CONWAY -- The Faulkner County Election Commission ruled Thursday that Tim Ryals meets residency requirements to serve as Faulkner County sheriff if he is elected to the position.
The vote was 3-0, with no discussion other than comments made by Chairman Paul Foster and a public reading from county attorney David Hogue's memorandum recommending that decision.
All three candidates for the Republican nomination for sheriff -- Ryals, Rocky Lawrence and Joe Taylor, who filed the complaint -- were present. The winner of the race will face Democrat Wefus Tyus Jr. in November.
Foster called all three candidates "gentlemen and honest," and said he had asked Taylor to file the complaint after Taylor called him to report concerns that he and others had about whether Ryals lives in Faulkner County or Cleburne County.
Foster said that way they'd put the rumors to rest. Now, he said, there shouldn't be any more rumors about Ryals' residency.
Hogue's memorandum, dated Thursday, noted that Ryals says he lives on Hoyt Drive in Conway and is a registered voter in Faulkner County.
"Furthermore, he assessed his personal property in Faulkner County for 2016," Hogue wrote. "He claims ownership of, and maintains a homestead exemption on, a residential property at 22 Hoyt Drive."
Hogue referred to some text messages that Taylor had mentioned in his complaint and said they might "give rise to questions."
Hogue said the only record to suggest anything other than residence is the Faulkner County assessor's record, which showed that Ryals assessed in Faulkner County on April 24, 2015, then had his assessment sent to Cleburne County, but moved it back to Faulkner County in October 2015.
"Even with this, Mr. Ryals' homestead, personal property and voter registration seems to be well-established in Faulkner County," Hogue said.
"I have always been in the right," Ryals said after the commission's ruling. "I have been a resident here for 25 years."
Ryals said he and his wife, Wendy, built a home at Greers Ferry Lake, and to cut other expenses, they moved out of a house on Hoyt Drive about 1½ years ago and into an apartment on property he owns next door.
Taylor said the apartment is a shop.
In his complaint, Taylor wrote that he met with Ryals in October about the issue and that Ryals told him he had moved to Cleburne County but that "when the opportunity to run for sheriff opened up, he moved into some in-laws quarters."
Ryals said Thursday that the apartment is what some people call "mother-in-law quarters," an apartment next to the larger home, but that his mother-in-law does not live in the apartment.
State Desk on 02/12/2016