By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Votes cast for two candidates for Forrest City municipal offices will not be counted, a judge has ruled.
Circuit Judge Harvey Yates, ruling today, stated that any ballots cast for city council candidates Bobby Ray Woodard and Clifton Avant could not be counted.
The City of Forrest City had filed suit to get the two men tossed from the ballot. It is too late to get them tossed from the physical ballot, but any votes cast for them may not be counted.
At issue was an apparent conflict between two state statutes dealing with the filing periods for municipal offices where all of the candidates are independent.
One statute states that a city council may pass an ordinance making the last day for filing as an independent candidate at noon on the day before the preferential primary.
The other statute gives independent candidates a window of 60-80 days before the general election.
Incumbents John Gadberry and Roy Hancock filed during both periods. Both Gadberry and Hancock drew opposition from Woodard and Avant, who both filed during the second period only. There is another candidate, Henry Peacock, who filed during the first period only, opposing Hancock.
It was argued by the city that the ordinance passed by the city council naming the filing deadline should be upheld. Defendants, which included Woodard and Avant, the St. Francis County Clerk and the county Election Commission, argued that since both filing periods are on the books and neither has been repealed, all candidates should be allowed to run.
It was also argued that the law allowing the city ordinance is contingent on the city having a party primary election.
In his opinion, Yates wrote that, "the authority to pass (the filing deadline ordinance) and have it valid and effective is not contingent on the city having a party primary election for the municipal offices."
Yates also wrote that "it is too late and not economically feasible to remove the names from the ballots," and directs that "the St. Francis County Clerk and election Commission to not count any ballots for Bobby Ray Woodard and Clinton Avant."
There was a possibility that Yates could have upheld the second filing period of 60-80 days before the election. That would have made Peacock ineligible.
A ruling in favor of the 60-80 day window would have also had a major impact on the mayor's race. Incumbent Larry Bryant and challenger Chris Oswalt had filed during both periods. Challengers Frederick Freeman and Bill Baxter filed during the first filing period, set by ordinance. The judge's upholding of that ordinance leaves all four as candidates.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The Forrest City City Council heard second and third reading on, and passed without discussion, two ordinances requested by Forrest City Bank. One rezoned an area next to the bank from residential to commercial, and the other vacated an alley on the same property.
The council then went into executive session for about an hour and a half, to discuss the suspension of two police officers. Police Chief Clarence McNeary had ordered the suspension after the two allegedly used excessive force on a man in custody.
The officers appealed the suspension. After the executive session it was revealed that the council had voted 4-3 to overturn the suspension. However, a two-thirds majority was needed to overturn, so the suspensions were upheld.
Jerry Roberts, attorney for the officers, requested that the suspensions be enforced as soon as possible. McNeary said he would check the work schedule.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
In a meeting that included accusations of improper activity, and comments on a variety of election practices, St. Francis County Quorum Court members unanimously approved a budget for the Nov. 5 election.
Members of the St. Francis County Election Commission appeared before the quorum court Tuesday night to answer questions on bills for printing ballots and a number of other issues. According to commission chairman Joe Young, the commission is working to make sure that all of the information that the state needs to reimburse the county for the primary and runoff elections has been submitted. Young said the commission has sent the information through registered mail, but responses from the State Election Commission reveal that organization has not received the material.
"We've sent the information off on the primary and the runoff elections, and we have the receipts to prove that we've sent it off. There have been some problems at the state level because Mrs. Susie Stormes has repeatedly said that she has not received all of our information. I don't know what's going on over there, but evidently the woman has a vendetta out against us or something. She even made comments in a letter that she had never seen such flagrant violations of election laws as were seen in St. Francis County. We're working as hard as we can on this, but we've got to have some cooperation," Young said.
Commission members answered the questions on the cost of ballots for the primary election by saying that the bill, which was originally $22,000, was being trimmed to $11,000 by the ballot printing company, ES&S which is based in Omaha, Neb. Election coordinator Judy Armstrong told justices that she was unsure how many ballots were ordered for the May primary.
According to an invoice from Election Systems and Software, Inc. of Omaha, Neb., charges were accumulated for 18,595 at a cost of $1 per ballot. The total cost for ballots was $22,123.37. There are 16,429 registered voters in St. Francis County. Election commissioner Bettye Procter told justices that the commission may have ordered too many so that they would be sure to have enough ballots for the election.
"It would be better to have too many ballots than to not have enough, which is a problem that we've run into before. We talk like the only problems with the election are in St. Francis County or with the election commission. The books for the election weren't right, and that made it harder on us. They are having problems in several counties, like Crittenden, Desha, Pulaski and Baxter, but you all just hear about us," Proctor said.
Justice Evans Seawood took umbrage with the commission when Young couldn't answer questions over election information. Seawood accused both Proctor and St. Francis County Clerk Elizabeth Smith of interferring with the election which made Armstrong's job more difficult.
