Mayor Butch Berry sent notifications to Eureka Springs City Council on March 13 that he vetoed a unanimous vote by council that, “The City Council give the hospital commission two weeks to make changes to their membership and their administration or else the City Council will start removing commissioners.”
Since November, the hospital commission and city council have been fielding numerous complaints from present and former Eureka Springs Hospital employees that they have been harassed, bullied and fired without justification or notification as a result of the actions by Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Ashbury and Jodi Edmondson, who was HR director before being promoted to CEO after the firings of former CEO Angie Shaw and former Chief Nursing Officer Jessica Petrino in early November.
The following letter from Berry was sent to the council:
City Clerk Meyer, please file this veto in accordance with Arkansas law (Ark. Code Ann. § 14-43-504(d)(1)(B)(i)) and please present and provide the filed veto to the Eureka Springs City Council at the next regular meeting of the City Council.
This is a veto of an Order made by the Eureka Springs City Council during its regular meeting on March 12, 2024. Specifically, I hereby veto the Order resulting from the Motion of the City Council to give the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission two weeks to make changes to their membership and the Eureka Springs Hospital administration, or the City Council would remove hospital commissioners.
Reasons for veto:
I am making this veto because the Order is an inappropriate attempt to force the Eureka Springs Hospital Commissioners to give up their power and duty to manage the operation, management and control of the hospital. The Order would force the Hospital Commissioners to ascertain and adopt the will of the Eureka Springs City Council when faced with decisions on how best to perform their duty to manage, maintain and control the operations of the hospital.
I am also vetoing the order because it contains an inappropriate threat to remove hospital commissioners if they fail to institute the will of the Eureka Springs City Council within two weeks.
This Order of the Eureka Springs City Council would wrest control of the operations of the hospital by the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission and place it under the control of the City Council. If this motion is allowed to stand it would lead to negative ramifications on not only the costs to the hospital but also the city.
That, along with the threat to remove the hospital commissioners for the sole reason of failing to make the changes desired by the City Council are inconsistent with the Arkansas law which specifically speaks to the powers and duties of the hospital commission, as well as the power of the City Council to remove them. For these reasons, I hereby veto the Order.
I intend to request that the Eureka Spring Hospital Commission provide the City Council with reporting specific to the City Council’s concerns and for that reporting to be made as soon as possible but not later than the regular meeting of the City Council on April 14, 2025.
I have included below copies of the Arkansas Code sections containing the relevant state law which establishes the basis for my position and veto below.
Respectfully submitted,
Mayor Robert “Butch” Berry
One of the ordinances quoted states: “(a) The commissioners shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a majority vote of the elected and qualified members of the city council and shall hold office for a term of five (5) years.” And, “(b) In the event of a vacancy occurring on the commission, it shall be filled by appointment by the mayor, subject to the approval of a majority vote of the duly elected and qualified members of the city council.”
However, city council was not asked to vote on confirming the newest member of the hospital commission.
Ark. Code Ann. §14-264-103
(a) The commissioners shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a majority vote of the elected and qualified members of the city council and shall hold office for a term of five (5) years; however, those commissioners first appointed and confirmed after the passage of this chapter shall serve for terms of one (1), two (2), three (3), four (4), and five (5) years each, to be designated by the mayor and city council. Thereafter, upon the expiration of their respective terms, commissioners appointed by the mayor and approved by a majority vote of the city council shall each be appointed for a term of five (5) years.
(b) In the event of a vacancy occurring on the commission, it shall be filled by appointment by the mayor, subject to the approval of a majority vote of the duly elected and qualified members of the city council.
(c) Each commissioner shall file the oath required of public officials by law in the State of Arkansas.
(d) Upon the appointment of the commissioners as provided in this section, the mayor and city council shall execute such instruments and enact such measures as may be necessary to vest complete charge of the municipally owned or operated hospital in the commissioners.
(e) The city council may require bond of the commissioners, in its discretion, for the faithful performance of their duties.
(f) Any commissioner appointed by the provisions of this chapter may be removed for cause upon a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the elected and qualified members of the city council.
Ark. Code Ann. §14-264-104
(a) The commissioners appointed pursuant to this chapter shall have full and complete authority to manage, operate, maintain, and keep in a good state of repair the municipal hospital. They shall have full and complete charge of the building, with the power to handle it as the commissioners shall see fit and deem to be in the best interests of the city.
(b) The commissioners shall have the right to employ or remove managers and all other employees of whatsoever nature, kind, or character and to fix, regulate, and pay their salaries, wages, or other compensation since it is the intention of this chapter to vest in the commissioners the authority to operate, manage, maintain, and control the municipal hospital and to have full and complete charge of it, including the same discretionary powers afforded to the boards of trustees of benevolent or nonprofit corporations in this state; however, the commissioners shall not have the authority or power to sell, mortgage, or encumber the municipal hospital unless otherwise authorized by the statutes of Arkansas.