The Gosnell City Council will have to appoint a city clerk after city clerk/treasurer Kathleen Hunt-Cross abruptly resigned.
During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, city attorney Chris Brown suggested the council solicit applicants and make the appointment at the April meeting.
Since it is an elected position, the individual chosen would finish out the remainder of Cross’s term.
“Kathy has done a fantastic job; nobody can deny that,” Gosnell City Councilman Steve Nelson said. “She’s come in here, she’s got everything on disc and she’s done a really great job. I want to complement her for that, but in the end we were looking at different paths as far as certain things that she disagreed with and we disagreed with and she chose to resign. She was going to resign in 15 months anyway, but we’d like to thank her for that.”
At the end of her two-week vacation, on Sunday, March 8, Cross emailed her resignation letter to city council members and Mayor Teresa Walker.
“Good evening, I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you all that as March 9, 2020 I am resigning as Gosnell City Clerk Treasurer,” the email reads. “I feel with the actions of the Mayor that has occurred the past few weeks it is in my best interest physically and mentally to resign.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, Walker told the NEA Town Courier that she was surprised by the resignation.
Walker noted Cross was upset with the mayor’s tiebreaking vote that settled a dispute with the Gosnell Water Association on Feb. 21.
The city settled with the water company for $2,300, avoiding a potential lawsuit over Walker ordering city employees to unplug Gosnell Water Association equipment from city electrical outlets.
Because two council members had to abstain since they are on the GWA board, Walker had to cast the fourth vote needed to approve the agreement.
“She (Cross) thought I should drag it out and cost the city more money,” Walker said. “It could cost more in the long run. It could cost anywhere from $20,000-30,000, if not more. Settle and get it over with. Yes, I gave the order to unplug it. I admit that. $2,300 is better than ($20,000-30,000).”
“She stormed out of here that night,” the mayor added. “I told her that the friendship was not a friendship anymore, it’s pretty much a work relationship.”
Nelson said Cross also became upset when the city changed the locks while she was on vacation.
“We just chose to change them because of personnel changes,” Nelson said. “She was coming in and getting her stuff, and we weren’t sure, and we didn’t want too much stuff going out of here without it being in the daytime when everybody was here to see it, so we changed the locks out.”
Nelson said Cross took the two-week vacation after the Feb. 21 meeting.
“After the special meeting, she wanted to take two weeks off, and in her two weeks, she decided to resign,” Nelson said.
As of Tuesday evening, Cross still had a city laptop and cell phone, according to Walker.
She added city officials cannot find the city tape recorder; cities are required to keep recordings of all council meetings.
Nelson noted the city plans to draft a letter requesting all city property be returned within 30 days.
“I think she’ll give everything back,” Nelson said.
The city council is considering how to fill the position, whether to keep it as a city clerk/treasurer or cut payroll by simply appointing a city clerk. The appointee has to be a resident of Gosnell and a qualified voter. The council is also reviewing a city measure that made the city clerk/treasurer a department head.
Nelson said the city may need to hire someone at least temporarily “to get things in order.”
Also, because of the abrupt resignation, Nelson asked fellow Gosnell City Councilman Jason Taylor and a citizen for more time in fulfilling their respective Freedom of Information Act requests than the maximum three days allowed by law, and they agreed.
Taylor noted he has gotten some of the information he requested during the Feb. 11 city council meeting.
His FOIA request seeks financial information such as a list of all city-issued fuel cards, names of city employees who have a city credit card, bank statements and credit card statements.
He asked how much vacation time and sick leave each city employee has accrued; the policy for paying employees for unused leave; for a copy of each employee and elected official reimbursement paid by the city in 2019; and for personnel files, including all disciplinary records for city employees Alveque Henderson and Kathleen Hunt-Cross.
“Believe me, we want to know as much as y’all want to know where we stand,” Nelson said. “Before we bring in a new person, we would like to bring them in fresh to where we can say everything is where we need it and we know what we’ve got.”
Taylor suggested that the council packets begin to include a list of checks to go along with the budget information that is included in them.
In other news, the council heard a pitch from representatives of River City Hydraulics who offered a buy-back program for a new garbage truck.
Gosnell currently pays $2,600 a month for its garbage truck, which is no longer covered under warranty.
River City proposed paying off the remaining balance of $96,000, and providing a new garbage truck every two years for $2,600 a month, with a warrant included.
The council tabled the request.
Also Tuesday night, Willie D. Williams of Arkansas Northeastern College spoke about some of the college’s programs aimed at training those with few skills for the job market.