Fayetteville Not Van Hoose?s Problem

Springdale Mayor Jerre Van Hoose said a recent letter he sent to Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody and city council member Trent Trumbo regarding his view on his city’s civil service commission was entirely his idea.

The Northwest Arkansas Times, in its Jan. 16 edition, said Trumbo solicited the letter from Van Hoose.

“No one solicited anything,” Van Hoose said.

Springdale’s fire and police chiefs are hired and fired by a civil service commission. Trumbo had presented the ordinance at the Jan. 15 council meeting and it passed by a 5-2 vote. In April, Trumbo’s proposal had been defeated by a 6-1 vote.

However, Coody vetoed the vote the next day. The proposal can now only be upheld with a two-thirds majority on the city council. Council members Lioneld Jordan, Kevin Santos and Randy Zurcher make up three-eighths of the council and are almost certainly going to vote against it. Zurcher was out of town at the Jan. 15 meeting.

Trumbo had called Van Hoose for his views on the pros and cons of the civil service commission. Coody followed up with a call to Van Hoose wanting to know what he had told Trumbo.

“I did not and do not want to get involved in Fayetteville’s politics,” Van Hoose said. “But I just decided to write Mayor Coody about the pros and cons of our system since he had called. I also sent it to Mr. Trumbo since he had asked me about them, too. I told them both that it still all comes down to what kind of chiefs you’ve got.”

Coody recently put some pressure on longtime Fayetteville Police Chief Richard Watson to retire, but said at the Jan. 15 council meeting that he never had any intentions of firing Watson.