Rogers City Attorney Responds to Former CFO

Remember the Jerry Hudlow update Whispers passed along in our last issue?

The former treasurer and chief financial officer for the City of Rogers was fired abruptly last month by mayor Greg Hines for a variety of reasons, outlined by the mayor in a Personnel Action Report.

The most interesting of those, at least to us, was the fact Hudlow was rumored to carry a handgun to city hall each day.

Hudlow told Whispers he was still considering challenging the termination and that there was more to the story than what was being reported, though it wasn’t anything he could talk about.

Ben Lipscomb, however, was glad to talk. The Rogers city attorney sent an email to Whispers containing a copy of a termination summary sent by his office to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

The document was composed in response to Hudlow’s application for unemployment benefits. It addressed each of the six issues outlined by Hines that led to his decision.

With regards to the concealed weapon, Lipscomb wrote the following:

“Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-306(a)(8) prohibits concealed handgun permitees from carrying a concealed handgun in ‘any meeting place of the governing body or any governmental entity’. It has come to the attention of Mayor Hines, and since his termination Mr. Hudlow had, in fact, ADMITTED to bringing a handgun to city hall, in his briefcase, on a regular basis. Mr. Hudlow has therefore committed a Class A Misdemeanor in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated 5-73-122 on occasions too numerous to determine. Again, this conduct alone is grounds for termination for cause and consequently for denial of unemployment benefits.”

In his email to Whispers, Lipscomb wrote, “After reading the ‘Whispers’ column … I thought you might like to read ‘the rest of the story’. Unlike Mr. Hudlow, I can talk about it.”