Although a handful of Fort Smith board of directors seem intent on dismantling the Fort Smith Civil Service Commission, 12 other of the largest cities across the state all have boards and panels in place to ensure the proper vetting and hiring of entry level applicants in both their police ad fire departments.
Little Rock, North Little Rock, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, El Dorado, Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville, Conway and Pine Bluff all route their hiring through a Civil Service Commission that follows procedures and policies that are are almost identical to Fort Smith’s.
The move to remove Commission chairman Chip Sexton is seen as just the first step in the publicly stated process of usurping the Commission’s authority when it comes to regulating the hiring practices of Fort Smith’s largest municipal agencies.
Ironically, Police Chief Nathaniel Clark, who is pushing for the hiring of supervisory personnel to be left up to him, sued the Cvil Service Cmmission in Pine Bluff in 2002 when he was terminated from his position as chief for that Jefferson County town.
After an executive session of the Pine Bluff Public Service Commission on August 13, 2002, Clark was terminated. The termination was purportedly based on a finding by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “that there was reasonable cause to find that the charging party was subjected to unwelcome and inappropriate sexual comments because of her sex, female.”
Clark filed a notice of appeal in Jefferson County Circuit Court on September 10, 2002. The Commission filed a motion to dismiss on September 19, 2002, citing two reasons for dismissal: 1) Clark failed to state facts upon which relief could be granted because only subordinate officers have a right to appeal, not the chief; and 2) Clark failed to comply with Inferior Court Rule 9 because he did not file a record with the circuit clerk or file an affidavit with the clerk certifying that no record was available.
Clark did not respond to the Commission’s motion to dismiss.
The Supreme Court of Arkansas went on to dismiss all of Clark’s claims, saying in essence that “there is no constitutional requirement that a State provide an appeal at all.”
After leaving Pine Buff Clark went on to work for several agencies in law enforcement before he has given a choice to “resign or be fired” from deputy chief position at New Albany, Georgia shortly before being hired as the new chief in Fort Smith. Officials with that Georgia town refused comment although at least one well-placed source from that area said he was “under scrutiny” at the time of his resignation.
The controversial Fort Smith proposal, spear-headed by an effort to promote diversity by giving Chief Clark carte blanche in the hiring of personnel at the level of sergeant and above, has fueled an apparent backlash that may well manifest itself in a full house at the next scheduled BOD meeting on July 11.
It also may have an effect on the next two rounds at the ballot box as disgruntled citizens have about had their fill of recycling issues, malfeasance when it comes to managing federal mandated sewer repairs, back door deals, FOIA violations and other assorted controversies in the past two years.
The only directors up for re-election in the next round — short of any efforts to recall sitting members — are vice-mayor and Position 6 at-large member Kevin Settle, Position 5 at-large incumbent Tracy Pennartz and Position 7, at large member Don Hutchings.
Any swamp draining of significance will have to wait for the following election when Position 4, Ward 4’s George Catsavis, Position 1, Ward 1 member Keith Lau, Position 2, Ward 2 Andre Good and Position 3, Ward 3 Mike Lorenz all see their terms set for a December 31, 2020 end.
Again, that is barring any recall effort made by citizens.
The specific laws in place that govern the conduct of political recalls in Arkansas are Ark. Code
§14-47-112, 14-48-114, 14-61-119 and 14-92-209.
Under these statutes, the following elected officials are subject to recall:
• Mayors
• Members of board of directors
• Commissioners of suburban improvement districts
Features of the recall statutes in Arkansas are:
• The office-holder must have been in office at least six months before a recall can be begun
• Specific grounds are not required.
• There is no time limit for collecting signatures
• The signature requirement for mayors and directors is 35% of ballots cast for all candidates for the office at the preceding primary at which the officials were nominated or elected.
• For some of the sitting directors as few as 245 signatures would be needed to start a recall. In the event of the most voters in a specific race being the standard, less than 450 voters would have to sign a petition to call for a recall vote against a director.