HWH mayor, chief of staff found in contempt of court

The mayor of Helena-West Helena and his chief of staff have been found in contempt of court for violating a court order upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding their salaries. On Thursday morning, First Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Christopher Morledge filed a court order in Phillips County Circuit Court holding both HWH Mayor Christopher Franklin and his chief of staff James Valley in contempt and ordering the men pay restitution to the city within 90 days for overpayments of their salaries. Failure to pay restitution would land the men in the Woodruff County Jail where they would be held until a hearing to determine what other action should be taken, according to the court order. The original case dates back to 2022 when Valley, a resident of the city, called a special council meeting for Dec. 30, while Kevin Smith was still mayor and without Smith’s knowledge, for the council to consider ordinances to increase the salaries for the mayor and chief of staff, add a city position and increase the mayor’s discretionary spending limit. The council adopted the first ordinance, which allowed the mayor’s base pay to be increased from $48,000 to $70,000. The second ordinance covered three things, including creating a chief of staff position at a base salary of $65,000, an executive secretary position with a base salary of $42,000 and increasing the mayor’s discretionary spending and conflict-of-interest limit from $2,500 to $100,000. On his last day in office, Dec. 31, 2022, Smith vetoed the ordinances. During the first council meeting of 2023, Franklin attempted to rescind Smith’s vetoes, saying the ordinances should become law. In January 2023, HWH resident and business owner Greg Williams filed a lawsuit against the city, seeking a petition for a temporary restraining order and for a declaratory judgement, asking the judge to declare Smith’s veto valid and to prevent the ordinances from taking effect. Morledge issued a court order in January that year and set the matter for a hearing in March. That order prohibited the mayor and council from taking “any action” in accordance with the ordinances in question until the case could be heard in circuit court. In April 2023, Morledge ruled Smith followed state law in vetoing the ordinances and that the ordinances adopted by the council were null and void. In May that year, André Valley, who was representing the city in the case, appealed Morledge’s ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court where justices upheld it on a 4-3 ruling, finding that Smith followed the law in issuing the vetoes. The city’s stance was that Smith did not follow proper protocol when filing the veto, as state law requires he file it with the city clerk. Smith placed his veto letter on the clerk’s desk when the clerk’s office was closed on New Year’s Eve, which the city argued was not proper. He also left a copy of the veto on the mayor’s desk for Franklin to find when he took office Jan. 1. The high court’s majority opinion, written by Justice Courtney Rae Hudson, said Smith “complied with the plain language of the statute and timely and effectively vetoed the council’s actions at its December 30, 2022, meeting.” Even though Morledge’s original ruling was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court, the HWH City Council approved city budgets for 2023, 2024 and 2025 that included salaries of $70,000 and $65,000, respectively, for Franklin and Valley. In July last year, Williams filed another complaint against Franklin and the City of HWH requesting a motion for contempt, claiming the city was ignoring the rulings by both courts and paying salaries to Franklin and Valley that the council approved in December 2022. Earlier this month, Morledge heard arguments in regards to Williams’ request for contempt on the city’s actions and made his ruling in the case on Thursday. During the hearing on Feb. 3, the HWH city clerk testified that the mayor was to be paid $48,000 based on a previous ordinance and that no other ordinances had been passed to increase his pay. She also testified that the mayor’s pay in 2023 was $71,000.05 and the same remained true for fiscal year 2024. André Valley argued that by the passage of the city’s budget was the authority to increase the mayor’s pay. The budget was passed by a resolution and not an ordinance. The clerk also testified that James Valley’s base pay based on the previous ordinance was $32,000 but that he received $65,000 in 2023 and 2024. She testified there was no ordinance to increase James Valley’s base pay. Again, the defense argued the budget is a resolution and gives the authority to increase Valley’s pay when passed by the city council. “The court finds that these arguments are without merit,” Morledge wrote in the order issued this week. “This court further finds that the defendants Franklin and James Valley willfully disobeyed the 2023 order of this court declaring ordinances 39-22 and 40-22 null and void. “The fact that they authorized and accepted the exact amount of salary or pay that this court declared that they should not receive is an intentional disobedience of the court’s prior order and they are hereby held in contempt of court,” Morledge wrote. Morledge said Valley could “purge himself” of the contempt by repaying $33,000 to the city and that Franklin could “purge himself” of the contempt by repaying $23,000.05. Those amounts are the differences between the defendants’ base pay and what they actually received in 2023.

HWH mayor, chief of staff found in contempt of court

Judge orders officials to repay city or face jail time

SFC Health Unit hosting annual flu shot clinic in effort to make community safer

SFC Election Commission working to ensure internet access, security ready before Nov. 3 vote

New Homecoming Festival is Saturday at Hicky Field in FC

Tamara Johnson

Related Posts

SFC Health Unit hosting annual flu shot clinic in effort to make community safer

SFC Election Commission working to ensure internet access, security ready before Nov. 3 vote

New Homecoming Festival is Saturday at Hicky Field in FC

FC Mayoral candidates share goals to lead city

QCourt approves resolution on FCMC non-profit status

Mayoral candidates take center stage at tonight’s political forum

Food distribution set for Wednesday

Bicycle outing, moonlit journey on tap at MRSP

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

HWH mayor, chief of staff found in contempt of court

Judge orders officials to repay city or face jail time

RELATED POSTS

Membership Required

Related Posts

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password