Take Back the Fort effort ends first week with 398 ‘firm’ signatures

The group seeking to change the form of government in Fort Smith collected just short of 400 signatures during their first full week of the petition process.

Take Back the Fort 2015 first met Jan. 16 to begin the public discussion on changing city government, and they met Jan. 29 to hand out petition forms and instruct volunteers on how to gather signatures.

Don Paul Bales is the de facto leader of Take Back the Fort. He is a former Fort Smith police officer who was fired and is now suing the department to get his job back.

Fort Smith’s city administrator form of government has a city administrator who is hired and fired by the seven-member elected Board of Directors. Fort Smith has a mayor, but the position is largely ceremonial, with the primary duty to preside over Board meetings. Take Back the Fort wants to change to a form of government where the mayor is responsible for city operations and hires a manager to help with those duties. The new form would also have a city council serving in the normal legislative capacity. Take Back the Fort is also proposing that elected positions be established for the city clerk and city attorney.

According to Fort Smith City Clerk Sherri Gard, it requires 2,518 valid signatures to place the form of government vote on the ballot. That number comes from a requirement that a petition for a ballot action needs 15% of the number who votes in the previous mayoral election. The 2014 election saw 16,788 vote in the mayoral race in which Mayor Sandy Sanders ran unopposed.

Bales told The City Wire that after the first week they had 398 “firm” signatures. Bales has said the group wants to submit the signatures by March 2 in order to be placed on a municipal election already set for May 12. He said there could be more because he did not collect all forms as of Friday night.

“Happy with these numbers for week one, as we just picked up 6 more volunteers in the last few days. Expect good numbers next week from several events we have planned to grow awareness and increase involvement,” Bales wrote in a note to The City Wire.

Bales is confident they will get the signatures by March 2.

“I'm still confident we'll hit our goal by then. We are not bound by that deadline, but we really want to hit the goal by then to avoid the citizens the cost of another special election,” Bales explained. “We put it to the Board to forego that expense and just put it on the ballot, but not holding our breath that they will be fiscally responsible in the matter, as that would be out of character based on past patterns and practices.”

Any effort to change the city form of government is possible once every four years, according to the city’s municipal code. Specifically, the code notes: “When the question of the adoption of the city administrator form of government is submitted to, and approved by, a majority of the qualified electors of a municipality voting on the issue, the question of changing to another form of government shall not again be submitted to the electors of that municipality for a period of four (4) years.”