Smith renewed for CAW board

LR directors OK 3rd term

Carmen Smith was confirmed to a third seven-year term on the board of commissioners of Central Arkansas Water on Tuesday.

Smith, who is currently serving as vice chair of the regional water utility’s board, received the approval of the Little Rock Board of Directors in a 6-3 vote, with one member absent, during a meeting Tuesday night.

Members of Central Arkansas Water’s board of commissioners fill vacancies and reappoint their peers to the seven-member panel, but their selections must get the approval of the governing bodies of Little Rock and North Little Rock — the two cities that created the utility in 2001.

Central Arkansas Water’s board endorsed Smith’s reappointment on Feb. 22, and the North Little Rock City Council followed suit on March 11.

Smith, 43, is senior corporate counsel for DataPath, Inc. She has served on Central Arkansas Water’s board since 2010, occupying one of the three North Little Rock seats on the panel. Four other seats are reserved for Little Rock members.

With her current term due to expire June 30, Smith’s next term will run through June 2031.

During the Little Rock city board meeting Tuesday, City Director Lance Hines of Ward 5 said he had no issues with Smith on a personal level.

But Hines suggested that if city board members did not start paying attention to the water utility’s activities, they would “continue to get the same behavior” from the utility’s Chief Executive Officer Tad Bohannon.

In January 2023, the utility’s board adopted a series of rate increases that will raise prices for customers every year through 2032, drawing opposition from Hines at the time.

More recently, Central Arkansas Water officials have moved to enact a consolidation plan under which the utility will absorb the wastewater treatment system in Wrightsville.

City Director Virgil Miller Jr. of Ward 1, who serves as the board’s liaison to Central Arkansas Water, took a different stance Tuesday.

Miller said officials ought to go along with the North Little Rock City Council, noting that the reappointment of Little Rock’s Jay Hartman to Central Arkansas Water’s board was met with no objection from city officials on the opposite side of the Arkansas River.

“There may be some other issues going on there as it relates to the direction that Central Arkansas Water’s going, but I’ve seen Commissioner Smith in action — she’s a good commissioner,” Miller said. “I’m going to be voting in favor of this.”