Kellams: We are pushing February out the door. This is the last Friday of the longest month of the year. Here to help us celebrate the end of February is Michael Tilley with Talk Business & Politics. Welcome, Michael.
Tilley: Thanks for having me back.
Kellams: Did you say the longest month of the year?
Tilley: Yeah, not necessarily in days, but just in attitude.
Kellams: Yes. We started February at least 60 days ago.
Tilley: I agree. And I'm trying to say, boy, if you're not providing me with this amazing segue into a story that has gone on longer than you might think — it is the consent decree, and there's a modification. Let's get up to speed.
So to get up to speed, let's go back to 2014 when the federal government — the EPA and the Department of Justice — said, and the reason they said this is because for decades, those two agencies were trying to tell the city of Fort Smith, you've got to fix your sewer system. You can't keep pushing stuff that comes out of a sewer into the open ground and into the river and streams. And the city of Fort Smith kept saying, yeah, we'll get right on that, and then wouldn't do it. And so finally, the EPA and the DOJ said, now you're going to do it. So they filed a consent decree and the city agreed to it back in 2014.
And then it's been a struggle ever since, primarily because it requires a lot of money. One estimate is $800 million, another estimate could be a billion dollars by the time it's all said and done. That's a lot of money for the city of Fort Smith. So there have been several attempts by the city to modify the conditions and requirements, and they've been off and on successful, and they've ultimately led to where we are now — this modified decree that the Department of Justice provided the city last week. The board of directors talked about it Tuesday.
I'm not going to get into all the details, but some of the key provisions are: it gives the city another 11.5 years on top of the original 15-year deadline to get some of these things done. And one more quick aside — this is why voters in May of last year approved that pretty broad sales tax reallocation plan that will raise $360 million over 30 years. That was done to fund this, and it was done to get these federal agencies' attention and say, look, we're serious, and we're going to do this.
So the key provisions: the 11.5-year extension; it also gives the city more flexibility to schedule mandated work. The previous decree said you've got to do so much per year. This new decree says you can work that out on a three-year average, but on a three-year average, you have to have so much done. And then also, maybe more importantly, it puts what's called a shot clock on these agencies. So if there's a dispute, the agencies can't delay — it has to go relatively quickly to a court to adjudicate that dispute. The previous decree allowed the agencies to drag that out, which could delay the work, and also every day they were not abiding by the decree, there were penalties, and they added up and they could be expensive.
Paul Calamita — he's an attorney in Virginia who's been helping the city negotiate with these federal agencies over the past several years — he briefed the board on this. And there are still some concerns from the board. Some of them still think it's too tough, that it requires the city to do too much in a short period of time, and there are concerns that there's no room to negotiate. Mr. Calamita pushed back pretty hard. I was somewhat surprised by how direct he was with them. In fact, one quote, when he was responding to some of the concerns, he said, "This is not the hill for us to die on in the circumstances that we're in."
His take was — and also what I'm hearing from other folks who are not on the board but are familiar with the process and the history — their take is, look, it's not perfect, it's better than it was, and it's better than it could be. They could hammer the city. There's one estimate that the city could be liable for up to $25 million in penalties. So this modified decree kind of restarts things — it clears all the penalties, they get back into full compliance.
The guidance to the city directors is, look, take the deal, do the work, fix as much of the system as you can, and then in a few years, plead for a little bit better conditions when you've shown progress. And there's also a chance that if you show progress — and there's a term called durable compliance — if you show durable compliance, then there's a chance that the feds would turn this over to the state, the AG's office and the ADEQ, which would be much easier, according to all parties, to deal with.
So that's where we are. The board is set to vote on it next Tuesday, March 3. But, Kyle, this board is unpredictable. They've proven before that they're very capable of zigging when everyone else wants them to zag. I cannot stress enough to folks in the city of Fort Smith how critical this is. This is a marker in the city's history. It's kind of like a parent-child relationship. Sometimes when mom and dad tell you to clean up your room, you just need to clean up your room. There's no negotiating. We'll know Tuesday how this goes forward.
Kellams: It looks like now the city of Fort Smith is going to hire a search firm to help recruit a city administrator. It's been since December 2024 that there's been a permanent city administrator.
