Recall push stops for 3 in Texarkana

City lacks funds to hold election for Board of Directors, organizers say

TEXARKANA - Three members of the Texarkana Board of Directors won’t face a recall election after all.

Dwayne Hall, the vice president of the Miller County Patriots who has actively been involved in the recall process since September, said the city’s tight budget would not allow for the city to afford the estimated $15,000 to $20,000 cost of a recall election.

“Now because we are learning of just how bad of shape the city is in financially under [City Manager] Harold Boldt’s leadership and management … we have decided we cannot, with good conscience, turn these signatures in that have been collected and cost the city extra money it simply does not have for re-election - especially since [Ward 5 Director] Mike Jones and [Ward 3 Director] Londell Williams are up for re-election next year,” Hall said during a news conference Friday.

Texarkana’s budget for 2014 has $875,000 more in expenses than revenue, and city department heads have been asked to cut 4 percent from their respective budgets. In addition to the 4 percent department budget cuts, other cost-cutting ideas were discussed earlier this month at a budget workshop. The other ideas included city employees being asked to pay 1 percent to 1.5 percent of their base salary for their health insurance, taking away cellphones and reducing car allowances for employees.

“I think this is absolutely a good thing for there not to be these recalls. It is pretty radical when you start talking about recalling half the board, even though they have a right to do that,” Boldt said. “They don’t know about the budget. The $875,000 figure is so misleading.”

Jones also said he thought that not going forward with the recall was the right thing to do.

Jones, Williams and Ward 2 Director Laney Harris remained under the threat of a recall election until the announcement Friday.

Hall was joined by Gregg Jones, executive director of Miller County Patriots, at Friday’s news conference. Gregg Jones said he was disappointed with the actions taken by the four members of the board who voted to rehire Boldt in September. Amid accusations of city mismanagement and a public outburst at a resident, Boldt was the subject of a closed executive session in March during which he was told not to return to City Hall.

“There has never been mismanagement. That is a total lie,” Boldt said. “They have been led to believe that by people who have tried to attack me. We have brought the balance down with different projects, but that does not mean that is mismanagement. They cannot prove that it has been mismanagement.”

Gregg Jones said he thinks members who voted to rehire Boldt - Williams, Harris, Mike Jones and Ward 6 Director Sue Johnson - owe residents an apology for their actions because Boldt has made bad business decisions that continue to hurt the city’s budget and future.

Harris and Williams could not be reached for comment late Friday.

The three directors who now no longer face recall are not the only members who were threatened.

In mid-November, Miller County Emergency Management Director Larry Pritchett said he had a change of heart and rescinded the recall papers he had filed for the replacement of Johnson. Pritchett said Johnson’s decision on rehiring Boldt to work for the city in September is what fueled his initial decision to file the paperwork, he said.

Boldt was Little Rock’s finance director from 1996 to 2000.

Arkansas, Pages 20 on 12/25/2013

Upcoming Events