catsavis and Settle posting the opposing votes.
City administrator Carl Geffken said the reason for the changes was because illness and surgeries has caused some members to miss meetings and increasing the number of members from five to seven would allow a better quorum at the regular meetings. Gelffken offered no collaborating data to back up his assertions.
Settle then offered a motion to amend the proposed ordinance to read that the two new members to be added to the Civil Service Commission be selected from a pool of retired police officer and firefighters for the city. After a brief discussion, in which either no one on the board or city attorney Jerry Canfield could define the requirements for being on the commission, Lau defended his stance on the issue.
“My interest in this is to have someone who has more personnel experience and human resource experience who has worked in a different and larger organization and can bring a different of skills to the commission,” said Lau. “It’s not about promoting one entity over another, it’s about being a whole better organization and we should have personnel and human resources represented.”
The roll call that followed was to specify the two new commission members as retired police and fire department. Sanders outlining person then went down to a 4-3 “no” vote.
That lead to mayor Sandy Sanders going into a detailed explanation on how the process would work, but Pennartz and Lorenz immediately made a motion and second to suspend the rules and go ahead with the vote on the original ordinance.
The motion to suspend needed five votes resulted in a 5-2 outcome with Catsavis seeming unsure of the issue he was voting on and voting “yes.”
After the meeting, Catsavis acknowledged he had been confused by the convoluted explanation by the mayor.
“Yes, they were talking about an emergency clause and it was confusing,” Catsavis said. “My mistake.”
That vote elicited an impassioned plea from Hutchings, who pulled few punches in his evaluation.
“I appreciate this healthy discussion, but I’m a little bit confused,” Hutchings said. “If we could, stop for just a moment and look at what is happening right now.
“I was at the Civil Service Commission May 22 and it was a very contentious meeting about hiring outside supervisors for the PD, and not one commissioner made a motion to change our policy. But this board wouldn’t accept that, so the discussion then was doing away with the Civil Service Commission, and that didn’t work.
“So, this board passed a resolution — a non-bonding resolution — to get the Civil Service Commission to change their mind, and that didn’t work. So next was the targeting of the commissioner, to remove Chip Sexton, and that didn’t work.
“So now we’re stacking the court and adding two new commissioners and it’s blatantly obvious what’s going on here, and it’s pretty disturbing. This board is struggling with credibility … we’ve got a lot of issues that we need to speak to our people about and resolutions like this — I think — pushes our citizens farther way from trusting us. So I urge my good friends on this board to vote no on this ordinance.”
Lau “respectfully” disagreed with Hutchings, saying his intention was not to “stack the deck” and voiced concerned he CSC had not met to vote on Clark’s proposal.
“My mission or desire to increase the membership is to have a more diverse group to the commission that bring other talents or better talent to that commission,” said Lau. “The commission as it is now is struggling to go to the interviews. They’re having to split up and got in to two groups just to do the interviews and we would be better served to have more members on that board. So, this is not an end run to get around …”.
Lau also addressed he time frame it would make to add any new members to the board.
Lorenz echoed that thought.
“There is no intention on my part to try and stack the deck, so you put it,” said Lorenz. “we have been alerted to several things that are a problem. We’ve got a commission with five people on it. That wouldn’t work for a planning commission, it wouldn’t work for this board and it wouldn’t work for a lot of important commissions …
“To expand to seven people, you just have a better variety, a better diversity of members that won’t be forced into a small group decision.”
Good then added his thoughts on the matter.
“Like my fellow directors have spoken to, there is no intention to stack the deck,” said Good. “I, too, attended the May 22 meeting and I made note. And in those notes, which you all have read and have been privy to, not one person in that meeting spoke about the citizens of Fort Smith.”
The notes Good referenced, and his sharing of hem and the ensuing discussion between he, Lorenz and Lau is that led to a lawsuit being filed against the trio for Freedom of information Act violations.
“Everything that was said at the mike either pertained to the Fraternal order of Police or the Civil Service Commission not being on board for whatever reason, to take the Chief’s proposal into consideration,” said Good.
“That’s what offended me most. In fact, it didn’t offend me, it surprised me,” said Good. “And I am going to try and be brief and keep my emotion out of this but, Director Settle, I don’t agree with you either. Pastor Hutchings, you want to talk about how obvious this is, then you want to put retired police or fire into these two positions. That in and of itself is stacking the deck. What we should want to do is put some citizen, some that care, that is outside these organizations that’s not going to be pressured by any other agency to do the right thing.”
Settle refused to back down.
“I have a problem with that, Director Good, saying that retired police or retired fire people don’t care,” Settle said. “There are citizens if our city and they do care. The other reason I bring that up to the table is that this discussion that we are having here be made at a meeting where we are making a decision. There is no data supporting…the commissioners are out there. What is there attendance record to support the need There’s not one.
“That was the whole point of tabling this issue, to have that discussion…so that we could have an open, honest, data-driven discussion to prove or disprove that we need these two extra commissioners. And there is no data supporting this except for ‘someone doesn’t show up’ or ‘somebody is not there’… where is the attendance record for the past year? That was my whole point in tabling this issue.”
Sanders quelled any discussion on the tabling’ issue before Lorenz said the board was “was way overcomplicating the matter.”
The issue went to the vote, and the 4-3 caucus prevailed again.
Because he proposal was passed under the emergency clause, the process to place two more members on the board is now official.
Catsavis said he is saddened that the issue has become such a point of contention between the directors.
“It’s sad the board is so divided on the CSC and Reverend Don said it best. It’s obvious what’s going on here,” Catsavis said. “It was confusing with Kevin’s motion and then the emergency clause. I guess I did not understand the Mayor’s answer to my question.
“I’m just curious who will apply. Hopefully some retired police or retired firefighters that understand how the CSC works.”
Anyone wishing to apply for one of the two new commission slots can download the application HERE:
