Officials: Personal and political feuds obstruct Washington County governing

 Marilyn Edwards
Marilyn Edwards

FAYETTEVILLE -- Vague rumors of deal-making behind the scenes and personal rivalries within Washington County government erupted into public accusations in recent weeks, and elected officials on all sides say the distrust and infighting are hampering their ability to do their jobs and spend taxpayer money wisely.

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Eva Madison

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Harvey Bowman

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Ann Harbison

A specific dispute over a hand gesture during a meeting is a fitting symbol for the discord, which has been called a "vendetta" by one official and "paranoia" by another.

The Quorum Court's seven-member Finance Committee, now disbanded, met July 13 to discuss the budget, which the Quorum Court sets each year. Several justices of the peace who aren't on the committee attended the meeting but left partway through. Among them was Eva Madison, a Democrat justice of the peace who often pushes to limit or cut spending by county departments, including those overseen by County Judge Marilyn Edwards, also a Democrat.

As Madison left, she signaled another justice of the peace across the room with a "call me" gesture near her ear.

In separate interviews, three justices of the peace from both political parties and the judge said they believed Madison signaled Harvey Bowman, a Springdale Republican and fellow budget hawk, so the two could discuss county business in private.

"It's a vendetta between Eva (Madison) and the judge," said Ann Harbison, a Democrat from West Fork who saw recent fights over spending requests from the animal shelter and other departments as more personal than fiscal. "It's not a disagreement; I think it's outright hatred."

Madison, meanwhile, said nothing of the kind happened. She said she was motioning to Daniel Balls, a Democrat justice who's seated next to Bowman who asked Madison for legal advice about his job as an analyst. Madison works as an employment lawyer in Fayetteville. Balls confirmed the explanation, saying he had questions that had nothing to do with county business.

"I'm bewildered," Madison said of the accusations, noting she's a professional and a mother outside of her public life. "I do a lot of other things. I don't spend my time sitting around cooking up ways to, I don't know, make things difficult."

"My best guess is paranoia," Madison added when asked the source of the suspicion.

Simmering concerns

Because justices of the peace serve on the same legislative body, discussion of public business or concerns among them at any time could be considered a public meeting under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Justices of the peace therefore would need to provide any documentation of those discussions if requested and under some circumstances could be required to notify news media beforehand.

Concerns justices of the peace were violating these rules have popped up sporadically over the past year or two, first coming from employees in the county judge's office, then from other county employees during the Quorum Court's budget meetings last year. A resolution discouraging cellphone use during Quorum Court meetings failed early this year after Madison and others said they needed to be able to keep track of their family or private jobs.

Elected officials also have repeated those concerns publicly in the past several months, moving from generalized FOI concerns to claims the secret discussions had a political aim.

During a Quorum Court meeting in April, Butch Pond, a Republican who represents District 15 in the county's east, said Madison approached him asking for help "to get rid of Edwards." Madison at the time said she was "appalled" by the accusation and such a conversation never took place.

Edwards spoke publicly on the matter during the Quorum Court's July 16 meeting, during which it voted to dissolve its Finance Committee so budget requests would come before all 15 justices instead of getting a first round with a committee of seven. The Quorum Court did so in defiance of Edwards, who had chosen the seven members despite strong objections from Madison, Bowman and other justices.

Republican Lisa Ecke of Springdale asked Edwards why she wouldn't accept the Quorum Court's will and simply put everyone on the Finance Committee. She replied "a very, very reliable source" heard unnamed justices saying they would do whatever they could to fight Edwards' wishes.

"Then you wonder why I feel like I do about this (committee)," Edwards said.

Documents requested

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sent an FOI request July 24 to all Quorum Court members and the county judge for all email, text messages, voicemail and records of phone calls to their fellow justices or the county judge since early January.

The justices and judge provided hundreds of email messages, several pages of phone records, a few texts and other documents. Nearly all the email messages were previously distributed to the media and dealt with routine meeting dates and agendas. An analysis of the documents found no hidden discussions on county business or secret coalition building.

Republicans Tom Lundstrum of Elm Springs and Joe Patterson in the county's northeast corner said they had no documents related to the request. Several others, including Bowman and Democrat Sue Madison, Eva Madison's mother, turned over a handful of mostly routine notices.

Several documents further displayed the apparent gulf between Madison and Edwards. In one exchange in February, the two argued about the judge's decision in late 2014 to treat the justices' reimbursement for mileage to and from the courthouse as taxable income.

"Your office's decision is costing the taxpayers an extra 7.65 percent in payroll taxes, so the issue cannot simply be swept under the rug and ignored," Madison wrote in a public letter to Edwards, noting several certified public accountants said the decision was unnecessary. "You recently criticized the Quorum Court for going over its budget last year, so we all need to be mindful of any area where we can save taxpayer dollars."

Edwards responded with a terse letter, disputing Madison's suggestion she made the decision only after the Quorum Court criticized Edwards' employees use of county vehicles.

"While I understand and appreciate your deep and magnanimous concern over the sums of money you believe you are protecting for yourself and the county, I cannot justify spending more of our time and any of our money on this issue," Edwards wrote. "Of course, I am not as vindictive as you imply that I am. I sincerely wish you would join me from time to time in finding ways we can work together for the common good."

