January 6, 2015
MISAPPLICATION & DIVERSION OF TAXPAYER FUNDS HAS RESULTED IN CITIZEN’S DOUBLE TAXATION
MISAPPROPRIATION AND DIVERSION OF TAXPAYER MANDATED MONEY/FUNDS AMOUNTING TO $600 MILLION TO BE APPLIED TO STREET/SEWER IMPROVEMENTS BY PAST AND PRESENT FORT SMITH CITY MANAGERS & BOARDS OF DIRECTORS. RESULTS: A DOUBLE TAXATION & A VIOLATION OF A CITY STATUTE.
The 25 year edict leveled at the city government of Fort Smith, AR by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), resulting from flouting by city governments, it becomes painfully obvious the issue has blossomed into a full blown city & federal legal matter which deserves an immediate investigation by the proper authorities.
Question: the specific matter of a 30 year history by the Fort Smith city government misapplying $600 MILLION that were to be dedicated to streets & sewers, what is the legal position of city/Sebastian County Prosecutor Daniel Shue and Federal Prosecutor Conner Eldridge?
Relative to the 30 year 1% street/sewer tax.
In this regard the Times Record reported that at-Large Director Kevin Settle has just concluded 8 years “of service” in the city government maze.
The Times Record reported further that the 1 cent street/sewer tax generated an estimated $21 MILLION yearly.
The above two facts were reported by the Times Record necessarily points directly at Director Settle that he must know where at least $168 million went in the 8 year period that Settle has served, which is part and parcel of $600 MILLION generated by the 30 year street/sewer tax.
Director Settle, along with the city government leadership, is mum pertaining to the misapplication and diversion of the estimated $600 MILLION street/sewer tax and counting. City Manager Gosack, Mayor Sanders and the Board of Directors are applauding strategies built on cunning subterfuge to pass another 10 year extension of the 1% street/sewer tax in the upcoming May election. The passage of this tax would create and sustain more taxpayer abuse orchestrated by the Fort Smith city government & NGO’s.
Jan. 4, 2011: Director Settle remarked about Gosack’s City Manager appointment, “We thought Ray would be and will be very good, and we didn’t want to lose his knowledge of city operations and the history.”
(Gosack’s knowledge of city operations and history has earned city citizens $ ½-3/4 Billion debt (double taxation), sprinkled with fines and a multitude of deficits.)
July 11, 2014: Settle stated in the Times Record, “Gosack has shown a great ability to lead the city”. (Where, into bankruptcy?)
Oct. 25, 2014: On other city matters, fluoridation/Delta Dental, Trails, Bikeways, etc—these matters show utter disdain for city citizens and their wishes.
Pertaining to fluoridation, Delta Dental and the Arkansas General Assembly Settle stated, “The City Board is more than willing to go along with the State Legislature”. Settle further responded, “The State passed it, not the Board, so we have to follow state law”. Settle showed no concern for city residents bymaking such an inflammatory statement. The Arkansas General Assembly, in league with an insurance company, in this case Delta Dental, has no constitutional or legal authority to force a city to mass medicate, absent funding, to satisfy the economic demands of an insurance company. The politically cowardly Settle knows full well that Fort Smith city voters did not want fluoridation and had voted it down on multiple occasions.
Nov. 4, 2014: Another unsettling matter. Chair of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Parks Commission Lorie Robertson and her remarks regarding Agenda 21 Trails and the upcoming May vote to renew the 1 cent street/sewer tax, proposes to use the same corrupt strategy in the May election that Senator Jake Files & cohorts utilized to pass Issue 3. Issue 3 on the ballot was construed as a voluminous Ethics Bill, while on the back-end a couple of lines that doubled term limits for the Legislative manipulators.
Robertson put forth remarks pertaining to purloining 20% of the street/sewer tax and attaching 10% of it to Trails/Bikeways and the other 10% going to Police/Fire deficient pension funds.
Robertson’s remarks: “The beauty of this is not being written into the main part of this”, (referring to the confiscation of 20% of the street/sewer tax to be diverted to Trails & Pensions.) Robertson reveals she is devoid of ethics by openly admitting their plan to divert more of the street/sewer tax to unnecessary programs.
In other words, they count on citizens not reading the body of the street/sewer tax that gets them to the back end of the Bill that would contain the 20% takeaway.
Nov. 20, 2014: Director At-Large Settle bloviating; “City Manager Gosack has not had a raise in 2 ½ years”. Gosack receives $153,000 yearly in salary, plus a hugely liberal package of perks. A raise? Showering in a cascade of taxpayer dollars, Mayor Sanders receives an outrageous $250,000 annually for his own personal discretionary spending.
Should Fort Smith citizens choose not to examine their own Trails in lieu of the city government, financial asphyxiation will certainly occur sooner or later.
Is the official Board an obtuse, insouciant collection or are they in league with Gosack and the 30 year misappropriation of funds; furthermore, have there been quid pro quo awards during the disappearance of the approximately $600 Million street/sewer tax, especially in the area of very expensive purchases and massive amounts of new equipment?
Incidentally, recently constructed streets do not turn water.
A private business concern could never ever get away with violating the numbers of federal mandates being levied against the City of Fort Smith Administration; why the special legal treatment for the elected & managerial occupants of the Fort Smith city government for over 25 years? Why wasn’t the city locked down years ago and legal action brought against those present & past members of the city government involved in the $600 million diversion scheme?.
Citizens should demand detailed explanations and accountability for the disappearance of the $600 MILLION and if so indicated, litigation by the proper appointed and elected prosecutoral officials should ensue promptly.
Joe McCutchen
P.S. A portion of the City of Fort Smith’s “Mission Statement”…..INTEGRITY ALWAYS! & ABSOLUTE PROFESSIONALISM!!
P.S. In the wake of the new $1/2 -3/4 Billion new tax debt the citizens have been made aware that Gosack and the City Directors benevolently donated $50,000 more to the Marshal-Town Folly, designed to enhance and secure the downtown insiders’ assets. If the Marshal’s Museum reaches maturation , ultimately it will be turned over to some taxpayer subsidized entity.