Linda McBride spoke to Parks commissioners at the Jan. 21 meeting, presenting a list of questionable actions on Parks’ part including lack of maintenance for all parks, and a lack of strategy for trails and communication.
She listed what she described as failures of fiscal responsibility saying Parks had no view of month-to-month expenses, that the executive director approves their own expenses, and that quarterly reports were not satisfactory.
McBride also accused Parks having a lack of workforce adherence to policy and protocols, giving an example of charges to the director’s Parks credit card from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21, 2018 of $808.90 spent in various restaurants in Eureka Springs.
She blasted Parks for failure to answer FOIA in the required three days after filing continuing that of the 38 FOIAs she had filed, 18 were negligent. McBride held up a board highlighted with what she described as misuse of taxpayer funds. She said Parks could not use income from the 1/8 percent sales tax for downhill trails as described in Ord. 2176.
The ordinance says, “…to be used by the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission Exclusively for and to improve and maintain Lake Leatherwood City Park in accordance with the approved Lake Leatherwood City Park Master Plan, and prescribing other matters thereto.”
She finished her presentation iterating that Parks cannot use the tax for the downhill trails and shuttles because the tax was meant for use following the 2013 Parks Master Plan. She said that Parks could also not afford maintenance on the downhill trails and the commission had violated Ord. 2176. She asked for Parks to have another meeting to address the issue.
Executive Director Justin Huss responded that the charges of food were for an event held in Lake Leatherwood where Parks was to pay for the lunches of participants. He also said they were planning ahead and had received a second grant through the Walton Family Foundation for the purpose of trail maintenance.
In researching Ord. 2176 and the LLCP Master Plan, the 2013 Master Plan does mention mountain biking trails and the construction of future trails in LLCP.
Check signing stays the same
The final item of Parks’ agenda was to end the meeting approving the minutes of the Dec. 17, 2019 meeting. Earlier in the meeting, commissioners had made a motion to include specific names of all commissioners on the signature cards for checks. A similar motion had been made in 2019, but the bank required the specific names in the minutes to make changes from past to current commissioners.
Since the bank only needed the minutes to include the specific names, commissioner Ruth Hager suggested they amend the original motion to make the fix. Huss asked why his name was not be included on the signature card and commissioner Scott Bardin told commissioners that Huss should not be able to sign checks for any Parks accounts. Commissioner Steven Foster seconded the motion.
Huss looked visibly puzzled by the motion and asked Bardin why? Bardin said that in past commissions and boards he had served, the director did not have authority to sign checks. He explained that there was a check drafted for $18,000 he could not account for or why it was signed.
Huss said the check was not unaccounted for and that Bardin was making a serious accusation, and that it was a cashier’s check to a vendor.
Huss said the check had been made with the full knowledge of the commission, and Hager and Chair Bill Featherstone supported that claim.
Huss said that he had no problem not being allowed to sign checks, but that Bardin was accusing him of losing $18,000. Featherstone requested that the motion be dropped, but it was not.
Commissioner Dave Hartmann said that he preferred that Huss have check signing authority, as he knew expenditures best. It was also voiced that if commissioners had sole check signing authority then they would need to be sure they knew exactly what they were for before signing.
Huss said that if Bardin had looked at past meeting minutes he would have seen proof of the check being drafted as well as the reason. He also said that Bardin had not come to him to discuss changes to financial policy and that he was in the dark on the transition to Windle & Associates.
The motion was voted on with Foster and Bardin voting Yes, Hartmann and Draxie Rogers abstaining, and Hager voting No. Without a majority the motion failed.