Despite numerous requests for notification, the St. Francis County Election Commission continues to hold meetings without notifying the Times-Herald.
Such was the case this morning when commissioners met at the St. Francis County Courthouse, in violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, to discuss the school election scheduled for next month.
Having learned of the meeting by another source, a reporter did attend the meeting after it was in session.
Commission members apologized and said they simply "forgot" to inform the media.
Following up on several past meetings in which the newspaper discovered after the fact that the meetings had occurred, commissioners were asked to notify the newspaper prior to any future meetings. The commission has yet to notify the newspaper of these meetings.
The Arkansas Secretary of State's office this morning supported the newspaper's stance that notification prior to such meetings is required and referred to a section of Arkansas Election Laws. Such laws require election commissions to notify the public of meetings and those meetings are similar to those of city council and school boards in that if two commissioners meet to discuss business, the public shall be notified.
The law states, "Any meeting of two or more county board of election commissioners when official business is conducted shall be public and held pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act."
The Arkansas FOI states, in regard to public meetings, "Where committee of a state board meets to transact business, such meeting is a public meeting...and a newspaper reporter must be permitted to attend."
As for meeting notification, the FOI also requires that the time and place of each regular meeting shall be furnished to anyone who requests the information. The law continues, "In the event of emergency or special meetings, the person calling the meeting shall notify the representatives of the newspapers...located in the county in which the meeting is to be held...which have requested to be so notified. Notification shall be made at least two hours before the meeting takes place in order that the public shall have representatives at the meeting."
Commission business discussed after the reporter arrived included two races that have developed in the Palestine-Wheatley School District. There are no contested races in the Forrest City or Hughes districts.
In Palestine-Wheatley Zone 4, incumbent Ronnie Crider faces a challenge from write-in Charley McGowan. Also, in Zone 6, incumbent John Henry Parker is being challenged by write-in Phyllis Autry.
In the Forrest City district, Rev. Ronald Williams is unchallenged to retain his Position 3 seat, as is Gordon McCoy to retain his Position 4 seat.
In Hughes, incumbent Bobby Allison is unopposed for Zone 1.
No millage increases are being asked in the county, but the existing millages must appear on the ballots of their respective districts.
McGowan was also at the meeting, and said many people who vote at Palestine during the school elections have to vote at Pine Tree during general elections. He said that works a hardship on some people.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The Madison City Council will meet in special session Monday to discuss problems noted in an audit of the city's books for 1999.
Councilmen questioned the audit's findings during the group's regular meeting Monday night, but determined those matters should be addressed in a separate meeting.
"What was the problem with the audit? They can't determine what was in the bank anyway," Councilman Oscar Brown said, referring to a section of the audit where auditors were unable to agree on the ending balance for the city court account due to the lack of cash generally being maintained by the court clerk.
Court clerk Earnestein Broadway said the problems in this account began under a different administration and cannot be sorted out due to problems with record keeping at that time.
"From the very beginning, before the mayor (current Mayor James Brooks) came, there was money in the court account for which they could not give an account as to where the money was going because the records were not kept properly. We get that every year because it stems back to before Ms. (Charlene) Sykes took over office. So, they can't tell where the money is because there are no records that tell where the money is," said Broadway.
Brown also read a section from the audit stating that the recorder/treasurer did not maintain detailed fixed assets records as required by Arkansas codes.
Madison recorder/treasurer Ennie Hardrick said that information also was due to poor record keeping in the past. "That goes back to all the old trucks and so forth that are out there that I wouldn't know where they are because I wasn't recorder/treasurer when those were purchased. Some of them we don't have records for. Everything that the city has purchased since I became recorder/treasurer is properly recorded," she said.
Brooks assured council members that if the city had been out of compliance in accordance with state laws, city officers would have been called to Little Rock to explain those problems.
Council members still voted for the special meeting to discuss the audit and several other issues. Several councilmen based their votes for the special meeting due to the lack of time councilmen have had recently to discuss city business. Councilmen were referring to the recent implementation of a speaker's bureau to council meetings.
"I think that we should have a called meeting because every meeting we have, we have somebody here that takes up the time while we're here and we're not able to talk about issues on Madison that we need to talk about," said Winfrey.
In other business, councilmen passed a resolution closing the grant process on a $25,000 grant the city recently received for the purchase of a fire truck. According to Brooks, the final stages of receiving the grant should be finalized this week.
"Mr. Stephen Lagasse with the Rural Development Council is going to be in here Wednesday, and he wanted us to pass this resolution in their format for their paperwork. You all passed basically the same resolution last month but they needed it in this wording," said Brooks.
Brooks also told the council that due to RDC regulations, the fire truck would have to be purchased within 90 days or the $25,000 would have to be returned.
Those stipulations caused the issue of where the new truck would be housed to come up. According to Brooks, there isn't a location that would adequately house both Madison fire trucks and an additional bay may be needed on the existing fire department. Brown questioned Brooks regarding property that was recently purchased by the city which was supposed to be used as the fire department.
