FORT SMITH -- All eight of the annexation ordinances on the Greenwood general election ballot were voided by an Oct. 9 order by Sebastian County Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh, the judge clarified Friday.
He said in a brief hearing requested by the county Election Commission that when he wrote in his order Oct. 9 that the ordinances would not be on Tuesday's election ballot, "I intended that to mean all of the ordinances."
Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue requested the hearing to clarify Fitzhugh's ruling because it was issued as a result of challenges to the annexation election that were filed in circuit court by owners of only two of those eight parcels -- the Shadow Lake Property Owners Association for one parcel and Shirley Walters for another.
In response to two other questions from Shue -- whether the votes should be counted since the annexation ordinances already were on the ballot and whether any votes counted should be certified -- Fitzhugh said he did not mind that the votes were counted and reported to the public but that they would not be certified by the Election Commission.
"It can't be certified," Shadow Lake attorney Don Smith said. "It's like multiplying by zero. It's a nullity."
Shue brought up the question of counting and reporting the votes on election night, he wrote in a letter Wednesday to Fitzhugh, because the votes were being tabulated electronically. It would not be possible before the election to reprogram the computers by Tuesday not to count any annexation ordinance votes cast, he wrote.
Shue told Fitzhugh on Friday that there was a way election officials might be able to exclude any Greenwood annexation votes. Fitzhugh said that because he voided the ordinances, it was irrelevant whether they were counted.
Election Commission Chairman Lee Webb said after the hearing that the commission would not try to prevent the annexation ordinances from being counted.
Fitzhugh ruled in a hearing Oct. 8 that the ordinances were void because they resulted from a violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Greenwood City Attorney Mike Hamby testified at the hearing that he visited individually with each of the city's council members about how the annexation ordinance the council was considering, and later passed, should be constructed.
Fitzhugh ruled that Hamby contacting the individual council members outside of a meeting violated the open meetings provision of the act.
Metro on 11/01/2014