story by Michael Tilley
mtilley@thecitywire.com
The “Take Back the Fort 2015” effort will not meet its self-imposed goal of being on a May 12 ballot thanks to the weather and an unspecified illness, but the group leader said they are “marching on” to collect enough signatures to force an election seeking to change the form of Fort Smith’s government.
Don Paul Bales, who is leading the petition drive, told The City Wire that he does not have an update on signatures because weather cancelled a Friday meeting and made it difficult to collect petition forms. The group reported 398 “firm” signatures after the first week of the petition drive in in early February. The group first provided petition forms to volunteers on Jan. 29.
The delays also mean the group will not meet its deadline – which was March 2 – to submit signatures. The city of Fort Smith has set a May 12 election to seek voter renewal of a 1% sales tax program that funds city street improvements, and a 5% redirection of the sales tax revenue to develop and maintain a citywide trails and greenways network. Take Back the Fort sought to provide signatures in time to be placed on the ballot. A municipal election can cost $35,000.
“Although a few volunteers have been kicking butt, our overall progress has really been hampered by the weather. We are not going to hit our target number of signatures by March 2nd. But we will be ‘marching on’ over the next 6 to 8 weeks with our petition drive,” Bales said in a written interview with The City Wire, adding that he plans to have an update sometime this week.
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.
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. 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. Any effort to change the city form of government is possible once every four years, according to the city’s municipal code.
Take Back the Fort initially sought the election of a city attorney and city clerk, but appear to have moved to just focusing on a form of government in which the people elect a mayor to run the city. Bales, who is also a former Fort Smith police officer who was fired and is now suing the department to get his job back, said the group plans on soon providing more information about its effort.
“I'm working on an article with other members of TBTF to better explain what we consider the beneficial contrasts between it and our current form, plus detail the more significant ways our current form has failed us in terms of Accountability and Transparency,” he wrote.