WEST FORK — A public summit in late January will be the City Council’s effort to respond to a voter-approved ballot measure calling for the dissolution of the city’s Water and Sewer Commission.
At A Glance
State Law
Required attachments to petitions:
-To every petition for the initiative shall be attached a full and correct copy of the title and the measure proposed.
-To every petition for the referendum shall be attached a full and correct copy of the measure on which the referendum is ordered.
Source: Arkansas Code Annotated § 7-9-106
More than 65 percent of 909 West Fork voters approved in November a measure calling for the abolition of the city’s Water and Sewer Commission.
The council didn’t address the issue until last week when a proposal to dissolve the commission failed by a 2-to-6 vote, said Mayor Frances Hime.
The proposal came from Alderman Misty Caudle, Hime said.
“Her statement at the meeting was she felt the council should abide by the decisions of the voters,” Hime said.
Alderman Joan Wright supported Caudle’s proposal but the motion failed after all other council members voted against, Hime said.
Tom Kieklak, the city’s attorney, said days before the election a missing ordinance with the ballot measure’s paperwork made the issue into more of a poll than an effort to force the council to dissolve the commission.
Instead, the council agreed last week to call a public meeting Jan. 24 between proponents and opponents of the measure, Kieklak said. The meeting will include members of the council, the commission, the mayor, the water and sewer utility’s superintendent and residents.
A time and location hasn’t been set.
“I think we’ve created a system where it will be delayed long and eventually the voters will forget and it will go away,” Hime said.
Caudle and Wright finish their terms this year. Hime, a supporter of abolishing the commission, doesn’t expect enough votes to dissolve the group next year among newly elected council members and incumbents, she said.
Today, the utility and its five-member commission operates for the most part independently from the council. The council has final say on any rate increases, debt and commissioner appointments.
Butch Bartholomew, the utility’s superintendent, said Monday he and the commission will operate however the council wishes, whether they continue as a semi-independent organization or as a committee under the supervision of the mayor.
“The Water and Sewer Commission will continue to operate as usual, until someone writes an ordinance,” Bartholomew said.
Since the election, an ordinance found its way to Hime’s mailbox though its author is unknown, she said.
More than 120 residents earlier this year signed a petition seeking to force the council to repeal two ordinances from the 1970s and abolish the commission. People who file petitions must also draft an ordinance, much like proposed ordinances council members or any other legislative body receive in their meeting packets, Kieklak said.
Kieklak said he expects proponents for the measure to file a civil lawsuit asking a circuit court judge to force the council to abolish the measure. He said courts in the state have in the past strongly supported election results being actualized. However he doesn’t think proponents would be successful in a civil lawsuit.
“I still think the flaw is so fundamental, the city will still succeed,” he said. “It's like a car without the transmission. It just can't go. You can’t pass an ordinance without the voters having the opportunity to read the ordinance.”
Hime said she expects proponents of the issue to file a new petition with an ordinance for a future election. Though she also believes proponents could be successful in court, she said.
“The issue of whether the measure was legal or not would be an issue that could be resolved in a lawsuit,” Hime said. “It's my understanding from my research that an ordinance is only attached at the state level.”