The majority of Eureka Springs City Council’s Feb. 10 meeting was spent voting on a new member with nearly 30 minutes spent in executive session and then moving to ranked choice voting to elect the new alderman. The new alderman fills Ward 1, Position 1, formerly held by Autumn Slane, that was to be held by Mike Welch in an unopposed election. Welch was unable to legally serve due to a 50-year-old felony marijuana possession conviction in California.
Ranked choice voting works where aldermen rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins on the first vote, the candidate with the fewest first rank preference votes is dropped, and voters’ second choice votes are then added to each remaining candidate’s total votes. In the case of city council, the cutoff to win the seat would be a quorum of four votes.
Initially, City Attorney Forrest Jacobi explained how ranked choice voting functions for aldermen. Mayor Butch Berry mistakenly called out the wrong candidate as the winner, but after asking Jacobi to check that votes had been tallied correctly, announced that candidate Rachael Moyer was to sit in the council seat.
Alderman Terry McClung asked that council receive further clarification from the state on how ranked choice voting works. “I understand it’s a different process but it’s not a process I favor. That’s all.” Berry said that he did not think that council had ever voted an alderman in with this process.
Moyer was sworn in and took her seat at the table.
Council then had a sewer and water update from Public Works Director Simon Wiley, who said that a recent shipment of UV lights and ballast arrived with at least half of the contents broken, so they had sent the package back. He said he would be meeting with McClelland Engineering to discuss the designs for the new plant and that he would have Act 605 information ready for council at the next meeting. Act 605 requires a water/sewer rate study every 5 years, or before any major development project, and implementation of those recommended rates within 1 year or 2 years if the rate increase would be over 50 percent.
Wiley also said that during heavy rains, water was running over the curbs in that area of the plant. McClung said the area had been torn up and supposedly fixed several years ago, but Wiley and Berry said that the drains were too small and would need to be replaced. Wiley said he would apply for a grant to do the work.
Wiley also said he was getting emergency operations procedures written up for Leatherwood and Black Bass dams, saying that if Black Bass gave way, so would Leatherwood. McClung said a study had already been done on both dams.
Berry said he was planning a workshop about the sewer plant design and how to use the loan. McClung asked if they still planned to have a workshop to discuss ways of paying the loan off, Berry said he had been too busy to get to that. Alderman Harry Meyer asked about the rate study and Wiley responded that McClelland should be at the next meeting to share their findings.
John Coleman, representing Entegrity Energy Partners, presented a report on the energy efficiency work that had been done for the city. The energy efficiency project had been projected to save $76,000 by the city but it had come to $87,189 in one year of performance.
Coleman said the energy analysis shows the solar had underperformed initially because a part wasn’t functioning, but when they replaced it they got “it up to speed.” He said that in the second year it outperformed what had been projected and anticipated the system would run as intended. He said Entegrity would be “owning, operating, and maintaining” the system for the next 25 years, which is the length of the warranty.
The tree cutting ordinance was next, addressing those who have been denied the right to cut down a tree by Planning or the Board of Zone Adjustment having a way to appeal to council rather than having to take Planning or BOZA to court. Jacobi had drafted the changes to the ordinance, it was assigned number 2369, and because of an emergency clause, was read three times and passed.
During alderman comments, McClung asked if the state’s report on the hospital had come in. He also said he thought it would be prudent of Berry to make sure the hospital’s reported financials were compared to the money that was in the bank to make sure the numbers matched.
McClung added that he thought people needed to be thinking about a one-cent sales tax for water and sewer infrastructure.
During alderman Harry Meyer’s comments he said he was disappointed in the hospital again because when the hospital commissioner had been at the last meeting, she had not told them that they “were going to fire a long-standing medical director and another staff member that’s been there fifteen years,” adding that the board was “just gutting the place.”
Berry said the hospital had received the state’s report on Feb. 6, and it said they were now in compliance with all CMS regulations. He said that as of last week they also went off “trauma divert” and had the blood bank fully stocked.