The Arkansas Ethics Commission dismissed allegations Friday that the Bauxite mayor used city resources to promote a proposed sales-tax increase.
The commission voted 4-0 to dismiss the allegations against Mayor Johnny McMahan. Chairman William Bird III was not present.
"From the very beginning I believed it would be dismissed as the complaint was without merit and was an easy and simple way for a misguided citizen to harass me on the cheap," McMahan said in a news release. "She tried to put her claws in me but it didn't scratch."
Former Alderman Deborah Purifoy lodged the complaint against McMahan in March, contending the mayor used city employees, property and funds "to support his desire to pass a sales tax ballot measure," according to the submitted complaint.
The Ethics Commission agreed in April to look into the matter, but the commission's director, Graham Sloan, said the complaint specifically cited Arkansas Code Annotated 7-1-111, which didn't fall under the agency's jurisdiction.
The commission reviewed the complaint to see whether the mayor violated any other statutes, particularly Arkansas Code Annotated 7-9-401 et seq. That law -- known as the Disclosure Act for Public Initiatives, Referenda, and Measures Referred to Voters -- requires a ballot question or legislative question committee that either receives contributions or makes expenditures of more than $500 to advocate the qualification, disqualification, passage or defeat of a ballot question to file financial reports with the Ethics Commission.
"The evidence reflected that you did use public funds to make certain expenditures pertaining to the tax measure, but that the amount of such funds which were attributable to your efforts was nominal and fell below the $500 threshold," Sloan said in a "final action" letter to McMahan on Friday. "Moreover, the evidence did not reflect that you called upon voters to vote for or against the measure in the newsletters, straw poll, or flyer you prepared."
In the letter, Sloan said McMahan used public funds for printing costs for the newsletters, a straw poll and a flier the mayor prepared that was related to the proposed sales-tax increase.
Residents in May voted down the proposed increase, which would have been a permanent tax, that would have allowed the town to replace sewer grinder pumps for each resident and help operate and maintain the sewer plant, McMahan had said. The town has a 1.5 percent sales tax, but revenue generated from that is divided evenly among the volunteer Fire Department, the Police Department and the street department.
The proposal would have bumped the city's sales tax by a half percentage point. Had it been approved, the aldermen would have decided whether to rid water customers of their $10 monthly fee that helps with repairs.
In November -- months before aldermen approved the measure to be placed on the ballot -- McMahan had sent out straw polls to some 240 water customers, along with other residents who didn't pay for water but lived within the city limits. The poll asked whether the residents favored a sales-tax increase, the $10 monthly fee or the sales-tax increase along with a $5 monthly charge.
Of the 40 responses, most said they favored the sales-tax increase without the $5 monthly charge.
The Ethics Commission began counting the amount of money McMahan spent for the measure when it was officially placed on the ballot in February, Purifoy said in an interview Friday.
"I just told [the Ethics Commission] we wanted to have a voice in this," Purifoy said, adding that some residents felt like they couldn't speak publicly against the measure. "Johnny, he was spending public money. It's just a matter of when the clock starts ticking."
Metro on 06/21/2014