Toss police salary suit, city urges

TEXARKANA — The city of Texarkana wants a lawsuit concerning police officer salaries dismissed and is asking the judge currently presiding over the case be replaced.

The city also asks for a declaration by the court the part of municipal ordinances requiring police pay parity between Texarkana, Ark., and Texarkana, Texas, be declared unconstitutional and thus unenforceable.

Texarkana would still use designated taxpayer money to raise police pay in the Arkansas city, city officials said.

A lawsuit filed on behalf

of more than 80 Texarkana residents in Miller County Circuit Court in December said the city — under the leadership of named defendants Mayor Ruth Penney-Bell and City Manager Kenny Haskin — has mismanaged money collected through a sales tax meant to keep Texarkana police salaries in parity with those in Texarkana, Texas.

The petition seeks a court order earmarking the tax revenue for police salaries and requests the court supervise the spending of that money.

The case centers on city ordinances passed in 1995 and 1996 creating a sales tax for the purpose of keeping salaries equal for officers in both Texarkanas. The hope was to keep the best officers from seeking employment where the pay was higher.

Lawyers for Penney-Bell and Haskin deny in court filings the money is being diverted or mismanaged. The defendants said the revenue

being collected via the Texarkana sales tax just isn’t enough to keep up with police pay in Texarkana, Texas.

In a motion filed last month, Hot Springs lawyer Ralph Ohm, who represents Penney-Bell and Haskin, said that the revenue from the parity sales tax has not been sufficient to maintain pay parity since 2013. The motion for summary judgment said the city of Texarkana has had to pull close to $1 million from the general fund to meet the cost of parity since 2013.

“As a result of removing money from the general fund, other city services have suffered because the City of Texarkana, Ark., has been required to maintain salary parity between the police departments of Texarkana, Ark., and Texarkana, Texas,” according to a motion for summary judgment.

The city defendants said the ordinances violate the Arkansas state constitution because they permit an outside authority — the city of Texarkana, Texas — to fix the salaries of policemen.

The case was randomly assigned to Circuit Judge Brent Haltom when it was first filed. Haltom recused himself before the end of 2017, and the case was randomly reassigned to Circuit Judge Carlton Jones. Jones recused himself in January, and the case went to Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson. Haltom, Jones and Johnson are the only circuit judges serving in the 8th Judicial District South, which includes Miller and Lafayette counties.

The plaintiffs’ motion seeking recusal complains Johnson has a brother who is retired from the Texarkana Police Department and said Johnson is a close friend to Texarkana Police Chief Bob Harrison and some of the plaintiffs.

The defendants said in their motion for summary judgment that they are not challenging the sales and use tax portion of the city ordinances and intend to continue to use the funds entirely for police department employees.

All of the motions are currently pending before the court, and no hearings are currently scheduled in the case.