Arkansas Ethics Commissioners "Dismiss" complaint against Alexander Mayor

After a hearing held March 15 by the Arkansas Ethics Commission, three of the five commissioners present dismissed a three-part complaint submitted in September 2023 against Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann. The complaint was submitted by JoAn Churchill, who was city treasurer at the time, and Council Member Juanita Wilson. Attending the hearing were Wilson, Herrmann and City Attorney Chris Madison. Churchill attended the meeting by phone.

The complaint covered three issues. They were; 1) Overpaying herself beyond the amount budgeted, 2) Hiring an elected official from another municipality to work at city hall allowing "confidential access" to city documents and 3) Paying some department heads beyond the amount budgeted.

Herrmann received a letter from the Ethics Commission shortly after the hearing. A copy of the letter was provided to council members at their March 18 meeting.

"Please be advised that the results of staff's investigation were presented to the Commission at the meeting held on today’s date (March 15)," the letter stated. "At that time, the Commission decided, by a vote of 3-0, with Commissioners Irby and Tolbert not present, to DISMISS the complaint."

In making their decisions on each allegation the commissioners relied on one narrow section of Arkansas Code Annotated § 21-8-304(a). That section states, "No public servant shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure special privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or his or her spouse, child, parents, or other persons standing in the first degree of relationship, or for those with whom he or she has a substantial financial relationship that are not available to others except as may be otherwise provided by law."

In the letter the first allegation states, "You have overpaid yourself by thousands of dollars ($7,030.00 so far)." According to the ruling the budget wasn't specific enough.

"With respect to allegation number 1, the Commission determined that your acceptance of the prior Alexander Mayor’s salary did not represent a special privilege," the letter to Herrmann stated. "While the complainant and Alexander City Council member Juanita Wilson gave evidence and sworn statements indicating that the City Council intended to reduce your salary to $21,320 at its December 19, 2022 meeting, there was no specific action mentioned in the minutes for that meeting. The City Council did pass a budget for 2023 that may have reduced the overall budget by the intended amount but there was nothing in the budget that directly tied the reduction to your salary."

The second allegation states, "You hired a Treasurer from Haskell who JoAn Allen-Churchill [the complainant herein] believes is compromised (confidential access)."

"With respect to allegation number 2, there was no evidence available indicating that you are related to Ms. Jennifer Hill," the letter said. Likewise, there was no evidence available reflecting that you have a substantial financial relationship with Ms. Hill. Accordingly, even if Ms. Hill’s hire was determined to be a special privilege, she does not fall within the class of people prohibited from receiving a special privilege or exemption by Ark. Code Ann. § 21-8-304(a)."

While the allegation makes no reference to Herrmann having a "financial relationship with Ms. Hill" nor does it mention any potential "special privilege," it does question whether Hill is "compromised" by having "(confidential access)" to records in two municipalities. The Commissioners did not opine as to whether subsection (b) falls under this allegation.

Subsection (b) states, "No public servant shall accept employment or engage in any public or professional activity while serving as a public official which he or she might reasonably expect would require or induce him or her to disclose any information acquired by him or her by reason of his or her official position that is declared by law or rule to be confidential."

Allegation three states, "You have paid many supervisory employees more than the budget allows." Again, when it comes to following a budget, apparently that's not a violation of ethics.

"Moving to allegation number 3, there was no evidence available indicating that you are related to any of the department heads," the letter says. "There was no evidence available reflecting that you had a substantial financial relationship with any of the department heads either. Accordingly, even if a department head was being paid more than the budgeted amount was determined to be a special privilege, none of the department heads fall within the class of people prohibited from receiving a special privilege or exemption by Ark. Code Ann. § 21-8-304(a)."

Receipt of this letter was not discussed during the March 18 council meeting.

Alexander Mayor gives State of the City Address

At the end of her monthly report Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann gave a State of the City Address. The Address provided council members with an up-to-date financial status report of all accounts to the end of February, 2024.

"In February, at the end of February, everything reconciled, general funds had a total of $827,845.14," Herrmann began. "The PD (Police Department) has at the end of February, $62,137.26 in this account. Parks was holding at $155,942.45; streets, $59,383.57. The payroll account was sitting with $123,687.01. And the ARPA account (American Recovery Plan Account) was still holding at $298,298.14."

"I feel like the city is in good standing," Herrmann continued. "I'm really encouraged. I do believe we are on the right path. I think all the department heads will agree when we can say we can actually sit down and look at a budget and go, okay, I need this, what do we have, where we headed. I'm just, it's a good start."

