City directors draw challengers

Candidates for 2 Fort Smith posts oppose water rate rise

FORT SMITH -- All four candidates running for the city director Ward 2 and 4 positions said at a recent forum that they would oppose raising water rates to pay for needed improvements to the system.

Three of the four candidates in the forum -- Andre Good, Bruce Wade and George Catsavis -- blamed the Board of Directors or staff for not keeping the system in repair as needs arose but waiting until they couldn't be ignored any longer.

Catsavis, who is running for re-election in Ward 4, which covers southeast Fort Smith, accused the city staff of not informing directors that a problem needed addressing and blindsiding them years later.

"The more we continue to push stuff off and wait, the more it builds up on future generations," said Good, the Ward 2 incumbent director. "So I'm not in favor of raising rates."

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Wade, Good's challenger in Ward 2, said worrying about raising water rates would not be an issue if city officials had kept up with maintaining the water system as problems arose.

Ward 2 covers north Fort Smith.

City directors earlier this month balked at approving more than $123 million worth of water system improvements in a five-year capital improvement plan because city staff couldn't say whether Fort Smith had enough money to pay for the improvements.

Neal Martin, Catsavis' opponent in the election, said he opposed raising water rates and didn't know if he could trust that Catsavis would keep his word and not vote against a water rate increase if he remained in office.

After all, Martin said, Catsavis voted last year to enter into a consent decree with the federal government to fix the city's wastewater system, one that has been a violator of federal and state pollution laws for decades.

The city agreed in the consent decree to eliminate the violations over a 12-year period or face sanctions such as daily fines. The improvements have been estimated to cost the city $480 million.

To raise the money, directors passed an ordinance to institute three sewer system rate increases that Martin said has more than doubled his monthly sewer bill. The third rate increase goes into effect Jan. 1.

Catsavis said he has never voted for a tax or utility increase during his six years on the board except for the consent decree. He said directors had no choice but to sign the decree. The alternative would have been a court battle.

"If we went into litigation, we would have been a lot worse off," he said.

Martin said he did not believe directors had enough time to digest the 200-page consent decree before agreeing to a document that will affect generations of residents.

"I think we really need to think hard about who we want making that decision on the next go-around," he said. "I want to be the guy that makes that decision."

On other issues, the candidates' views differed little. The city needs to be more business-friendly and diverse, they said. Fort Smith needs to be marketed better to attract new business and industry. Develop the riverfront, pay city employees better, provide more amenities to make Fort Smith more livable and keep young people from moving away, they said.

Wade said more effort should be made to revive long-idle industrial sites and shabby commercial buildings in north Fort Smith, and ways should be found to bring together the different cultures that make up Fort Smith.

Catsavis said Fort Smith has just as much infrastructure as Northwest Arkansas, and even though it doesn't have industries such as Wal-Mart, Tyson or J.B. Hunt, its central location in the country gives it potential for growth.

"We have a river system, we have an airport in our backyard," he said. "There's no reason business can't come here."

Good told the 30 people at the League of Women Voters forum that directors can't govern the city alone. Residents must get involved and tell directors the direction they want the city to go. Directors can't govern effectively without that input, he said.

"If you're not communicating with us, we can't properly communicate with our leadership [city staff]," Good said.

City directors serve four-year terms. The positions pay $1,000 a year with a $400 monthly car allowance.

Catsavis, 62, is a lifelong resident of Fort Smith, a 1973 Southside High School graduate and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He has been in the restaurant business for nearly 40 years in Fort Smith.

Good, 51, has worked 24 years with FedEx as a dispatch operations manager for the Razorback District. He has served as a city director since 2008. He is a Leadership Fort Smith alumnus and served on the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, the Bost Human Development Center board of directors and the Fort Smith Adult Education Advisory Council.

Martin, 40, was born and raised in Fort Smith and graduated from Southside High School and the University of Arkansas. He moved to Kansas City, Mo., to work with DST Systems before moving back to Fort Smith, where he manages a team of software managers for Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care.

Wade, 63, is a retired business owner from Houston who moved to Fort Smith in 2002. He is president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Association.

State Desk on 10/24/2016

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