Frasher addresses directors on remodel
The Hot Springs Board of Directors convened an executive session Tuesday night to discuss personnel matters following City Manager David Frasher’s report on the more than $50,000 he spent to remodel and buy new furniture for City Hall’s administrative suite.
Mayor Pat McCabe said the board took no action while it was in executive session for fewer than 30 minutes. During the regular session of the board’s business meeting, Frasher explained in his report to the board why the remodel and new furniture were needed and closed his remarks with an apology.
“I apologize for any hard feelings this has caused, and I take full responsibility,” he said.
Frasher said he regretted the timing of the remodel, which coincided with water and sewer rate increases the board was set to consider Tuesday night. Both items were removed from the agenda on District 6 Director Randy Fale’s motion.
Fale said the city hasn’t explained why the increases were necessary.
The analysis presented to the board last month by the city’s rate consultant said the water rate hike was needed to service debt that will bring the city’s 23 million-gallon average day allocation from Lake Ouachita on line.
The updated draft of the water supply study the city commissioned in 2012 estimated a $95 million cost to access the water, including $29.4 million for a 105,000-linear-foot, 42-inch transmission line from Lake Ouachita to a $21.5 million, 15-mgd capacity treatment plant in the Amity Road
area, $10.7 million for an intake at Lake Ouachita, $13.6 million for distribution infrastructure and a 25-percent engineering and contingency fee.
The water rate increase would also secure an additional $15 million of debt for upgrades to one of the city’s existing water treatment plants, dam projects for the three lakes in the Northwoods Urban Forest Park and a 3 million-gallon storage tank.
“I’m asking that we remove this from the agenda until we have a clear understanding across the board of everything that’s going in this project,” Fale told the board. “This is a big expenditure, and it’s going to give the community an opportunity to hear it at our work session, as well.”
Fale also made the motion that the executive session be added to the agenda. He declined to expand on his rationale for seeking the closed-door meeting in an email he sent Wednesday.
“I believe I explained my reasons for the executive session in my motion, and that was to discuss personnel matters,” he said.
Frasher told the board he was informed by city staff that the administrative suite, which includes offices for him and his assistant, a waiting area and kitchen space, had not been remodeled in more than 30 years.
“Our objective here was to really create a basic, modest administrative space free of hazards, safety concerns, mold and other things that wouldn’t be embarrassing when we have meetings with other professional business people from whom we are seeking larger community investment,” he said.
Members of the Garland County Tea Party assembled at the meeting to protest the expenditure, which its chairman said is indicative of the board’s paternalism and indifference to the economic circumstances faced by large parts of its constituency.
“They want to run the city like a board of a hospital and not let anyone have any input, because they think they’re well educated and know what’s best for the public” Reggie Cowan said Wednesday. “You don’t have to drive two or three blocks from City Hall and you’re in impoverished areas. People don’t even make $20,000 a year in those areas.”
Frasher approved the expenditures under authority granted by the board. Per city ordinance, the city manager can spend up to $60,000 on contract and equipment acquisitions without board approval and waive competitive bidding on contracts and equipment costing less than $60,000.
Information provided by the city said the remodel and new furniture were paid for from surplus funds in three General Fund line items.
Cowan said the proposed water and sewer increases, which would raise the minimum water charge by more than 60 percent next year, will affect low-income residents most profoundly.
“Taxes, rates, fees, whatever you want to call them, have the worst affect on poor people,” he said. “Most of the people on the board don’t have to look at their checkbook to make sure they’re not overspending.”