Director seeks removal of law on agenda items

Saturday, July 5, 2014

FORT SMITH -- A Fort Smith city director is seeking the repeal of an ordinance other directors have used over the past month to remove items from meeting agendas involving the city's legal services.

City Director Pam Weber wants Ordinance 2-31(4) repealed. The ordinance allows directors to request the city clerk to individually poll directors without holding a meeting on whether to remove items from agendas of upcoming meetings.

The motion was added to the city directors' July 15 meeting agenda.

Weber said Wednesday that removal of the ordinance would make the city's government more transparent and require the directors to discuss issues at meetings before the public.

"I feel if a director or directors have a concern, we need to discuss this in public," she said.

On two occasions, June 11 and June 26, City Director Mike Lorenz contacted City Clerk Sherri Gard asking that two agenda items scheduled for meetings June 17 and Tuesday be removed under Ordinance 2-31(4).

The items were two resolutions involving the city's legal services. One authorized an independent audit of the legal fees charged to the city by Daily and Woods law firm in its representation of the city in two Sebastian County Circuit Court lawsuits filed by city police officers and a former officer.

Daily and Woods has been the city's attorney for more than 40 years.

The other resolution was for the establishment of a commission to research the city's retaining a private firm to provide its legal services versus in-house counsel.

City Director Philip Merry initially proposed both resolutions at the June 3 directors meeting after the police officers' attorney, Matt Campbell of Little Rock, accused Daily and Woods in his Blue Hog Report Internet blog of overcharging the city for its work in the two lawsuits.

Merry has said repeatedly that he did not believe the audit would turn up any wrongdoing but that he favored the transparency of an arms-length review of the law firm's records.

City directors opposed raising the issues because, among other things, they said the audit would be an unnecessary expense and that the city was being manipulated by an attorney in an adversarial position.

Gard polled the city directors on June 11 and June 26, and four or more said they wanted both items removed. Merry and Weber said they wanted the items to remain on the agenda in both polls.

Weber also said Wednesday that her request for the ordinance to be repealed had nothing to do with the filing of a lawsuit in Sebastian County Circuit Court on Tuesday against the city that claims the city's use of the ordinance violated the open meetings provisions under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

She said she had not seen the lawsuit before raising the issue and had planned two weeks ago to introduce the motion to repeal the ordinance.

According to city clerk records, polling the city directors on agenda items in accordance with Ordinance 2-31(4) has been used seven other times since January 2013.

The ordinance reads: "Any item of business may be denied a place on or removed from the agenda by notice of four directors to the city clerk prior to the date of the meeting of the proposed consideration. The city clerk shall immediately notify the city administrator, the mayor, the directors and other interested persons of such action."

Metro on 07/05/2014