"I'm happy with the office staff," Herrmann said. "I appreciate everybody's efforts."

"We're in a good place," she concluded. "Of course, there's never enough money for all of these, but we're doing a lot better than others."

Also at the March 18 council meeting;

Trees planted to slow erosion of Crooked Creek in park

Mayor Crystal Herrmann provided council members with an update on the plan to plant trees along the Crooked Creek bank inside the City Park to help reduce erosion. Herrmann has been working with Aaron Norden, the Region III Stream Habitat Coordinator with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

"We had over 100 trees planted on the banks," she said "We had some volunteers that actually come [sic] out and see some really good folks."

Bass Pro said "No"

Last December Herrmann applied for a grant from Bass Pro Shops. The grant was to be used to renovate the bathroom and the pavilion at the pond on the southern end of the former Human Development Center.

"Unfortunately, we were not chosen for that grant," Herrmann said. "So we'll get creative and see what we can come up with for some more funding for that."

Saline County Animal Control, "Not going to happen"

Mayor Herrmann told council members Saline County's smaller municipalities are on their own when it comes to animal control. Currently Benton and Bryant have animal control departments.

"I met with multiple small cities and Tricia over at the Bryant Animal Shelter," Herrmann said. "She (Tricia) was trying to take us under her wing and give suggestions. We also had Anne Sanders from the Humane Society, who was there."

The discussion transitioned into the need for both a code enforcement officer and an animal control officer. Herrmann noted one person can do both because, "animal control is code enforcement."

"So we posted for a code enforcer slash animal control officer position for the city of Alexander," Herrmann said. "Tricia over at Bryant, (said) we can put somebody through school to manage. I mean, the animal control is code enforcement. So I've been told that a lot of small cities do both code and animal control under the same employee. And as small as our city is, I think once there's a good handle on it, I think it's more than doable."

Herrmann isn't waiting for the establishment of an animal control department. She is working with the Saline County Humane Society to hold a vaccination clinic next month.

"And, then we're hoping in April we can host a vaccination day where people drive through and vaccinate for a low fee," she said. "

Saline County Library box won't be activated until after eclipse

The Saline County Library System is installing a kiosk outside the Alexander Municipal Complex that will be used to order, pick up and return library books. Currently only the outer shell has been installed.

"It's going to be after April 8th when it will be up and running," Herrmann said. "I think it's going to get moved in here shortly. And then we have to have the electrician. And then the tech guy has to come and plug it in. And then they've got some graphics and stuff coming into display the box. So, you can actually know what it is. So, I'm excited about that."

City Hall to be closed April 8

Mayor Herrmann announced the Alexander Municipal Complex will be closed April 8, the day of the eclipse.

Reports from other department heads

Fire and Rescue;
Emergency calls with a mix of training

"We're running a little over 60 calls for the month so far," reported Fire Chief Ryan McCormick. "They've run from structured fires, to medical calls, to vehicle accidents, control or uncontrolled burns, people burning in the yard that are not supposed to be burning; those type of incidents."

Then there's training. According to McCormick the department has been training for shootings, hazardous material response and disaster related search and rescue.

"We've been really busy training-wise," McCormick continued. "We're still working on some different types of training that we are involved with and have been asked to be a part of such as the (Saline) county-wide rescue task force."

"That's a pretty big deal to be apart of," he told council members. "It deals with active shooters, incidents for schools and churches. So we'll be starting to get involved with Benton, Bryant in the same county task force to be trained and equipped with that and be prepared for those type of instances for the county."

"Three of our members finished up their hazmat tech class, which is pretty big," McCormick explained. "It's an 80-hour class."

"We have four members, five members on the USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team," McCormick said. "That's a room, search and rescue team that gets deployed on natural disasters, tornadoes, those kind of things."

Alexander Fire and Rescue took part in a training session recently in Hot Springs Village.

"We sent two guys that were deployed with the USAR team," McCormick said. "That's the first time in the fire department's history that we've had team members be deployed for the city. They were in Hot Springs Village for several hours checking on homes and trying to take care of people that are injured or just trying to get to places."

Preparations for the upcoming eclipse are underway. McCormick says he's been working with Alexander Police Chief Robert Burnett plus county and state agencies.

"We've been in meetings for the last two years of different eclipse situations and problems in the county and state organizations and I don't think anybody really realizes what's going to happen," McCormick said. "We just got to prepare for the worst and that's kind of what we're looking for right now. Just pre-planning and having some extra staff on hand through a three-day period."

In response to a query on Facebook about the working status of the tornado siren at the Central Firehouse, McCormick said it's still not working. And, it's not the only siren not working in Saline County. It's on the list to be repaired."

