By Rick Harvey
Lovely County Citizen
Selecting representatives for the City Advertising and Promotion Commission continues to be a difficult annual task for the Eureka Springs City Council.
Two votes were the most any member of the city council received during three rounds of voting by secret ballot to select new council representatives for the CAPC.
Neither of those council members, however, ended up being picked for the CAPC during the council’s regular meeting Monday, Jan. 9.
New council member Steve Holifield was the only council member selected to serve on the CAPC despite only getting one vote during each round of voting.
Four council members — Holifield, Harry Meyer, David Avanzino and Autumn Slane — threw their names in the hat to serve on the CAPC during 2023.
Council members were told they couldn’t vote for themselves.
In three votes in which council members wrote their selections on paper before passing them to new city clerk Ida Meyer, Avanzino and Harry Meyer each received two votes while Holifield and Slane got one vote each.
Some council members seemed frustrated at the stalemate and then began making nominations for the CAPC.
Council member Terry McClung nominated Avanzino and Slane and McClung voted to appoint Avanzino to the CAPC. The nomination failed, however, when Harry Meyer, Greene and Holifield, voted no.
Harry Meyer got votes of approval from Greene and Holifield, but McClung, Slane, and Avanzino voted against his appointment.
Holifield was then nominated and got “yes” votes from Meyer, Greene and Slane while McClung and Avanzino voted no.
With three affirmative votes, Mayor Butch Berry cast the fourth “yes,” for Holifield, putting him on the CAPC in the seat that was most recently held by McClung.
With voting for the other seat in an apparent stalemate, McClung nominated Slane to return to the CAPC for the second consecutive year, but “no” votes from Greene, Holifield and Meyer prevented Slane from being reappointed.
“Autumn will stay in the seat until someone is voted in to replace her,” Berry said.
The council will meet again Monday, Jan. 23, two days before the next regular CAPC meeting. The CAPC has a workshop scheduled for 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11 and has scheduled two special meetings starting at 6 p.m. following the workshop. The agenda for the two meetings has one item each, the 2023 budget and the contract for Paradise.

CAPC A HOT TOPIC
Opinions about the CAPC were plentiful among council members at the Jan. 9 meeting.
Slane gave a “recap” of her time on the commission during 2022, including calling for the resignation of CAPC chair Jeff Carter.
“Over two years ago, Jeff came to me and my husband and sat down with us and requested that we help him,” Slane told council members. “He was touting things of embezzlement of the current staff, which obviously rose some eyebrows for us and some concerns. Later on that week, he painted the same picture for a group of our peers saying he was going to change the CAPC, and just give him a year. That’s been over two years ago now.”
Slane mentioned issues with computers and security and questions about the Paradise marketing agency that have her concerned.
“Currently we are still fighting rumors of embezzlement,” she said. “There are serious security issues as far as our new website that has not been released yet. We’ve had people in the back end of it … We’ve had people deleting computers. We have marketing agency concerns, so much so that we can’t even agree to pass the budget.
“I’ve asked for a portfolio from Paradise stating each ad time and place of the ads …. They’ve been working with me a little bit, but I’ve still not seen anything. So, it’s just another red flag for me. They’ve been doing this since 2019 for our city and I’m concerned at this point in 2023 that if we still can’t come up with any receipts or exact ad placements, then I’m just concerned … do they even exist?
“We’ve had multiple, multiple vacancies on the commission, fighting quorum all year long with tons of applicants.
“I feel that the only thing at this point is for a resignation of Mr. Carter. We need a strong leader, if not from our chair, we need it from the director’s position. And that’s not really what we’re getting. And I think we need to step in as a council.”
McClung agreed that the CAPC needs a change in leadership.
“A new chair will be appointed this year and should be voted on,” McClung said. “I would think that would change. It should change. The baton needs to pass.”
Later in the meeting, during council member comments, Greene also voiced concern about the CAPC. Specifically, she mentioned an incident during the last CAPC meeting on Dec. 28 when she said, “a staff member and a commissioner were attacked.”
“They were attacked by someone who was nominated,” Greene said, presumably talking about one of the potential CAPC candidates who were discussed at the Dec. 28 meeting. “Our people shouldn’t have to put up with that kind of brutality. [Commissioners] work for free and our staff, they work hard. They don’t deserve this.
“Autumn, you brought up that a lot of people were turned down for the CAPC. I would have turned a lot them down from the stuff they put on Facebook. One of the ones that was recently turned down, I have a screenshot of her accusing one of our tax collectors of embezzling $50,000. You don’t put that on Facebook. … this nastiness and attacks has got to stop. We have a really good staff and really good commissioners, people that love this city, like every one of us sitting here. Whether we agree with each other or not, we’re all here because we love this city and we want what’s right.
“But having our commissioners, our staff attacked is inappropriate and I would never vote for someone that did that.”
Avanzino, who attended the Dec. 28 CAPC meeting, also addressed the incident.
“I was present at the CAPC meeting that Ms. Greene is referring to,” Avanzino said. “I’m just going to put this out there. There is a grave amount of discourse in the CAPC because of the current leadership that’s in place. I think our citizens, our tax collectors are tired of what’s going on within the CAPC.
“I’m not excusing the behavior that was displayed. I was there and saw it firsthand and I’ve had a discussion with the parties involved. But it’s because of things that cannot get done or refuse to get done that has brought anger out in our citizens. I’m not excusing the behavior, but I will stand up for citizens who want action that are not getting it.”
The council did approve, with a 4-2 vote, the selection of Chris Jones to the CAPC. Jones was approved by the CAPC at the Dec. 28 meeting. Slane and Avanzino voted against Jones’ selection.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, the council voted to suspend the rules and read on its second reading by title only a proposed ordinance establishing a residential parking district along a portion of Spring Street.
The council again continued to discuss various verbiage of the proposal while also hearing from a couple of residents who were opposed to certain parts or all of the proposal.
Bill Lawler, co-owner of the Bridgeford House Bed and Breakfast, said he didn’t think there was any need for a parking district and argued that most residents in the area don’t struggle with parking as the proposed ordinance indicates.
“What I suggest we do is to take this ordinance, throw it away, and give it a good burial here tonight,” Lawler said.
Council members, however, disagreed, unanimously approving the second reading of the proposed ordinance, which can be fully approved on its third reading at the next council meeting.
“I went out there and actually parked my vehicle on Spring Street for about two and a half hours just to watch the comings and goings of residents,” Avanzino said. “And they really do have an issue down there. I mean, I saw [people] having to park anywhere from a quarter of a mile to half a mile away just to get to their house.
“It’s definitely an issue we need to bring to a close.”
The council also unanimously approved the 2023 budget that was presented in December and voted 6-0 in favor of the appointment of Rodd Gray and Mariellen Griffith to the parks commission and Kelli Ladwig to the historic district commission.