Fort Smith Board approves education reimbursement policy, explains budget postponements

The Fort Smith Board of Directors approved the city’s education reimbursement policy, rescheduled both of this week’s 2017 budget hearings following a calculation error, and authorized water and sewer refunding revenue bonds.

During their Tuesday (Nov. 15) meeting, City Directors finally had the chance to approve the redesigned education reimbursement policy for city employees after tabling it twice at the request of city administration on Oct. 4 and Nov. 1. The final proposed policy is exclusively for full-time regular employees with one full year of service before the first class begins.

Employees, per the policy, must “agree to continue working for the City for at least one full year after the degree is obtained” and if the qualification is not met, the employee will have to reimburse the city fully for any reimbursements received. Furthermore, employees must submit a degree plan with a declared major for college/university coursework, and attain the approval of both the employee’s manager and a program administrator to qualify.

While the previous system had lax accountability, the reimbursement approach places the burden on the employee to take appropriate actions and front the cost of the class before receiving payment from the city.

“Managers and employees are responsible for adherence to City policy,” the benefits statement concludes. “Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

The city has set a maximum reimbursement at $4,000 annually, which will pertain only to tuition. Supplies, books, and classroom equipment will be the responsibility of the employee, and the employee will need to maintain a 2.5 GPA for the semester.

City Director Tracy Pennartz was fine with the GPA requirement, but dissatisfied by the idea the city would reimburse for coursework that ended in a final grade of D. Under the terms, an employee could theoretically take two courses for the semester and receive full reimbursement for a D provided he finished with an A in the other course.

“I don’t think we should be reimbursing a D,” Pennartz said. “I don’t call a D educated.”

In spite of the objection, the policy passed unanimously with six votes. Pennartz abstained.

BUDGET HEARING POSTPONEMENTS
The two budget hearings slated for this week, originally on Nov. 14 and 17, were rescheduled following a calculation error that placed sales tax monies in the general fund and made the fund look “more robust” than it should have, according to City Administrator Carl Geffken.

Upon noticing the error, the city had to go back four years, explained Fort Smith Finance Director Jennifer Walker, who took over in 2015. Walker said the postponements would provide the chance to pull sales tax “out of the general fund budget, and it looks very different when you pull the sales tax out of it.”

“So we essentially had to redo the entire budget with rolling fund budgets since 2012 over the weekend,” Walker said. Geffken noted that a new draft would be sent out Thursday morning. City Directors agreed to bump the dates of the new budget hearings to Nov. 29 and Dec. 1.

OTHER BUSINESS
The water and sewer refunding bonds authorized were previously approved by Board members via resolution at the Nov. 1 meeting. Tuesday’s ordinance was an administrative step to approve the sale of $56.675 million for Series 2016. The refunding is to achieve debt service savings on the outstanding Series 2007 and Series 2008 water and sewer bonds. Payments will begin in 2017 and are slated to run through 2032.

Also Tuesday, City Directors agreed to move the location of the Board’s Dec. 6 regular meeting to the Fort Smith Convention Center in response to a recent planning commission meeting in which plans for a nursing care facility in Riley Farm were nixed 4-3 by commissioners. Riley Farm residents filled one of the convention center’s exhibit halls to voice opposition to the proposed 88,000 square foot facility known as Riley Farm Health & Rehab. Cavanaugh Free Will Baptist Church, owners of the land who intend to sell, will appeal the planning commission’s decision at the regular board meeting, so a second large turnout is expected.

Additionally, the Board authorized two seven-figure payouts as part of the evening’s consent agenda — the first for $2.14 million to Forsgren, Inc., for construction of the Jenny Lind Road and Ingersoll Avenue widening project. The overall project costs more than $28.83 million. Previous payments of $6.39 million have been issued. With Tuesday’s approval, the outstanding balance is $20.3 million.

The second approval was for $1.865 million to S.J. Louis Construction of Texas for construction of the Lake Fort Smith Water Transmission Line, Phase I. The original contract amount was $11.12 million. Previous payments totaled $6 million. Combining those with Tuesday’s approval, the project has an outstanding balance of $3.254 million.

Finally, the Board unanimously approved a 75-cent per ride fixed route discount for University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS) students, who are passengers of the city’s transit department.