"That is a county project," McCormick said. "They (Saline County) have several tornado sirens throughout the county that are not working. Ours is one of them. They are very much aware of that. I have been in contact with the OEM (Office of Emergency Management) director, Mr. Cohn, and they are working on a solution to get that fixed."

Police Department;
Police taking a different type of training

Alexander police officers are getting additional training as a preventative measure. This type of training, however, is an effort to keep the city out of court.

"As you know, a lot of big lawsuits coming down police departments and cities," Police Chief Robert Burnett said. "One of our neighborhood cities just got sued for 32 million.

"So like I said, the police department will double up on training," Burnett continued. "I did 19 classes this past month."

"Everybody has to be a lot more trained," Burnett said. "Just not because we're lacking any of it. We're just trying to get more of it."

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is April 15, 6:00 PM at the Alexander Municipal Complex. The public is invited to attend.

Alexander Council Member Joy Gray accused of "Harassment"

After failing to remove Planning Commission Chairman Michael Huck in December, 2023; Alexander Council Member Joy Gray has had three re-dos. All of which have failed. This time though she was called-out for it by fellow Council Member Harold Timmerman.

This latest attempt at a do-over started out as the previous two, with Gray admitting she's fighting a lost cause. But it's not harassment.

"So this is just my monthly reassessing y 'all on whether or not you'd like to remove the head of the planning commission," Gray began. "I know the answer will probably be, it's probably a waste of time, but I'm going to keep doing it every month until either something happens or elections happen."

"So I would move that we remove Michael Huck, the head of the planning commission," Gray said.

"Now, would you call this one, fourth month you brought this up," Timmerman asked? "Now, wouldn't that be an act of harassment against Mr. Huck?"

"No," Gray responded.

"Yes, it would," Timmerman replied.

Gray claimed it's not harassment because, "I'm not asking to remove him from the city, I'm asking to remove him from this position."

After receiving a second on her motion Gray continued on her latest reasoning to have Huck removed.

"I've gotten yet another email this month from someone who works in the city asking me to bring it up again because of his harassment via email of people," Gray began. "He harassed some people literally claiming that there was hacking going on with the city now."

Background:

At the December, 2023 council meeting Gray made a motion to remove Huck from the planning commission based on a complaint concerning comments he made towards another planning commission member after the October, 2023 planning meeting. That complaint was investigated by City Attorney Chris Madison with the aid of Assistant Police Chief Jessica Burnett.

At the January, 2024 council meeting Gray produced a second complaint to add to the failed attempt in December at removal. Gray said this one was in the form of a request from an employee with the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority (LRWRA). According to Gray, "The person that represents them has specifically asked if she can speak with anyone besides Michael Huck, because of his way of conducting himself with her and his just sort of general rudeness."

Alexander has been waiting since April, 2023 for LRWRA to approve the city's new master development plan. The LRWRA provides sewer service to the northern end of Alexander, hence the interest in Alexander's future plans. Next month will be one year since sending the proposed plan to it's first stop for approval, the Little Rock Planning Department.

At the February 20 council meeting Gray tried to use an E-mail sent by Huck to a member of Metroplan using the city E-mail system. It's Metroplan that has been aiding Alexander in writing its new master development plan.

In January Huck asked the mayor and city hall office manager to produce a report on the previous year's building/construction permits. This is an annual request by Metroplan as part of the ongoing updating of the city's master development plan. After not receiving any acknowledgment or response, Huck asked his Metroplan contact to make the request and explain its importance. The files were already started by a previous employee.

It was Gray who was now the insulted one.

"So no, that was not sent by a morose teenage girl," Gray said. "That was sent by a grown man who represents the city. So, that's embarrassing."

Since Gray never explained how she acquired an E-mail sent by Huck, using the city E-mail system, he questioned a city employee familiar with the system.

"This is now considered 'Harassment' and the word 'Hack' was never used," Huck said later.

As stated in the original article published March 5 in The Alexandrian, the city employee said, "No one has (administrative) privilege at city hall."

After the publication of the first article, Alexander Mayor Crystal Herrmann admitted in an E-mail that she has access to everyone's E-mails. In an update article published March 12 she was quoted as writing, "The city email which you conduct the Alexander Planning commission business on belongs to the City of Alexander. As Mayor (chief executive officer), I hold the administrator role on the city's email system. If there is a personnel change and/or a large number of complaints I can and will have the emails forward to my email. Council member Joy Gray received your inappropriate email from my office. The Council is over your position and Joy Gray is the Council member that handles the agenda. As Mayor, if I receive complaints and it falls under Alexander City Councils [sic] respectability it will be sent to Joy Gray by my office staff or myself."

