Parkin aldermen Delores Atkins and Edna Faye Futch spent the weekend in the Cross County jail on contempt of court charges stemming from a feud between the city's mayor and the City Council over who controls hiring and firing of city employees.
Jail records indicate that Atkins and Futch, both 68, were booked into the jail shortly after 6 p.m. Friday after a daylong hearing before Circuit Judge Chris Morledge regarding a lawsuit Mayor Willie Patterson filed against the City Council. Atkins and Futch remained in custody until 8 a.m. Monday, according to jail records.
Three other aldermen -- Renetta McCraw, Carolyn Slaughter and Marion Smith -- were also named in court documents and attended the hearing but were not found in contempt. Another alderman, Calvin Green, was supposed to be in court but had resigned from the City Council, Patterson said.
Attempts to reach Atkins and Futch on Monday were unsuccessful.
Patterson said Monday he was unsure what Atkins and Futch did that led to the contempt of court charges. A call to the judge's office was not returned.
"There's a whole lot of things [listed in litigation] so we don't know what they were charged with, but we know they were charged," Patterson said. "We don't have anything that's official yet on what the charges are."
Vince Guest, the mayor's attorney, declined comment when the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contacted him over the weekend because Morledge issued a gag order in the case. Attempts to reach Guest and the City Council's attorney, Andre Valley, were unsuccessful Monday.
Patterson, who was at the hearing, said Morledge told the aldermen that he did not wish to see them back in his court over the issues. The mayor said the judge had told them in a previous court appearance that "you're not going to like me if you come back to court. He was pretty upset -- and me, too."
Patterson laid off the city's 10-man police force Thursday, citing financial issues. Law enforcement in the city is now left entirely up to the Cross County sheriff's office through at least the end of the year. Sheriff's deputies already had been covering the department's calls after midnight.
A filing in Cross County Circuit Court on Friday said the mayor's actions regarding the Police Department were without the City Council's consent.
The tug-of-war over personnel issues has been ongoing since last year. Patterson has been mayor in the northeast Arkansas town since January 2015 and was preceded by his brother, Charles Patterson.
Willie Patterson had fired former Police Chief Charles Wilson, but the City Council reinstated Wilson on Jan. 26. Patterson vetoed the reinstatement, but the council overrode the veto Feb. 1 and reinstated Wilson as interim police chief.
Patterson sued Wilson on Feb. 25, saying that Wilson had not taken the proper steps to be reinstated. The lawsuit also criticized the council's decision to reinstate Wilson.
That lawsuit has been combined with a previous lawsuit the mayor filed against the city council regarding firing practices in 2015.
State Desk on 04/12/2016