"Why can't we use the property that we bought for a fire department. I thought that's what the new building was supposed to be for?" Brown said.
Brooks explained to council members that the trucks would have to be housed in buildings that could be kept warm during the winter months and the building the city purchased would not adequately do that.
By CRYSTAL HOLLIS
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City Public Library will be open to the public once again starting today. However, patrons will not be able to check out materials until circulation information can be retrieved from a crashed computer's hard drive.
The library's computer server crashed last month, and when the server was up and running again, library employees discovered they had lost all the information from the hard drive, and there was no backup saved.
DeShaun Roberts, co-director of the library, informed board members at Monday's meeting that contracting a company to retrieve the lost information from the hard drive, if it could be done, would be a costly one.
"I have been calling recovery services to find out what the chances were and prices of recovering data off the hard drive, and I have been really shocked that they say there is an 85 to 90 percent chance of being able to recover the data off the hard drive," said Roberts.
Roberts told the board members about three recovery companies and their prices.
"First they do an evaluation, and there is a fee for that," she said. "Then there is the cost of retrieving the data, if it can be found."
Roberts said there were different options and time frames for possibly recovering the data and informed them of the high-end and low-end costs.
"The second company I talked with (Excaliber) said they do an evaluation within two to three days and it's $300 to do the evaluation, and that is waived if they can do the recovery and that ranges from $900 to $5,500."
Roberts also said that Excaliber told her they had never seen the cost of the recovery come up to the high end.
The board decided to send the hard drive to Excaliber by taking the $300 evaluation fee out of the library's memorial account. Board members hope to find out what the evaluation will show by the end of this week.
According to board member Brad Beavers, "When our only option is to start over with a complete inventory, we've got to at least try it," he said.
The board also decided to have the company only retrieve the information about circulation, if it can be retrieved.
"They said we can ask for specific files," Roberts said.
Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant attended the meeting and asked Roberts what kind of backup they were using in the past.
Roberts said, "Tape backup, and we were told they were not formatted. There are two of them that have dates on there, but there is no information on there, the tapes have been lost," she said.
Roberts acknowledged she hadn't known how to save the information from the hard drive on backup. "I probably should have been going through and making sure the backups were done but I didn't know how to do that and I was never told to do that, so we were all kinda just left with that. I thought it was backing up everyday."
Mayor Bryant recommended that the library employees do a double backup on CD and tape if and when the information from the hard drive is recovered.
Even if the circulation information can be retrieved, the library employees will still have to inventory the materials in the library. Board member and Assistant Forrest City School Superintendent, Alice Barnes, told members the library can use the school's two inventory machines.
The library will have to close again when it is time to inventory the books.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Widener city officials and a resident are working out a compromise concerning the property lines of land he has purchased and how those relate to some city streets.
Larry White, a former mayor, purchased some property within the city limits, had it surveyed and discovered that several city streets encroach on his land. The city has not challenged the findings of the survey. The streets involved are Third, Fourth, Grant and Tyler.
"To some extent, and I don't know how much, I think there is a discrepancy between the survey for his property lines and where the city streets actually are," said City Attorney Bill Snowden, who also mentioned where the compromise might come in. "What we have discussed is a situation at Tyler and Grant where people have been cutting across the corner, getting off the pavement, and getting on private property. That is the situation we need to look at and see the extent of the problem."
Snowden said he did not foresee the city moving its streets. "What I do see is making some sort of arrangements to keep traffic on the streets and off of private property. That is our biggest concern and rightfully so. I don't know what it will take to fix the situation, and that's something the council needs to look at."
"I think we should just go down and look at it," said Mayor Dot Halford.
The entire meeting adjourned to the property in question. After some discussion, it was worked out that White would deed to the city about five feet on one of the streets. In return, the city will make provisions to keep vehicles off White's property at Grant and Tyler.
"It's kind of a swap," Snowden said.
The meeting reconvened at city hall and a motion to that effect was passed unanimously. The surveyor who did the work will be asked to draw up a legal description of the property, at the city's expense.
On another matter, Halford said the city's second annual King Cotton Day is set for Saturday, Sept. 15.
"We're going to have more games for the kids this time," said Halford. "We also want to have a talent show this time."
She said there are also plans for an arm wrestling contest. There will be trophies for the arm wrestling, and cash prizes to be announced later for the talent contest.
On another matter, the council passed a resolution approving the city's request for a grant from the state Department of Parks and Tourism. The $20,000 grant is for a new city park. Halford said she believed the city could provide an "in-kind" match for the money with local labor.
The park, which will be adjacent to the city's soon-to-be-built civic center, will have playground equipment, a basketball court and a pavilion, with hopes of adding more later.
A children's dream catcher workshop is planned at Village Creek State Park on Saturday, Aug. 18. During the workshop, children will learn the history of the dream catching craft and make one to take home.
A $1 fee will be charged per person, and preregistration is required.
For more information, contact Village Creek State Park at 870-238-9406.