FORT SMITH -- All three candidates for mayor said Fort Smith should not be granted immunity in a resident's lawsuit that says the city collected sanitation fees for recycling services that it did not provide.
University of Arkansas at Fort Smith student Luis Andrade, retired Southside High School Principal Wayne Haver and state Rep. George McGill spoke Thursday during a candidate forum on the UAFS campus.
All three will appear on the municipal election ballot Aug. 14. Early voting begins Tuesday.
During the 90-minute forum before about 120 people, the candidates were asked whether the city should be granted immunity in the lawsuit filed by Jennifer Merriott that claims illegal exaction and unjust enrichment.
The suit claims the city used recycling trucks, at a cost of about $1 million over almost three years, to deceive sanitation customers that the recyclables they were setting out separately for collection were going to a recycler when the material actually was dumped in the landfill.
Attorneys for the city claimed it was immune to the suit by state law and the Arkansas Constitution. Sebastian County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor ruled Monday that there was no legal basis for the city's claim of immunity and denied the motion.
"No, absolutely not," Andrade said Thursday. "The city should not be immune to being held accountable for that."
Instead of informing residents when the city discontinued recycling from September 2014 to June 2017, the candidates said, the city's lack of transparency resulted in a lawsuit that is costing money to litigate and could make the city liable to compensate residents for the expense of needlessly running the recycling trucks.
McGill and Haver said the decision showed a lack of the type of leadership and transparency they would bring to the mayor's office if elected.
The candidates said the recycling issue would not have caused such anger in the community if officials had been up front with residents in 2014.
"I don't think anybody in here would have minded if they were told we were going to have to do something different" until another recycler was found, McGill said.
Challenged by Andrade, the candidates also promised, if elected, to look into how the city lost more than $1 million in the River Valley Sports Complex project.
City officials entered into an agreement in 2013 with then-state Sen. Jake Files and Lee Webb to build a complex of eight tournament-quality ball fields on 60 acres of city-owned property at Chaffee Crossing.
City directors agreed to pledge up to $1.6 million for the project, of which it ultimately paid out $1.08 million, while Files and Webb promised to raise the remaining cost of the estimated $4 million to $6 million project through donated materials, equipment and labor.
Files pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the project by misappropriating for his own purposes nearly $26,000 in state General Improvement Fund money he authorized for the sports complex project. Files was sentenced in June to 18 months in prison.
Andrade is a naturalized native from Brazil, an Army veteran, has an associate degree in political science and plans to complete work on his bachelor degree next year. He also is founder and president of Andrade Holding LLC., a local real estate and general investment company.
Haver retired in June after working for 48 years in Fort Smith public school system, including 36 years as Southside principal. He is an Army veteran who served in Vietnam and has served on the Fort Smith Airport Commission since 2004.
McGill, a Democrat, has been in the state House of Representatives since 2013, serving on several committees. He sits on several organization boards, is an Army veteran and retired after 30 years from McGill Insurance Agency.
State Desk on 08/03/2018