"I am the person that said that the election commission is running on autopilot, and I won't back down from it. I think that the commission is being dictated to, and that's keeping Mrs. Armstrong from getting the job done. I've gotten complaints that Mrs. Elizabeth Smith is doing things that she shouldn't be doing, and I'm also hearing that Mrs. Proctor is doing things that she shouldn't be doing. I've heard that Mrs. Armstrong is a good woman and a good worker and that she's being held back by Mrs. Proctor and Mrs. Smith. If you (the commission) expect the county to pay for stuff, we need some cooperation from you all," said Seawood.
Proctor answered Seawood's comments. "This commission has had a lot of help running the elections that we didn't need. The redistricting caused us all kinds of problems with the books, and that wasn't our fault. We didn't want the redistricting, but it was something that had to be done. We're talking about bills that everyone in the county has seen except me. I don't get much mail that is sent to the courthouse, but when I do get it, it's been opened and everything else," Proctor said.
"This commission is one of the most important in this courthouse, because we make sure that the elections are held and that you all are elected properly," she said.
Justices voted to approve a budget of $18,406.93 for the November election.
Arkansas education officials say students at 47 schools that the state Education Department has tentatively identified as needing improvement should be allowed to transfer to better schools.
None of those schools are located in St. Francis County.
Schools were to be informed by Federal Express Monday, and the information was released to the public Tuesday.
"I was told that we should not expect a letter," said Forrest City School Superintendent Lee Vent. "I met with other administration officials and conveyed the good word to them. We're certainly relieved."
Jimmy Allen superintendent of the Palestine-Wheatley School district, and Dr. Randy Crowder, superintendent of the Hughes School District, could not be reached for comment this morning.
The identified schools have a month to appeal to the state Education Department if they don't think they belong on a list of schools needing improvement.
The letters sent by the Education Department to 26 superintendents informed them that they must offer students at the affected schools the option of enrolling elsewhere, though priority is given to poor students if it's not possible to accommodate everyone. Arkansas has 1,100 public schools.
Students at the schools will be eligible to transfer beginning next semester or they can get tutoring from an outside source -- all at their school district's expense.
Those identified as needing improvement include 28 elementary schools and 19 middle or high schools.
Schools in the first year of school improvement under federal guidelines must offer students the option of enrolling elsewhere at their school district's expense. Schools in the second year of improvement must offer the choice to attend another school in the district as well as supplemental services, such as tutoring, to poor children.
Twenty of the elementary schools are in the first year of improvement, as are 16 of the high schools.
The department based its decision on 1998-99 or 1999-2000 standardized test results. It sent letters to the affected districts by overnight mail late Monday.
Each school has until Nov. 15 to appeal to the department. Those that remain classified as needing improvement must tell parents of their options.
The state action is the result of President Bush's No Child Left Behind proposal that Congress approved last year. The U.S. Department of Education identified more than 8,600 schools last summer -- none in Arkansas -- as needing improvement because of chronically low test scores. The chronically low scores mean students become eligible to transfer elsewhere.
Schools identified as needing improvement can be removed based on progress measured by benchmark exams given in the state, starting with next year's administration of those tests.
If the schools don't improve over time, the penalties become harsher, leading to removal of teachers or state takeover of the schools.
Arkansas education officials initially believed that none of the state's low-performing schools would have to be identified until the end of this school year. That was because Arkansas was changing its accountability system and phasing out its reliance on the nationally standardized Stanford test as a way to evaluate schools.
But federal officials insisted in August that the state identify schools based on the Stanford results.
This month, federal officials announced that Arkansas is to receive $2.3 million in grant money as part of the No Child Left Behind education plan. The money is to be used to help the state expand public school choice programs to allow students to transfer from low-performing to high-performing schools.
By TAMARA JOHNSON
Managing Editor
A Forrest City man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of a retired school teacher earlier this year.
Prince Lee Banks, 20, 1816 W. Broadway, Forrest City, pled guilty to first-degree murder Monday during a hearing at the St. Francis County Courthouse.
Banks, who killed Althema Griggs, 62, at her home on Brandon Street on Jan. 25, was originally charged with capital murder.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Morledge said the capital murder charge was reduced to first-degree murder after Banks agreed to plead guilty to that charge and receive the maximum sentence of life in prison. Another part of Banks' plea agreement was that he agree to receive the maximum sentence on several previous charges including aggravated robbery, commercial burglary and arson, according to Morledge.
Because Banks was on probation at the time of the murder, he had two revocation matters before the court, and both of those were nolle prosequi, according to Morledge. On two commercial burglary charges, Banks received the maximum 10-year sentence.
He received a 20-year sentence for an aggravated robbery at the Shell Superstop, and the maximum 20-year sentence for the arson charge involving Griggs' murder.
According to court documents, Griggs was stabbed and strangled inside her home which is belived to have been set on fire the next morning.
Morledge said that even though Banks received a life sentence for murder, he was also sentenced on the other charges because that action is designed to make it more difficult for a governor to commute a prisoner's sentence. A commutation is the only way Banks would be eligible for parole, according to Morledge.
"We were going to seek the death penalty if he hadn't agreed to the plea carrying the maximum sentences," Morledge said.