LITTLE ROCK — Wrightsville Mayor Lorraine Smith has repaid the city $2,619.81 - but elected officials in the small rural community in southwest Pulaski County say they have no idea why they received the check.
The payment, sent from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and received by the city's treasurerlast Friday, is restitution ordered to be paid as a result of a criminal proceeding, according to the check and an enclosed card. Smith has refused to answer questions about the check.
The city's treasurer, Patricia Rogers-Ward, said this week that she didn't know what the money was for or how the city was affected.
"I just got the check. I didn'tget any other correspondence," Rogers-Ward said.
Nor has anyone else.
"No one from the city has ever been contacted about it," said Wrightsville City Attorney William Zac White. "Apparently something happened, but there is no public record."
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Cherith Beck, said she cannot confirm or deny the existence of the court order or other documents related to the restitution check Wrightsville received.
She declined to comment further.
City officials said they've been told by prosecutors in the U.S.
attorney's office that Smith signed a pretrial diversion agreement.
Pretrial diversion is an alternative to criminal prosecution and is administered by the U.S. Probation Service. Those who complete the program have any charges against them dismissed.
"They've told me the pretrial diversion is not public," White said. "I don't know the extent or the details."
Rogers-Ward said she was told by a clerk at the court that there would be another restitution check arriving soon from Smith for about the same amount as the first.
"They said that this was just the first payment, and that there was another payment due," she said.
Smith, 82, is a retired high school teacher and only the second mayor of the city, which incorporated in 1982. She has held the office since 1987.
Confronted with a copy of the check by City Council members and residents at a council meeting Tuesday, Smith denied knowing anything about it.
"I do not have any answers," she told them. "I have done nothing wrong. I don't have to answer anything."
Wrightsville resident Betty Flowers, 72, pleaded with Smith to talk about the check. Earlier in the meeting that night, during a different discussion, Smith had referred to the council members and two dozen other people in the room representing the city of about 1,400 as family.
"I respect you; it goes way back. You taught me in school," Flowers said. But, "if you did something wrong and you hadto pay, tell us."
Smith, again, refused to respond.
"You've already judged me," she said. "I do not have to answer any of these questions."
Alderman Sherrie Phillips, who is serving as chairman of the council's finance committee, said afterward that she was disappointed by Smith's refusal to discuss the check.
"I think it wasn't fair to the citizens. Be truthful," she said.
The check for $2,619.81 has not yet been deposited into the city's bank accounts, Rogers-Ward said.
She said she is waiting until the city attorney is able to provide more information about what it is.
"If I deposit it, it could mean we're agreeing to some terms that we don't know," she said.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 04/24/2009