Turrell mayor calls town hall meeting

Turrell mayor calls town hall meeting

Cooper wants raise, solicits resident input

news@theeveningtimes.com

Turrell will be holding a special town hall meeting tonight to discuss the city’s sewer pond and the mayor’s salary.

Mayor Dorothy Cooper said she will update residents about the sewer pond which is badly in need of repairs and also make a plea once again to restore the mayor’s salary to $2,000 a month.

The mayor’s salary was $2,000 a month but the city council voted to reduce it to $1,000 a month during a special council meeting on Nov. 25 in 2014 — the day before the run-off election, which Cooper won.

Cooper has repeatedly brought the issue up before the city council to restore the salary but was again rebuffed at the July 12 meeting.

“I’m still battling with them over this,” Cooper said.

Cooper claims the state law does not allow cities to decrease salaries during an election year, and points out that former Mayor Allen Spears did not ask for the salary to be reduced.

The mayor’s salary was upped by the council to $2,000 when Spears took office because the job required extra work to clean up a mess left behind by former Mayor Franklin Lockhart, who resigned in 2010 rather than face charged of malfeasance.

Lockhart was charged with eight counts of malfeasance in office for allegedly moving the city’s money across state lines, giving himself a bonus, and funneling money to pay wages for an unauthorized police department employee.

The salary increase was only supposed to be temporary for three months, however. The city council never revisited the issue while Lockhart was in office, but decided to reduce it back to where it had originally been set.

Cooper maintains that the salary was only reduced because she was elected mayor.

“The last mayor did not ask for the salary to be reduced,” Cooper said. “I’m just asking them to follow the law. They can’t just change the budget like that.”

Mark Hays, an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League, told the city council that “The council was well within their rights to change the salary.”

Copper said Hays did not offer any other specific advice and she plans to share information on the law which she claims backs her case.

Cooper has also gathered 125 signatures on a petition supporting her claim.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. tonight, at the W.R. Golden Community Center.

By Mark Randall