Tilley: That's right. On Dec. 10, 2024, they fired Carl Geffken. The board went against what is normal and said, look, we're not going to go through the cost of hiring a search firm — we're just going to do it in-house. I'll just say, that proved to be a disaster. They didn't get good applicants. One of the applicants was a hairstylist. No offense to hairstylists, but those qualifications don't fit for a city administrator.
So now we've learned that Director Lee Kemp has been working with the city's HR department, and they're recommending hiring the firm Colin Baenziger & Associates, a Florida-based firm. They also were the firm used when Carl Geffken was hired — so that's interesting. There will be a vote planned for next Tuesday on this as well.
I talked to Lee Kemp. He thinks that if they can get a contract, by mid-July they could have a new city administrator hired. He says this group has a history of moving fast — they think in 90 days they'll have a good shortlist of candidates, maybe even a selection.
And again, I want to stress — this is an important thing. We're not just hiring someone to come in and organize parades and go to ribbon cuttings. This is a big deal. And this is what's been puzzling — that the board has taken so long. We're going on 15 months. You rarely ever see a business go without a CEO for 15 months. And the city administrator is the CEO in this form of government. That person manages an annual budget of more than $300 million, more than 1,000 city employees, and they provide safety, sanitation, water, sewer and other services to a city with a population of about 90,000. That's why it's been puzzling that they've taken so long. But hopefully they'll get it right, because it is a very critical hire.
Kellams: The city of Fort Smith is amassing a pretty impressive collection of statues. You've got the William O. Darby statue, the Bass Reeves statue, the Light Horse statue in front of the Marshals Museum. And there's an idea for another monument in downtown.
Tilley: Yeah — well, it's not the Kyle Kellams monument, which I thought was what they were going to propose, but maybe we'll get that someday.
Jim Spears — you mentioned Bass Reeves, he was a leader in that effort to get the Reeves monument up, he's been an advocate for the Marshals Museum, he's been involved in a lot of community projects — he recently made a pitch to the Central Business Improvement District that there should be a monument marking the Butterfield stagecoach route, which came through Fort Smith.
I had heard about the Butterfield Trail, but until this I hadn't really looked into it. I didn't realize that Fort Smith was a key hub. The two routes that started in St. Louis and Memphis hit Fort Smith before they head west. The trail office was in downtown Fort Smith. That started in 1858. What I thought was interesting — from Fort Smith, it was a 15-day trip by stagecoach to California. And if you send a letter out there and back, hope you didn't need anything urgent.
The point is, it's a very interesting part of not only Fort Smith history, but Western history and U.S. history. And it didn't last long — about three years. I like the state of Arkansas's description of the route. It says "Civil War bushwhackers and hostile Indians in the West spelled an end for the company." Which — maybe the Indians were hostile because you were running a stagecoach through their front yard.
Kellams: Yes, yes.
Tilley: But it was a 3,500-mile route. Mr. Spears is proposing a smaller statue than Bass Reeves — kind of two big steel plates that have a cutout to look like a stagecoach with the driver and the horses, and it would be lit up at night. It would make an interesting projection through the cutouts.
Phil White, who's a member of the Central Business Improvement District — he's also known for getting stuff done, he's active in terms of downtown construction and community projects — he's going to take this on. With those two folks involved, I would not be surprised if within two or three years we're at some kind of unveiling. And you're right, we'll have a lot in just a small area in terms of monuments and statues: Bass Reeves, the Native American lawman at the Marshals Museum, General Darby, the Gateway Park monument. A very small area with several impressive statues and monuments. And it looks like we may add one more in the near future.
And that Butterfield Trail — they would hit what is now the Pea Ridge National Military Park, go on through Rogers to Fayetteville, then from Fayetteville to Fort Smith by stagecoach.
Kellams: Wow. Before Interstate 71, that was a struggle. I can't imagine.
Tilley: I wonder if there was a sign that said, "In the last three years, seven stagecoaches have turned over. Don't you be next."
Kellams: Yes. Well, I would hope so. That's for our old-school listeners there, Michael. I'll talk to you in March.
Tilley: Okay. Hopefully that won't be a 90-day month.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
