By Rick Harvey
RHarvey@cherryroad.com
Eureka Springs City Council member Nick Roberts will remain on the City Advertising and Promotion Commission after a motion to replace him on the CAPC failed to gain approval at Monday night’s council meeting.
Council member Harry Meyer made the motion to remove Roberts from the commission and council member Melissa Greene suggested replacing him with council member Bill Ott.
Meyer’s motion failed to get the required four votes when council members Terry Mc-Clung and Autumn Slane voted against it and Ott abstained.
“Since my name was brought up as a possible replacement, I will abstain from voting one way or another,” Ott said.
Meyer and Greene voted in favor of replacing Roberts. Roberts was not at Monday’s council meeting, and he did not respond to messages from the Lovely County Citizen by a Tuesday morning deadline offering him an opportunity to comment on Monday night’s meeting.
While Meyer did not give a specific reason for his motion to remove Roberts from the CAPC, the motion came during a discussion of a verbal altercation that took place before the July 27 CAPC meeting in which Roberts exchanged words with former commissioner James DeVito about the validity of DeVito’s presence at the meeting. DeVito’s term on the commission had expired June 30. He announced during the meeting that he had sold his restaurant and that the meeting would be his last as a member of the CAPC.
The altercation between Roberts and De-Vito led to DeVito “flipping off” Roberts, who then left the Auditorium before the meeting officially began. Slane, also a CAPC member, left the meeting as well. The absence of Roberts and Slane, along with the absences of CAPC chair Jeff Carter, vice chair Patrick Burnett and commissioner Carol Wright, meant the commission had no quorum and was unable to conduct regular business.
That business included approving the CAPC financials, which would have been voted on at Monday’s city council meeting.
“Autumn, I understand that you have some ideas and some complaints. That’s cool,” Meyer said Monday night. “But to walk out of a meeting was, in my opinion, childish.
“We need to have decorum in these meetings. … And the reason that people on the council are appointed to that commission is so that business can be done. And you’re our representative. You didn’t bring the financials to us. You haven’t been giving us updates.”
Greene, who seconded Meyer’s motion to have Roberts replaced, agreed.
“I was extremely disappointed to have people take the law in their own hands and walk out, throw a meeting where we do not have our financials,” Greene said. “We seem to be worried about budgets that are out of our control, but yeah, I didn’t get my financials to approve and they’re important.
“And, you know, attacking another commissioner was inappropriate.And James, too, ended up being inappropriate because he was attacked. That was a really bad meeting. And I’m still pretty angry about that. And yes, things need to get done, but they need to get done without agendas being slapped on the table.”
Greene also said she gives DeVito “a lot of credit” for doing “the ethical thing” by resigning the day before his restaurant officially closed after being sold. She said it was unfortunate that the verbal exchange took place.
“It was out of control, and James should not have flip somebody off, I 100 percent agree,” Greene said. “But when you’re pushed and harassed, you’re going to lose it and James did. And that was unfortunate.”
Slane said she and Roberts interpreted an Arkansas statute in a way that made them believe that DeVito shouldn’t have remained in his CAPC role since his term expired June 30. “I think what transpired that evening was that I was fearful of getting in a lawsuit myself,” Slane said. “So, for somebody to even say that it was childish, it’s absolutely ridiculous.
“But I do feel like when somebody is flipping somebody the bird across me to somebody else, I don’t feel comfortable with staying. And when I already feel like the seat was vacated and that’s what should have happened, that’s what I felt like was best, because I literally did not even want to be a part of a situation that I felt like may be illegal. And I also told [tourism director] Madison [Dawson] before I left that I really think we should tread lightly. This is dangerous territory, because we’re in a lawsuit right now for this exact situation. So, I expressed my concerns and yes, I left.
“But, I don’t know what to do from here. That’s why I’m talking to you guys because we’ve reached a point where things are a little out of control, I feel like. And they don’t seem to be getting any better.”
Mayor Butch Berry responded, “And you don’t think they’re going to get any better?”
“I truly don’t know,” Slane replied. I don’t know if they’ll get any better.”
City attorney Forrest Jacobi said the practice has always been for a commissioner whose term is expired to remain in the seat until a replacement is selected so business can continue.
McClung, who expressed his support for Roberts remaining in the seat and finishing out his one-year term on the CAPC, said he understands what has transpired in the past but feels more effort needs to be made to appoint new commissioners to replace those whose terms have expired.
“As far back as I can remember the person that was leaving stays until replaced, but the seat becomes vacant upon expiration,” Mc-Clung said, “Either he or she goes through the process and get put back on or someone else gets voted in to take that position and when that happens, that’s when they should step [down].”
McClung, however, said he’s not a fan of someone remaining in an expired seat for an extended period of time.
“For these two positions, I think we need to actively, or the CAPC needs to actively, or us collectively, to replace those two positions,” McClung said. “They need to be done.”
On Thursday, July 28 — the day after the altercation between Roberts and DeVito — Berry emailed an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League to ask if the council could vote to replace one of its representatives on the CAPC, according to records obtained by the Citizen through a Freedom of Information request. The attorney, Lanny Richmond, responded that it was his belief that the council did have that authority.
See Council, page 8 Most of the council members, along with Berry, made comments at Monday’s meeting about the CAPC needing to do a better job of working together.
“I would just hope that whoever is on the CAPC realizes that the number one, if not the only, industry in our community is tourism, and the CAPC is basically the board of directors for that industry,” Ott said. “I would hope that they would take it most seriously because our whole community is built on that. So, I’d hope that … even if you have differences of opinion on stuff, stay there, keep the decorum going, but let’s make sure we honor and respect this industry that not only puts us on the map, but feeds probably 98 percent of the people in this community.”
In his comments at the end of the meeting, Berry agreed.
“I think it is very important for all the commissions, but especially for the CAPC — obviously we’ve got some oil and water going on, it looks like — that we all work together because there’s one thing I think we all agree on: We all want Eureka Springs to be successful,” Berry said. “And for Eureka Springs to be successful, we need to work together in a positive manner and we need to work and make sure that we do that. And that includes making sure we’re at the meetings.”
In other business, the council voted 4-1 to approve on its second reading an ordinance that would regulate and limit camping on private property.
Slane was the only dissenting vote. “I strongly disagree with this ordinance,” Slane said. “I don’t feel like going on to private property to tell anybody that they can’t camp on is correct. And I think we’re opening ourselves up to further lawsuits when you can just deal with these couple issues that we are having. And I truly feel like it’s infringing upon the rights of our citizens.”
McClung reminded the council that the ordinance would only result in a penalty when a situation got bad enough that it resulted in a complaint.
“As explained by our city attorney at our last meeting, until someone complains, it’s not a problem,” McClung said. “And so that’s what this ordinance does, it gives the ability for a neighbor that, if it affects them and their quality of life and they complain, then it gives us an avenue to rectify it.”
The council also got an update that the water and sewer audit from 2018 has finally been completed by BKD and is being reviewed. The company will soon begin the 2019 audit, the council was told.
The council approved Laurie Crammond and Charissa Litherland as new members of the parks commission.
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Information for this report was contributed by Scott Loftis, managing editor.
