Something Else

There is this thing with the Fort Smith Board of Directors about money and television and Something Else.

Coincidentally, Political satirist P.J. O’Rourke once noted that the three branches of federal government are money, television and BS. That’s the Something Else.

So talented are they that the Fort Smith Board of Directors have managed to literally incorporate all three of O’Rourke’s branches into their municipal legislative body. But mostly the BS; the Something Else.

This essay is meant to contain pointed criticism toward a board that once had higher expectations with respect to governance. It’s a board that spoke often about collectively pursuing a more broad and progressive vision for the city; a board that conducted an encouraging retreat during which they professed interest in empowering city staff to pursue day-to-day management while the board focused on directing the city toward progress on a short list of long-term improvements.

But we are here now with Something Else.

Let’s start with the money and television.

Jerry Hamel and friends are interested in funding a return of televised board meetings.

Back in early December the Board of Directors reduced the communications budget by $28,800 and “saved” $7,400 by doing away with televised board meetings. This move was made, presumably, to find cost savings to fund the Fort Smith Convention Center. To be sure, the board voted down televised broadcasts under the notion of saving money to help fund the convention center because Hamel & Co. successfully pushed back hard on their plan to raise a 1% prepared food tax. Out of the about $42 million general fund budget, money for the televised board meetings amounts to .017% — not even two-tenths of a half percent.

City Director Don Hutchings was aghast at the Hamel-funding idea, saying Hamel and his friends have a “hidden agenda.”

Hutchings is spouting Something Else on this issue. There is no hidden agenda with Hamel. He’s right out in the open. He couldn’t be any more open unless he showed up nude to a board meeting — which, frankly, would not be a surprise.

Hamel loooovvved the opportunity to berate the City Board and top city staff on the big TV. He and his cohorts lived to pontificate to and cajole an elected board and mayor that collectively didn’t have the leadership resources to withstand the Quixotic charges.

As for hidden agendas, the right Reverend/Director Hutchings dost protest too much. That a paid promulgator of the practice of religion would be the first and most vocal to suggest nefarious motives through the use of television is rich on so many levels. I mean, really, what would Jesus do?

And then there is this Something Else with the Board’s continued micromanagement of what should be the daily conduct of regular city business. Sanitation and animal control are the best examples. Trash, tomcats and terriers, oh my!

The Board has been back and forth with various rules and schemes under the guise of a more humanitarian and cost-efficient way to deal with a city plagued by hundreds of thousands of wild dogs and cats. If you are now thinking you don’t remember such a problem, it’s because one did not exist. But nevermind careful consideration of priorities and resources based on relevance. Something must be done. And so the Board waged battle with a plethora of contradicting facts and figures about how to spay and neuter and tether a wild horde of critters that never existed. They ultimately appointed a task force to develop a plan. When the task force plan proved unacceptable to a Board majority, the task force blah blah blah blah blah … Who cares anymore? It’s proven to be a lot of Something Else.

Here’s the thing. The Board has talked in great detail about how to deal with pit bulls and stray cats, but I dare a citizen to find similar down-in-the-weeds details in the board minutes about how more than $112 million in new bonds will be spent on critical city infrastructure.

And then the Board recently succumbed to a minority of voices in a Fort Smith subdivision who complained about automated trash service. The best way to explain this issue is that city government is often challenged to run more like a business. Well, the one clear area in which the city is most efficiently run like a business is the sanitation service. But after spending a good chunk of change modernizing city trash service, the Board has now micromanaged and is asking the sanitation department to partially resort to processes and equipment used before Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas to begin his political career.

What if your business were to abandon a holistic and efficient process because an underwhelming minority of customers had an affinity for the 8-track player? That’s right. It would be a candidate for bankruptcy.

Municipal elections in 2012 and 2014 will be of critical importance if this second-largest Arkansas city is to move forward in a manner that approaches our collective potential.

We can do better than this two-year build-up of Something Else.