Two file for board vacancy
Two hopefuls applied for the vacant District 5 position on the Hot Springs Board of Directors ahead of Tuesday’s filing deadline, the city clerk’s office said.
Former District 5 Director Karen Garcia and former Justice of the Peace George Pritchett both filed for the vacancy left by Rick Ramick’s May 3 resignation. The city clerk’s office will verify the signatures the applicants included with their petitions for nomination and by Friday provide the applications to the board for its review.
Petitions for nomination have to include the signatures of 50 registered voters residing in District 5.
The schedule the board approved last month for appointing a replacement to
serve the remainder of Ramick’s term established a June 13 special-called meeting to interview applicants and select a replacement. Ramick’s term runs through next year. His replacement will be eligible to run for the 2019-22 term.
Per state law, directors in a city manager form of government must be registered voters who are 21 or older and who have resided in the city for at least 30 days. The city code mandates directors be registered to vote in the district they are seeking to represent. District 5 represents south central Hot Springs.
The board is the city’s supreme legislative and executive body, and its members receive no compensation.
Garcia was one of four applicants seeking to fill the mayoral vacancy left by Ruth Carney’s March 10 resignation. The board selected Pat McCabe to serve the remainder of her term, which runs through next year.
Garcia served on the board from 2011 to 2014 after she defeated Glenn Gallas and Ramick for the District 5 seat in 2010. She opted not to seek another term and instead ran for state treasurer in 2014, losing to Republican nominee Dennis Milligan.
Pritchett was elected to the Garland County Quorum Court as District 5 Justice of the Peace in 2010. He didn’t seek re-election and ran for the District 14 state Senate seat in 2014 as an independent, losing to Republican incumbent Bill Sample.
The following year, Pritchett lost his bid for Position 3 on the Hot Springs School Board, losing to Lonell “Dino” Lenox.
Pritchett filed two lawsuits last year against the city’s January 2016 annexation of Enclave Study Area B. He appealed both after they were dismissed in Garland County Circuit Court. The state Supreme Court affirmed the lower court rulings in March.
Area B was scheduled to come under city control in April 2016. A stay on the annexation was granted last month in a lawsuit a separate group of plaintiffs filed against the annexation ordinance in February 2016. Division 1 Circuit Judge John Homer Wright dismissed the lawsuit but imposed a stay pending the outcome of the appeal the plaintiffs filed notice of in April.