CAVE SPRINGS -- The treasurer said she won't resign after being locked out of city business amid a squabble with the mayor.
Mayor Travis Lee sent Kimberly Hutcheson home last week. Hutcheson was appointed to the elected position of treasurer/recorder in October 2015.
City Council Meeting
The next regular Cave Springs City Council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the American Legion Building.
Source: Staff report
"It's about work place harassment and discrimination," Lee said Tuesday. "It's something that we're trying to stop from happening. I can't fire her or reduce her pay, but I can send her home."
Hutcheson said Wednesday she didn't intend to upset fellow city employees.
"If I have hurt somebody's feelings because I didn't say good morning to them, I apologize to them," she said.
Hutcheson said she was sent home Sept. 1.
Mark Hayes, director of legal services for the Arkansas Municipal League, said Thursday he couldn't answer questions about the legality of Lee's actions because he's representing the city in the matter. Hayes said Lee contacted his office Sept. 2, and his office has received multiple calls from Hutcheson. Hayes said he returned Lee's call Tuesday, but hasn't spoken to Hutcheson.
"They are in the process of working things out, and I anticipate that they will," he said.
No similar dispute, to her knowledge, has gone all the way to court since the 1990s, said Barbara Blackard, president of the Arkansas City Clerks, Recorders and Treasurers Association. Blackard is the city clerk and treasurer of Clarksville in Johnson County.
That earlier dispute was between the mayor and the city treasurer in the east Arkansas' Gillett, she said. The case ended in a court ruling in the treasurer's favor and her reinstatement, but whether the same ruling would result today could depend on the particulars of the Cave Springs case or changes in the law since the first ruling, Blackard said. The then-treasurer in Gillett had been appointed to the office also, Blackard said.
The Cave Springs City Council held a special meeting Tuesday night that Lee didn't attend because his father died Monday. Councilman Jay Finch, a former circuit judge, presided over the meeting and later explained why Hutcheson was sent home.
"There were numerous complaints that she was behaving unprofessionally," Finch said Wednesday. "She had several meetings with the mayor to sort out the things that were going on and nothing ever changed."
Hutcheson has been a source of friction among city employees, Finch said.
"She was very mean to employees. She had them scared to death," he said.
Lee also has blocked Hutcheson from online city activity.
Hutcheson said legally Lee cannot shut her out because the City Council hasn't made a decision to relieve her of her duties. The council could strip Hutcheson of her treasurer duties and assign those duties to him, Lee said. Hutcheson contends no one can act in the treasurer's place, not even the mayor.
A city ordinance that amended the treasurer's duties and requirements and was notarized Aug. 12, 2015, states with adherence to Arkansas Municipal Accounting Law, the city accounting duties can be removed from the treasurer and performed by a designee of the mayor until one person or more is hired to fulfill those duties. Lee and Hutcheson's signatures appear on the ordinance. Hutcheson's signature was that of recorder, the position she held until she was appointed to her current job.
Hutcheson said at Tuesday's council meeting she plans to ask for a state audit into the city's bookkeeping. Hutcheson alleges someone has been making changes to the city's QuickBooks, a program used to manage city finances.
Marti Steel, deputy legislative auditor for Arkansas Legislative Audit, said Thursday a regularly scheduled audit, which can be done either one year or two years at a time, last was done in Cave Springs in 2014, and she doesn't know of a request for another audit outside the regularly scheduled audit. The next scheduled audit would be years 2015 and 2016.
Steel said if a city official was suspicious of impropriety with city finances, that official could either contact a prosecutor or contact her office directly.
"If the city official called me and said there was something going on, we would listen to them and make a determination of what we need to do," Steel said.
Judd Deere, communications director for Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, said he couldn't comment on the legality of Lee sending Hutcheson home.
Hutcheson will run unopposed for a four-year term as treasurer/recorder in the Nov. 8 general election.
Hutcheson said she cannot be fired by the City Council because she's an elected official. Lee agreed.
"They can relieve you of your duties, but not terminate you," Hutcheson said. "If you're relieved of your duties that means you can't come to work and do your job, but you still get paid."
Hutcheson said the allegations Lee and Finch have made against her are "hearsay," and city employees are too scared to speak the truth.
"It's Travis who's got them scared for the simple fact that they're going to lose their jobs," Hutcheson said. "We need a mediator so employees can talk to them on neutral ground and not be intimidated by whoever they're speaking to. We don't have a city attorney we can go to at this time for legal counsel."
R. Justin Eichmann said he resigned as city attorney because he and Lee differed on what direction the city should take.
Lee said Tuesday Eichmann will continue to represent the city until a replacement is found, but Eichmann said he's done working for Cave Springs and no longer represents the city in any capacity.
Eichmann told Lee in his resignation letter he decided to resign after a recent conversation they had about annexation, referring to a recent Bentonville move to annex 24 acres from the northern island of Cave Springs. Lee explained Rogers cut through Cave Springs around 2006, turning the city into two islands.
Lee said he had hired another attorney to fight the annexation because the law firm Eichmann works for, Harrington Miller, represents several cities including Bentonville.
"We're going to appeal to circuit court and Justin couldn't represent us," Lee said. "We're going to need to get a full-time attorney. I don't think he can do that because he's representing other cities."
Eichmann said Harrington Miller doesn't represent Bentonville and only represents smaller cities, and while his colleagues represented other cities, the only city he represented was Cave Springs.
Robert Smittle, a long-time resident, laments the friction in the city.
"Our community is in the biggest turmoil it's been in since I moved here in 1968-69," Smittle said. "We've had more problems right now than we've ever had."
NW News on 09/10/2016