'Elephant in the room'

The arguments over reimbursement and the focus on the Finance Committee point to a key ingredient in the discord: money.

Madison was a leader in the Quorum Court's push last year to cut about $4 million in spending, creating a $59 million budget for 2015. She and other members said the county needed the cuts in order to rebuild its reserve, which is forecast to be about $4 million but has been dwindling for years because of a variety of factors.

Madison, Bowman and other justices also discussed tighter control of departments' line-item transfers, to the chagrin of Edwards and the tax collector, treasurer and other elected officials.

Many of those cuts hit departments under Edwards, including the Road Department and the animal shelter. Edwards many times has criticized the cuts, saying they hurt her ability to provide the county services residents expect.

The fight flared back up in spending requests throughout this year, including a $10,500 request from the animal shelter that drew intense public attention last month after Edwards' administration warned the shelter would have to stop accepting stray animals without more money. The request, downgraded from an earlier request of about $36,000, was granted after hours of impassioned debate.

Several officials said these fights showed personal fights were getting in the way of county business.

"That $30,000 about the animal shelter was not about the animal shelter. I don't know why it turned into such an issue," said Balls, the Fayetteville Democrat, adding he was sympathetic to elected officials' protests of Quorum Court budget control. "This is not what I signed up for, to watch this infighting."

Robert Dennis, a Republican who represents District 10 around Farmington, said he sometimes felt justices came to meetings with their minds made up, as if they'd discussed and decided beforehand. But he said he had no evidence to back up that feeling.

"Some of it's just personal, that's what I don't like about it," he said, also pointing to the outsize controversy over the shelter request. "I think it's interfering with what we do -- the amount of time we spend on something that they're wanting to fight the judge on."

Madison voted for the shelter money after pushing unsuccessfully to partly offset it with cuts in other departments. The Quorum Court needs to hold the line on its budget cuts, she said, echoing Lundstrum and other Quorum Court members.

"We have real budget issues," Madison said Wednesday, calling the overarching quarrel "the elephant in the room" that distracts from real issues.

"At the end of the day you need the executive branch to lead, and we don't have that. We have paranoia instead of leadership," Madison said. "We need some serious discussions on what we're going to do with the county finances, and we need leadership from somebody. For the first seven months of the year we've been sort of spinning our wheels."

Political angles

Edwards said the fighting affects the county in another way, pointing to lawsuits in U.S. District Court against her and several of her subordinates. Four current or former county employees have sued in the past year claiming Edwards and her administration retaliated against them for supporting Jeff Williams, Edwards' Republican opponent in the 2014 election. The county has denied the substantive claims.

Edwards said Wednesday she believes the lawsuits and the distrust in the county government are linked. County attorney Steve Zega was present and advised her not to comment further along those lines because the lawsuits are making their way through court.

"This election is still being fought," Edwards said. "I'm certainly not saying everyone, I'm just saying it's a few."

"There's no conspiracy," she added, though she and Harbison said they weren't convinced by the lack of documentation that FOI violations aren't happening. "I hate the word 'conspiracy,' it sounds like James Bond. I think there are several people who don't like me."

Edwards' fear of her opponents' political angling is apparent in a May interview with Madison about county bridges.

A lawsuit from George Braswell, a Road Department employee, led to the discovery of several issues that led to lower-quality construction of bridges. Braswell sent public letters to the judge and Quorum Court about the issues late last year, but Edwards took public steps to address the problem only after receiving a video in March apparently supporting some of Braswell's claims. Williams, her opponent, recorded the video several months earlier but didn't release it.

Madison and County Assessor Russell Hill interviewed Edwards and Road Department employees to get to the bottom of the problems' source. At one point, the investigators asked why Edwards didn't act after receiving Braswell's letter in late 2014.

"It had been an ugly, ugly election," Edwards said at the time, according to a transcription. "So you assume that it's just dirty politics."

"I didn't really realize it was as serious an event until I saw the video," she added, criticizing Williams for holding the video so long. Williams has said he didn't want the video to become a political football during the election.

Bowman, the Springdale Republican, said he also saw political angling in the entire Quorum Court fracas, but coming from the opposite direction as Edwards said.

"These accusations are because these people who've been doing things their way aren't getting their way anymore," Bowman said last month, calling the accusations "sour grapes" from liberals. "It's pretty obvious there's a good group of conservative people, and they don't have to talk beforehand."

County reserve has dwindled in recent years because the county spends more than it takes in, one of many issues that need to be fixed, Bowman said.

"We're in there trying to do a good job of managing the county's finances," he said about Madison, Lundstrum and others. "When someone's getting their butt kicked on a routine basis, they come up with a lot of reasons for why."

Despite the tension, Sharon Lloyd, a Springdale Republican who was appointed to the court earlier this year, said arguments such as these come with the territory of a legislative body comprising "15 leaders."

"If you're going to be in that position, you need to be thick-skinned enough to take it if someone disagrees with you and then vote your conscience," Lloyd said. "I believe we should all be able to voice our opinions, and I believe we should all be adult enough just to get over it."

NW News on 08/09/2015

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