Calling foul

Sports complex woes lead to Fort Smith lawsuit

Jake Files of Fort Smith, who has served in the Arkansas Senate since 2011 and in the House of Representatives before that, ought to know what accountability looks like. Anyone who has stood for election that many times would have an appreciation, one would think, for answering to the people.

Maybe he’s just forgotten all that recently.

The city of Fort Smith took the highly unusual step the other day of suing one of its local state legislators. Cities are usually careful to maintain good relations with local lawmakers, who play a role in the state laws municipalities must follow and in state funding for projects important to cities.

When a city sues a lawmaker, things have gotten way out of whack.

The lawsuit focuses on River Valley Sports Complex Inc., in which Files is in business with Sebastian County Election Commissioner Lee Webb. The city wants the courts to declare the company has breached its 2014 agreement with the city to build a complex of eight tournament-quality baseball and softball fields on about 60 acres of Chaffee Crossing.

Files’ comment about the lawsuit? “We regret the city took this path.”

Well, nobody likes to be sued, so we can understand Files’ perspective. Ours would be slightly different: “We regret the city was compelled to take this path.”

City leaders know about accountability, too, and there needs to be some with the sports complex project. City directors in 2014 agreed to pay $1.6 million to Files and Webb for the ballpark development, for which the two men also pledged to find donations of money, materials and labor to finish out the project. In February, the city voted to terminate its agreement with River Valley Sports Complex Inc. Although the city had paid out more than $1 million, the park remains unfinished. According to the city’s lawsuit, Webb’s and Files’ company on Feb. 3 “formally notified the city of Fort Smith that it was abandoning its efforts to complete the sports complex.”

At least four subcontractors on the sports complex project have sued the city for payment they say they are owed but have not been paid by River Valley Sports Complex Inc.

Confidence in Files has been shaken by other developments. Fort Smith police began an investigation in March into allegations by City Director Keith Lau that Files misspent money paid for a roofing job. Lau told police in December he gave Files two checks totaling $33,206 to buy shingles from Home Depot to roof seven apartment buildings. Two buildings were reroofed, but the remaining work was left undone, Lau said.

Files denied the claims, saying he was never paid for the work his construction company performed at the apartments.

In February, two contractors said Files prepared and submitted bids for work in the companies’ name without their knowledge, an assertion Files says is untrue. Those bids involve state money from the General Improvement Fund, an account from which money is allocated to projects supported by a local legislator. In this case, allocation of the money was supported by a state senator — Jake Files of Fort Smith.

At best, Files — chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee — has played a lead role in a project that’s collapsed into an unfinished mess full of poorly managed arrangements. At worst, well, we don’t even want to imagine the worst-case scenarios.

Lawsuits are far from the best way to settle disputes, but accountability is a vital component when taxpayer funds are involved. But Fort Smith’s city directors were left little choice in the matter. With so many moving parts and parties, it’s unlikely any answers will come without judicial intervention.

And the public deserves answers.