FAYETTEVILLE — Just over a week after blacking out at an event, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan is stepping away from his active schedule to undergo surgery for blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the brain.
Jordan anticipates having surgery today or Wednesday to open the blockage in the right carotid artery, Chief of Staff Don Marr said Monday.
Earlier Monday, Jordan attended a meeting of his staff and informed them of the situation. He had to miss his quarterly town hall meeting, which had been previously scheduled for Monday night. The meeting went on with Ward 4 Alderman Shirley Lucas at the helm.
The medical issue surfaced more than a week ago when Jordan blacked out while at the University of Arkansas to sign a proclamation for Make a Difference Day on Oct. 16. The episode caused Jordan to have vision problems.
He was taken to the emergency room at Washington Regional Medical Center by Dr. Hershey Garner, who was at the university event. He was released after an examination.
He was seen by an ophthalmologist, a physician who specializes in the eyes, who diagnosed the situation as palsy related to a muscle on the side of the eye. Further tests discovered the carotid blockage. Marr said Jordan was notified after hours last Friday of the vascular situation.
Under doctor’s orders, Jordan is resting and has canceled appointments this week pending a doctor’s visit today, at which surgical plans will be firmed up, Marr said.
Dr. Geetha Ramaswamy, a physician at the Walker Heart Institute Cardiac Vascular Clinic at Washington Regional Medical Center, said in general, the carotid artery surgery is “not super high risk” as some other types of heart or vascular surgery.
Ramaswamy, who spoke generally about the condition but not Jordan’s case, said such a blockage is caused by the buildup of plaque in the carotid arteries. The blockage causes an increased risk of stroke, according to WebMD.com, a medical information website. The website said the carotids are located on either side of the neck to carry blood to the front part of the brain used in thinking, speech, personality, sensory and motor functions.
“The risk is there for a stroke but doesn’t necessarily mean he’s had a stroke,” Ramaswamy said.
Marr said Brenda Thiel, an alderman who serves in the role of vice mayor, will preside over the City Council’s agenda session Tuesday night in Jordan’s absence.
At the Ward 4 meeting, Paul Becker, city finance director, walked about 40 residents through the 2011 city budget development in the face of a decline in revenue.
Becker said Jordan’s parameters for the 2011 budget were no cuts in city services to residents and no increase in property tax. About 60 percent of the city’s general fund, which pays for most of the city services, comes from sales tax revenue.
The city is seeing increases in the cost of health insurance for employees, higher pension fees for police and fire department employees and the cost of unemployment insurance. The highest single expense is the fleet replacement costs in an effort to “get another year out of the vehicles,” Becker said, noting the replacement costs were deferred in the 2010 budget.
“We can’t do that forever,” Becker said. “We had to bring that back.”
Besides increased costs, the city has also made about $1.1 million in cuts for 2011, including freezing 13 positions, eliminating police and fire overtime, eliminating the Washington, D.C., lobbyist position and transferring parking fees out of the general fund budget into a separate account, Becker said.
A total of $2.6 million in cuts have been made in the city general fund budget over the last two years and revenue is still flat for the coming year.
He said the City Council is still consider reducing capital expenses by $600,000 if engineering fees for several road projects are not outsourced and another $400,000 if construction of a proposed fire training tower is eliminated.
The council may have to dip into reserves to bring the budget in line, Becker said.
Marr said the city staff has returned some $600,000 to the city coffers in unused money for expenses, increasing the reserve fund to $1.4 million.
“This gives us the opportunity to have this discussion on the use of reserves,” Marr said.