In director’s comments during Parks’ Feb. 27 meeting, Justin Huss hit back against comments made at the Feb. 24 city council meeting
Huss said at last month’s Parks meeting public comments, he and commissioners were accused of mismanagement of funds that were not mismanaged. He referenced accusations that $30,000 of collected tax funds missing were withheld, not actually missing. He also mentioned that both he and former Chair Bill Featherstone had been accused by name of mismanagement and “embezzlement” of $100,000, which he said had been “disproven with little acknowledgement from those who levied them.”
Huss continued that the majority of accusations focused on the 1/8-cent Lake Leatherwood tax, and that the Arkansas Municipal League had given its opinion that the tax usage for shuttle operations and to-date improvements met standards of the tax language.
Huss finished saying that he was not hired to look backwards and that it was time to move on.
Committees give updates
Scott Miskiel told commissioners that Spring, Garden and Greenhouse Committee meetings would only require two meetings quarterly, one a garden walkthrough and the second a discussion on what needs doing.
He said that native plants were ordered for the gardens but that budget was an issue, and many of the plants would take a year to bloom. The final part of his report was about the greenhouse water pressure being too low for the automated system. Whether it was due to a leak beyond the meter or not was unclear, but he said he would find the water meter to begin narrowing down the problem.
Commissioner Cameron Denoewer asked what could be done with mosses growing during this time of year on garden and spring steps. Huss answered that it would need to be power washed and that it’s a yearly issue.
Commissioner Christian Super said that the Trails Committee needs a new person to champion it.
Final Items
- Commissioners were unable to move forward on the 2020 budget due to information from Windle & Associates being incomplete. Huss said the issue was missing cash flow in the document, and commissioners agreed to see if Rusty Windle would be able to attend their regular workshop on Tuesday, March 3 to answer questions by the commission.
- Huss was given the go-ahead to search for an administrative assistant for the Parks office. Denoewer clarified that the person hired should not do commissioners’ work, such as compiling meeting minutes.
- Commissioner Ruth Hager was voted in as Chair and Denoewer as Vice Chair. Both votes were unanimous.