Sued clerk faces 2nd court staffer in GOP primary

11 attorneys back Coomer in Sebastian County circuit

FORT SMITH — Local attorneys are contributing to the campaign of a longtime courthouse administrator who is challenging Sebastian County Circuit Clerk Ken Blevins in the May 22 Republican primary.

Blevins and Denora Coomer are seeking the GOP nomination for the Sebastian County circuit clerk’s job in Arkansas’ fourth-largest county.

The Republican primary winner will face Democratic challenger Kathy Guthrie, chief deputy circuit clerk. Guthrie faces no Democratic primary opposition.

In his first term as circuit clerk, Blevins has faced sexual harassment complaints and a federal court lawsuit.

Coomer, Sebastian County court administrator since 1984, has raised more money, according to campaign contribution reports. Her latest report shows $4,370 in cash contributions from Aug. 18 through March 5. That included $3,950 from 11 people identified as lawyers.

“I think it’s safe to say the majority of attorneys who practice in the Sebastian County courts have indicated to me that they are supporting Denora,” said Ron Fields, who gave her campaign $1,000, according to her March 5 campaign contribution report. Coomer’s work in the court system “has earned the reputation of being extremely competent,” Fields said.

Blevins said he had never accepted contributions until recently and financed his own political races. His campaign finance reports for all of 2011 and for 2012 through Feb. 24 list no cash contributions.

However, Blevins started accepting contributions April 1, said his Campaign Manager Sandy Pyle.

“We are just now starting to realize contributions from a fundraising letter. We’re probably in the $2,000 range.” Pyle said. Recent contributions, which she plans to report by the May 15 deadline, include $250 from a local lawyer.

About Coomer’s contributions from the legal community, Blevins said, “Denora has a lot of contact with lawyers, and that’s to be expected.”

Coomer said she viewed the donations as coming from people who are “in that (circuit clerk’s) office on a daily basis. ... It is a clear statement to me that change is needed.”

Other attorneys contributing to Coomer’s campaign include: Joel Price, $1,000;

Ernie Witt, $500; Joey McCutchen, $300; and Les Evitts, $250.

Candidates for county races, including the circuit clerk’s position, are required to file two campaign reports for each primary, runoff or election, according to Graham Sloan, director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission. The first report is due seven days before the vote, the second is due 30 days after the month of the vote.

Blevins and Coomer have filed campaign contribution reports more often than required.

CLERK’S DUTIES

The duties of the circuit clerk’s office, which has 21 employees, include recording and filing court orders, petitions, subpoenas and other court paperwork. Other tasks include collecting court-ordered child support payments and generating lists of residents to serve in jury pools.

Blevins became Sebastian County’s circuit clerk in January 2011 after defeating incumbent Cindy Gilmer, a Democrat.

In mid-april 2011, four circuit clerk office employees submitted complaints against him to County Judge David Hudson, citing sexual harassment, retaliation, wage discrimination and character defamation.

All four women said that Blevins would come up behind them and pat their backs, rub their shoulders or hug them. Some complaints said that he talked about having “bikini Fridays” instead of casual-dress Fridays, that he said he “needs to find a good place to stalk women so he can find a wife,” and that “‘strawberries can be crushed and rubbed on your breasts to make them bigger.’”

“It’s all frivolous,” Blevins said recently about the grievances and the lawsuit. He has denied sexual harassment since the issues surfaced almost a year ago.

A grievance committee found Blevins guilty of sexual harassment but said it could take no action because he was an elected official.

In October, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission declined to take action on a complaint against Blevins, saying it was “unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statutes. This does not certify that [Blevins] is in compliance with the statutes.”

On Nov. 16, Blevins fired deputy clerks Tyanna Caldwell of Greenwood and Cassie Vega of Barling, who were two of the three clerks who handled criminal cases in the office. Blevins claimed the two were insubordinate. A county grievance committee ruled that Blevins fired them in retaliation for their testimony against him in the sexual harassment grievance hearing in May.

Sebastian County’s circuit court judges signed an order in early December forcing Blevins to reinstate the two.

On Dec. 9, Caldwell and two other women filed a federal lawsuit accusing Blevins of sexual harassment and other complaints. The lawsuit is pending, with a jury trial scheduled for Jan. 28, 2013.

Blevins said the real issue behind the complaints is insubordination.

If he could change anything about his first term, he said, it would be his “naivete in trying to be friends with co-workers. I was trying to be friends with everyone in the office.”

About the unhappy employees, he said “they were so vindictive, they voted me 95th worst boss in America. ... You can do a search online for ‘worst bosses in America’ and see it. These individuals put me on a national list that made me the 95th worst. They made me into a national figure because of their actions.”

Blevins also said he believes the grievance issues would have been resolved “if people had not interfered with the way my office operated.”

Among his successes since taking office, Blevins lists a clean audit of the circuit clerk’s financial books. The office is also converting to a new county computer system. He hopes it allows more historical documents to go online, including an attempted assassination of a Fort Smith mayor in the early 1900s and events surrounding the lives of 19thcentury U.S. District Judge Isaac C. Parker and outlaw Belle Starr.

Asked whether the circuit clerk’s office is functioning well today, Blevins said, “No. It’s getting the job done, but I wouldn’t say it’s a happy office.”

COOMER’S CHALLENGE

Coomer said she decided to run for circuit clerk in midsummer after she heard about the grievances.

“I kept looking at the office and seeing what was happening to a lot of the employees and how it affected the courts,” she said.

Coomer said she saw case scheduling running late. Also, court files that contain needed documents weren’t always up to date or complete.

She decided to attempt to “come in and correct an office that’s been divided. ... I have ethics in the workplace that need to be restored, so that the employees are respectful of each other as well as the supervisor.”

Coomer said she hopes to bring more teamwork to the circuit clerk’s office.

She’s interested in installing more electronic filing systems for lawyers and the public.

As trial administrator for 28 years, she helps coordinate the schedules of circuit court judges and cases. One success in her current job, she said, is helping start drug court in Sebastian County almost 10 years ago with a $499,000 grant. Coomer’s annual salary as trial administrator is $68,253.

The salary for the circuit clerk position is $79,460 per year.