Prior to the council's vote on the motion, the discussion began with Council Member Wayne Smith telling Gray this "sounds personal."

"No, it's not personal Wayne," Gray said.

"It sounds personal to me," Smith replied.

Gray then began the monthly listing of grievances starting with October, 2023.

"But he's done things in meetings where I'm not even there, but he's admitted to doing it and it's in documentation," Gray said. "The person has come and told what he's done. He's done things in these (council) meetings. He's sent emails that are wildly inappropriate, but again we might as well just go ahead and vote because everyone's going to be like oh you're harassing a private citizen and that's rich coming from some people in the council."

Council Member Joe Pollard asked, "Why do you (not) forgive this?"

"This is not, this is not church, this is city council," she replied. "So that's between him or you and whoever you deal with outside of here at church setting."

Voting "No" were Joe Pollard, Mitchell W. Smith, Harold Timmerman, and Juanita Wilson. Council member Tony Staton was absent, which counts as a "No" vote. Voting "Yes" on the motion were council members Joy Gray, Angela Griffin and Gina R. Thomas-Littlejohn, resulting in Five "No" and three "Yes."

Planning Commission reappointment process questioned

There was one other agenda item involving the planning commission. That was the reappointment of Planning Commission Member Rodney Chapman.

Chapman was the final appointment that completed the five-member commission. That seat was vacant for five years. He was appointed in mid-term by the city council in August, 2022. Chapman is a former city employee working for the street and parks departments. His term expires April 6, 2024.

In an interesting turn of events, the normal simple reappointment process became a discussion of whether planning commission seats should be considered open when the term is expiring; even if the current planning member is willing to serve another three-year term.

Gray asked, "I don't have any recollection of, do people on the planning commission just decide they stay? Does the planning commission not advertise that position being opened? So do we just automatically rubber stamp people?"

"We automatically put them back in there because they're learning what needs to be done," said Council Member Juanita Wilson. Wilson is also a member of the planning commission.

Huck pointed out it was just last year planning commission members Tonya Prowes and Stephanie Beck were reappointed. Their new terms expire April 6, 2026.

A history of Planning Commission appointments

and re-appointments

The current Alexander Planning Commission is a reincarnated version of a previous commission. The original planning commission was disbanded by the council in 2017 after two members resigned and the council felt there was a lack of interest, by at least two of the remaining members, to cooperate with city hall.

City Council Member Juanita Wilson and former Council Member Michael Huck were appointed by Mayor Paul Mitchell June 19, 2017. They were appointed to terms open from the original planning commission, which expired April 6, 2019. Because a quorum of five is three Huck and Wilson couldn't hold a meeting until they found a third person.

Former Council Member Stephanie Beck was appointed by Mitchell in March, 2018. Beck's first term expired April 6, 2020.

With three out of five members available they were able to hold their first meeting Tuesday, March 20, 2018. The terms of the two remaining vacancies would expire April 6, 2020 and April 6, 2021.

Tonya Prowse was appointed September, 2018. Her first term expired April 6, 2020. That still left the fifth position vacant and a term to expire April 6, 2021.

The council reappointed Wilson and Huck at the April, 2019 council meeting to their first full three-year terms. Those terms would expire April 6, 2022.

Beck and Prowse were reappointed by the council April, 2020. Their new terms would expire April 6, 2023.

In April, 2022 the city council reappointed Huck and Wilson for a second time. Their current terms will expire April 6, 2025.

The vacant planning commission seat's term expired April 6, 2021 beginning a new term to expire April 6, 2024. In August, 2022 former city employee Rodney Chapman was appointed by the council.

As stated above, Beck and Prowse were reappointed for a second time by the council March, 2023. Their current terms will expire April 6, 2026.

The vote

In a roll call vote Council members Joe Pollard, Mitchell W. Smith, Harold Timmerman, and Juanita Wilson voted "Yes." Voting "No" were council members Joy Gray and Gina R. Thomas-Littlejohn. Council Member , Angela Griffin abstained. Council Member Tony Staton was absent, which counts as a "No" vote. The total count was four "Yes," Two "No," one abstain and one absent.

With what amounts to a four, four tie the motion to reappoint failed. Mayor Herrmann declined to exercise her option to break the tie by voting "Yes" as permitted under state law. The council took no decision on advertising the opening.

Under state law anyone whose term has expired is still able to keep that position unless they resign or are replaced.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is April 15, 6:00 PM at the Alexander Municipal Complex. The public is invited to attend.