BRYANT — A candidate for mayor and three other Bryant residents asked a Saline County circuit judge to stop the city’s water and sewer rate increases.
In a court motion, they asked that the rates revert to 2009 levels.
The lawsuit filed by Bryant mayoral candidate Jill Dabbs as well as Tara Mink, Randy Coger and Ricky David Tripp accuses the City Council and current mayor, Larry Mitchell, of not following proper procedures in passing a series of rate increases, and asks for an expedited hearing.
An ordinance passed in 2008, when the city was looking at ways to better fund its ailing Water Department and lagging infrastructure, required a study to be presented in August looking at bond funding, revenue, operations and needs during the first three years of a 20-year master plan for sewer and water concerns.
The suit alleges the city violated that ordinance for the past two years by not meeting that deadline.
“There’s so many backroom deals and blatant nontransparency within the city of Bryant on a whole lot of issues, and this was so cut-and-dry,” Dabbs said. “This forces the hand of whoever is in office to do what’s right at least on this one issue.”
The lawsuit comes on the heels of two complaints about city officials filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission in the past two weeks. One complaint, filed this week, alleges that the mayor’s assistant usedcity time and resources to campaign against Dabbs by sending an e-mail from her city account to an unknown number of recipients.
Resident Larry Harris received the e-mail and filed the complaint Wednesday with the state Ethics Commission. The commission notified Harris on Friday that there would be an investigation.
Another ethics complaint that was filed last week alleges that public officials held illegal meetings to find a way to deny a building permit for an apartment complex planned for Reynolds Road. Councilman Ken Green confirmed that he filed the complaint but said Friday that he hasnot received a response from the Ethics Commission.
The Ethics Commission does not confirm ongoing investigations.
Mitchell, the mayor, defended the city’s water rate findings Friday, saying his staff has conducted month-to-month studies. He said because of the rolling study, several events in the past month will likely lower the rate increase planned for January.
“I honestly do not know why this lawsuit was filed,” he said. “We recently accepted a bid for our new water tank that was $1 million under the estimate. We also were able to renegotiate our insurance rate [on that bond] and save another $300,000.”
Mitchell also said he found the timing of the lawsuit and at least one of the ethics complaints to be “suspicious considering we’re less than 10 days from the general election.”
Dabbs said she found out about the purported ordinance violation at the last City Council meeting Oct. 14, when Green asked about the schedule. Green pressed the mayor during that meeting, asking if the city was accountable to follow ordinances set out by the council and the mayor responded that it was, Dabbs said.
Dabbs also said that the timing of the suit is pertinent to the election.
“The voters needed to be aware of how the government is being operated. I felt like it was important to expose this to the citizens of Bryant before they step into the voting booth,” she said.
“Hopefully the long-term accomplishment is that Bryant is operated in an upfront manner and does due diligence. People need to know why their rates are being increased and if there’s a way, maybe we can spread that increase out instead of hitting them with a 15 percent increase all at once.”
In 2008, the council adopted the master plan for its WaterDepartment, which had not increased rates since the 1980s. The ordinance included three rate increases over the first three years to accommodate population growth and plan for infrastructure needs.
The first rate increase of 14 percent took effect in December 2008. The second increase was to be an ordinance-mandated 6 percent but was dropped to 3percent. That increase took effect in January. The mandatory study to support the increase wasn’t completed until March, according to council meeting reports.
Green began raising concerns in September about this year’s study.
City Attorney Nga Mahfouz said she is looking into the suit and that the city had not been notified of a court hearing date for the injunction request. She would not comment further.
Mitchell also addressed the ethics complaints Friday.
Mitchell’s assistant, Dianne Meriweather, is accused of sending e-mails from work that questioned Dabbs’ campaigning during a city event. Mitchell said he immediately disciplined Meriweather for the oversight when a copy of the e-mail was forwarded to him. He said he could not talk about any sanction because Meriweather is appealing.
The ethics complaint alleging illegal meetings names several City Council members as well as the mayor and several Planning Commission members.
The complaint alleges that several councilmen and commission members acted inappropriately by contacting the city’s planning coordinator to ask how they could halt an approved building permit that would allow an apartment complex to be built on Reynolds Road. It also alleges that several council members met in private, violating open-meeting laws.
The apartment complex is being built by Jeremiah Oltmans, an Alexander-based developer. Approving the construction, which was allowed within zoning rules and met the approval of the planning commission, took two votes of the council.
After it was approved, several councilmen considered an ordinance that would halt construction of any apartments within city limits. That plan was quashed when Oltmans’ attorney sent a letter to the city asking that all communication regarding the decision be put on a litigation hold because there might be a future lawsuit.
The lawsuit never moved forward and the apartments are under construction. Green said he and former Councilman Robbie Young waited to file the complaint until there would be no repercussions for Oltmans, not because of the election.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 20 on 10/24/2010