Candidates Weigh In on Water, Sewer Commission

WEST FORK — A technicality could turn a ballot issue into a glorified survey for voters about the future of the city’s Water and Sewer Commission.

The proposed abolition of the commission in Tuesday’s election seems to be the divisive issue among some candidates running for City Council. In the four wards, two incumbents are running for re-election. The police chief, who will soon retire, and six residents also want seats on the council.

More than 120 residents signed a petition seeking to force the council to repeal two ordinances from the 1970s and abolish the commission, however the filers did not attach a proposed ordinance.

“If that's the case, I'm not sure if the election will have any effect whatsoever beside taking the temperature of the electorate on how it feels about the Water and Sewer Commission,” said Tom Kieklak, the city’s attorney.

Ordinances attached to petitions are needed to force city councils to act, if approved by voters, Kieklak said. People who file petitions must also draft an ordinance, much like proposed ordinances that city council members or any other legislative body receive in their meeting packets.

Karen Combs Pritchard, Washington County clerk, said her records only contained the certified document filled with signatures from residents. Her records don’t need the proposed ordinance and she said the city clerk should have a copy. Sarah Setzer, the city clerk and candidate for Ward 1, said a proposed ordinance was not attached to the document.

Without the ordinance, the City Council could choose to do nothing even if the ballot question passes, Kieklak said.

City officials and candidates said who voters elect will ultimately decide if Butch Bartholomew will continue running the water and sewer department or whether Mayor Frances Hime and the council will have enough votes to take over the utility service. Hime’s first term ends in 2015 and supports the initiative.

“The initiative itself is the ordinance,” Hime said. “Even if it's not written correctly, the intent is wise. It's also wise to listen to the voters. If they do not think it's good for the city and they don't vote for it, then things will remain the same and I accept that.”

The mayor or the council shouldn’t be in the business of running city services, said Ward 1 Alderman Rodney Drymon, a one-term incumbent seeking re-election. He also wants to look at ways to generate more city revenue, grow residential areas and find ways for departments to work better together, he said.

“Keep politics out of the departments ... Our council works very hard and consists of some of the most honest people that I know,” Drymon said. “We are sometimes accused of running a good ol’ boy network, but we are so far away from a good ol’ boy network.”

The council in 1973 unanimously adopted an ordinance to create the commission and seek more than $400,000 in bond financing to help build a wastewater facility. Bartholomew’s father sat on the council when the ordinance passed, according to the meeting’s minutes.

Bartholomew said he began working for the city as superintendent in 1971 before the commission was created.

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.

The commission pays Bartholomew’s $84,000 salary and he said he voluntarily runs the street department and other public works.

Bartholomew said the council named him the city’s business manager in the 1980s. Some residents said Bartholomew’s role was similar to a city manager, until Hime took office in 2011.

Hime said she wrote Bartholomew a letter stating she would be a full-time mayor and the city’s administrative leader.

“It turned into a bunch of problems and the council told me to keep doing what I was doing,” Bartholomew said. “I'll do as much or as little as the council wants.”

Bartholomew and the commission last year took heat from the council after the city approved a $25,000 bailout to help the utility make payroll. As a result, rates increased by 14 percent and the commission paid its debt to the city. The commission’s audit from 2010 explains checks were written in excess of the cash available in the bank account.

Documents sent by the commission to customers also show growing revenues and bank account balances.

Other candidates said they want to see a change in the City Council’s environment where meetings sometimes include harsh disagreements and tense situations.

Setzer moved to West Fork two years ago from Eureka Springs. She said she was elected five times to three-year terms on the Eureka Springs School Board. She supports the initiative but also wants to see more respect at meetings.

“To be perfectly honest, my first meeting as clerk, I was appalled the way council treated its citizenry,” Setzer said. “One of the councilmen jumped out of his chair in a screaming match. It was not was I used to. No matter how much a person irritated you, when that person came before the School Board, I tried to treat them with respect and listen to their problem.”

Police Chief Michael Nelson will retire Dec. 31 and also wants to see more respect in the City Council, he said. He wants to represent Ward 4. The tense atmosphere hasn’t always been around, he said. He also doesn’t see any big advantage in having water and sewer services managed by the mayor and council, he said.

“We have not had anythig but harmoney in the 20 years as police chief except recently,” he said. “We have two factions and one is really trying to make change.”

Susan Cooney, a former city clerk, wants change, if elected to represent Ward 3. She regularly posts her views on a West Fork politics page on Facebook and supports abolishing the commission. She wants more transparency and hopes to broadcast council meetings or at the least post video recordings on YouTube, she said.

“The elected officials handed over the repsonsiblity to Mr. Bartholomew decades ago and by dissolving the Water and Sewer Commission, the mayor and council will take full responsibility,” Cooney said. “I feel like there's nothing that can be done to change the past activities and if we can get started with 2013 with standard operation position and a good clerk's department, then we can better assess where the cost are going and where the revenues are being distributed are done correctly.”