GOSHEN -- Growing tensions between some City Council members, police and the mayor led this month to the police chief stepping down to a patrolman position and the City Council looking into more policies for the Police Department.
The move comes after months of personality conflicts in the city government, said Angie Driver, a resident who has been attending meetings for the past few months.
Driver said she plans to run for City Council.
About 50 people crowded into the Goshen Community Building to hear council members discuss the Police Department's policies, budget and employees during a special meeting Tuesday night.
Nothing was voted on.
Several audience members interrupted City Council members to say they think council members are nitpicking the Police Department.
Police Chief Zeb Rone asked last week for a demotion, took a pay cut and starting working as a patrol officer this past Wednesday.
Another Goshen officer, Sgt. Michael Ball, was promoted to interim chief. That appointment will be reviewed in about three months, according to a city email obtained through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
Email also shows Rone was reprimanded, but details weren't available Tuesday. Mayor Max Poye said Rone didn't deserve to be fired.
Rone said he had done nothing wrong but wanted to step down to have less stress and more time with his family.
"I have always worked within the scope of the law and have always tried to maintain professionalism and integrity," Rone said in his May 22 letter to Poye and the City Council.
The department has three officers who are all salary employees.
Rone earned $46,000 in base salary as chief. A patrolman earns $37,500, Recorder-Treasurer Sharon Baggett said via email.
At the meeting, City Council members Andy Bethell, Dick Seddon and Cathy Oliver cited multiple concerns they have with the Police Department, including police officer shifts that overlap by hours, police asking some businesses and property owner associations for donations and officers who left the city for meals.
Poye implemented new policies May 23 that included time sheets reflecting "actual time on and off duty" and no more than two hours of overlapping schedules. Officers on duty must generally stay in Goshen also.
There was no written policy previously, Poye said. He wrote the policies to appease council members, he said.
The council also agreed the roughly $3,000 donated to the department will be returned to donors with an explanation letter. That letter and the ordinance needed to return the money is expected to be voted on at the next meeting.
NW News on 05/30/2018