Eureka Springs City Council met Monday before a packed house for an almost three-hour meeting discussing the downtown entertainment district, the 2020 budget, a new taxi service, and water rate increases, to name a few. But the biggest subject matter was not on the agenda – it was the Parks Commission.
Heavy public comments focused on overwhelming concern for fiscal accountability from commissioners and staff of Parks. While Mayor Butch Berry praised Parks for achievements in 2019 during his State of the City address, public comments pointed to Parks’ failures.
A heavy sense of public urgency was expressed about Parks’ misuse of taxpayer dollars, negligence, lack of fiscal transparency, and even discussion of “jail time” for Parks officials failing to meet Arkansas State law. By the end of the meeting, aldermen were filling the next meeting agenda with so many Parks items that Berry decided to plan a Parks workshop.
In public comments, Linda McBride got straight to the point asking council “for accountability, transparency and clarity from the Parks department.” While the city is not responsible for the daily operations of Parks, McBride said the 1,700 acres of land managed by Parks belongs to the city, “Not the Eureka Springs Parks Department.”
McBride expressed concern for how tax dollars are spent in the Parks department noting that longtime Parks commissioner Steven Foster, who resigned last week, had in early 2019 requested that Director Justin Huss provide more itemized financial reports.
McBride said Huss was on record remarking, “I will not hold a financial meeting,” saying he spends too much time in meetings. To Jan. 27, neither the mayor nor aldermen have received the 2019 3rd quarter financial reports from Parks, McBride said while citing the ordinance that outlines municipal code financial expectations.
She personally hired two attorneys and a forensic accountant to investigate Parks’ ledgers discovering over 18 counts of negligence, “Each is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by jail time and $500 under Arkansas state law,” McBride said.
Describing only two counts of negligence in her limited three minutes, McBride said there was no balancing of accounting software for 18 months, and Huss approved his own expenditures for travel “and whatever he seems to want.”
McBride called on the city to do a thorough review of Director Justin Huss, Chair Bill Featherstone, and the inner operations of the Parks Department.
Chris Fischer then spoke with similar censure of Parks’ operations reminding council of alderman Kristine Kendrick’s advice from March 2018, “Parks must be held to statutory and City Code requirements and they must seek approval of their 2014 Lake Leatherwood City Park Master Plan by the City Council.”
The 1/8-cent sales tax provision, Fischer said, is a specific fund to provide improvement to Lake Leatherwood in accordance with the Lake Leatherwood Master Plan. The Parks Commission has still not presented the LLMP for council approval, nor has it been adequately reviewed or updated by Parks, he said.
“It appears that Parks is dismissing their obligation to clarify how they employ these outdated plans while our sales tax revenues are used to improve our park,” Fischer said. He asked council to inform the Parks Commission that the use of the 1/8th percent sales tax must be in accordance with the plan they produced in 2014. “Please obligate Parks to perform their expected duty with due diligence and present a properly updated Lake Leatherwood City Park Master Plan for your review,” Fischer said in closing.
Pat Costner then pointed to potential fraud. She provided aldermen a three-page report of Parks income and expenses dating back to 2013 showing significant gaps in income; approximately $39,000 in year 2017 alone.
“I think there’s thirty or forty thousand dollars that needs to be accounted for,” Costner said. She then turned to year 2019 pointing out that more than $70,000 of Parks expenses not in accordance with the LLCP Master Plan was taken out of the LLCP Master Plan tax fund mostly for shuttle service expenses.
When looking at the revenue income it can be verified that Parks’ accounts were credited properly as city Finance Director Lonnie Clark said he can account for every monthly money transfer of both the 1/8-cent Lake Leatherwood tax revenue and the ¼-cent Parks tax revenue deposit from the city account to the Parks account.
Windle & Associates is currently doing a third-part audit of the 2019 financials.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.