The Hot Springs Board of Directors did not predetermine Bill Burrough's promotion to city manager prior to Tuesday night's executive session, Mayor Pat McCabe said in an interview this week.
The consensus to elevate Burrough, who had served as interim city manager since June, to the city's top position was entirely a construct of the more than two-hour discussion behind closed doors, McCabe said, and not a product of conversations held outside the requirements of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, which mandates the public be notified before board members discuss potential action items.
"The way these things start up is you go around the room and say, 'How do you feel about a certain topic?'" McCabe said Thursday. "Somebody said, 'Let's make Bill city manager.' I can't remember who. The decision just kind of evolved. It's not something that's been planned or contrived or done covertly."
McCabe said City Attorney Brian Albright sent him a draft employment agreement for a new city manager the week before the executive session, but both said Albright provided it on his own initiative. The annual evaluations of the city manager and Albright were placed on the agenda a week before Tuesday's business meeting and executive session.
"It occurred to me that might end up being a discussion the board would have," Albright, referring to Burrough's promotion, said Friday. "I prepared a draft and even added a comment that said, 'At the risk of overstepping myself, I prepared a draft to use as a starting point.'"
Albright said the draft was a composite of several model employment agreements recommended by the International City/County Management Association and included the provision exempting the city from severance obligations if termination results from a for-cause action.
The draft agreement did not set base compensation but did assign $7,800 for the annual vehicle allowance, an amount Albright said was in former City Manager David Watkins' 2012 employment agreement. David Frasher, whom the board hired in January 2016 after Watkins died following a fall at his home five months earlier, had a $12,000 vehicle allowance, according to his employment contract.
Albright said when the directors came out of executive session, he forwarded the draft agreement he had emailed McCabe a week earlier to a computer in City Hall's administrative suite and added the board-approved modifications. He printed out a final copy for Burrough and McCabe to sign.
Property records show Burrough and his wife purchased a home inside the city the week before the executive session. State law requires city managers to reside inside the city where they are employed. District 5 Director Karen Garcia said that information prompted her to inquire about the legality of Burrough's wife continuing to work for the city's solid waste department, should Burrough be promoted.
"When I heard Bill was buying a house in the city, there was a question I posed to the city attorney regarding the employment of Bill's wife in the city of Hot Springs," Garcia said in an email. "If that had an impact on his consideration for city manager, I thought he should know beforehand, and that the board should also know."
Garcia provided The Sentinel-Record with an email Albright sent the board explaining that Burrough wife's continued employment would not violate the relevant statute if Burrough were promoted. Employment is prohibited for relatives of city directors and city managers, but the law permits employment that's active prior to the relative becoming city director or city manager.
Albright's email said Burrough's wife has worked full-time for the city since late 2001.
Garcia said she had no foreknowledge the board would take action on Burrough's promotion Tuesday night, and that she had not discussed the matter with other directors outside of public meetings.
"Had I known, I would have scheduled a community meeting in my district prior to the meeting and was planning to do that after the first of the year," she said. "I didn't have conversations outside of public meetings, and I did not know the hiring of the city manager was going to be considered until we were in the executive meeting."
Several directors had said filling the vacancy would not be considered until the 2019-20 board took office next month, but McCabe said that wasn't necessary after all three incumbent directors were re-elected. Carroll Weatherford, who won a three-way race for the open District 4 seat, said he indicated his support for Burrough when McCabe solicited his input prior to Tuesday's executive session.
Garcia and McCabe are the only current directors who responded to questions about the promotion despite all seven members of the panel being asked to comment on the process.
McCabe said that while no public meetings were held to solicit citizen input on how to fill the vacant position, popular sentiment he gleaned through his interactions with the public indicated strong support for installing Burrough and forgoing a wider search.
"There's many ways to look at it," he said. "You can run to the public on each and every decision. You can post an issue on the city's website and seek comment. Or you can be Fort Knox and nobody gets in. You need some balance in between the two.
"We received tremendous input. Not in a formal setting. We haven't called a special meeting and asked for the public to weigh in. We haven't done that when we went outside and hired for that position. Bill was a known entity. We've seen how he's performed. That's why the public came out so much in favor of him."
Compensation
McCabe said the $165,000 base salary the board set for Burrough amounted to a $1,800 raise. His salary as deputy city manager is $131,144 a year. In June, the board approved an additional $2,400 a month after it appointed Burrough interim city manager.
Applying the 2-percent cost-of-living adjustment that will take effect for all full-time city employees next year to the almost $160,000 he would have made under his interim payment structure, the salary increases to about $163,200.
Frasher's January 2016 employment agreement set a $159,500 base salary that grew to $170,851 when the board requested his resignation in June. Burrough's initial base salary is higher despite lacking Frasher's experience, which included serving as lead administrator of four cities prior to his time in Hot Springs.
McCabe said the board viewed Burrough's two stints as the city's interim executive, the first occurring during the eight months between Watkins' death and Frasher's first day of employment in March 2016, as experience commensurate with the pay level it set Tuesday night.
Frasher is also more decorated academically and professionally, with a bachelor's degree in administration of justice from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a credentialed manager certification from the International City/County Management Association.
Burrough does not have a college degree or the same level of ICMA certification.
"Some people are formally educated and some are educated through work experience," McCabe said. "I understand if (Burrough) applied for a comparable job in a comparable size community, they wouldn't look at him because he doesn't meet the prerequisites of having a formal education. I think that would be their loss."
Local on 12/09/2018