The Bottom Line: Not wanting your cake but being forced to eat it anyway leaves an awkward taste in your mouth

Jared Rego

Fort Smith City Director Jared Rego has spent months doing everything in his power to deny Fort Smith citizens a straightforward path to decide their own form of government.

When colleagues on the Board of Directors tried to place the question on the November ballot through a simple ordinance, Rego joined the holdouts who blocked it. The board fell short more than once.

Directors Neal Martin, Christina Catsavis, and George Catsavis were ready to let the voters decide. Rego and others withheld the necessary concurrence, forcing citizens to take the harder road of gathering petition signatures themselves.

That road has not been short. Volunteers worked weekends and evenings for months. They collected signatures in the heat, at events, and on street corners. An earlier attempt to turn in the petitions was delayed after questions arose about the notarization process on some pages.

Organizers paused, investigated, and pressed on. They needed 2,607 valid signatures from registered voters inside the city limits. They kept gathering until they had roughly a thousand extra, building in a cushion against any that might be challenged during verification by City Clerk Sherri Gard’s office.

Now the petitions have been handed over. Attorney Joey McCutchen reported the group delivered the package on August 3 with the extra signatures and a signed affidavit meant to avoid any later misunderstanding. The hard deadline for certification in time for the November ballot is August 25, though the city can stop counting once the minimum threshold is confirmed.

And suddenly Rego is signaling he will change his vote. If the signatures check out, he says he will join Martin and the Catsavises and support putting the issue on the ballot through board action after all.

Welcome back to the farm. In an earlier editorial we discussed chicken manure and how the smell lingers long after the spreading stops. This late conversion carries the same odor. Jumping on the bandwagon once the wagon is already rolling is a safe, cost-free move.

A yes vote now simply confirms what the city will have to do once the clerk’s office verifies the numbers. It buys a little political cover without requiring any earlier courage.

As the late great Richard Pryor observed, nobody can stop water once it wants to go.

After decades of civic malaise the citizens of Fort Smith have turned a trickle of interest into a tidal wave of signatures. Rego has a free pass to grab a board and ride the wave. At this stage, a yes vote is largely a moot point. The petitions are in. Verification is underway. The decision is moving forward whether individual directors like it or not.

The handlers who have kept a tight grip on city government and administration for decades can feel the shift. The wheels are on the wagon, and it is heading downhill.

Citizens who want a direct say in how Fort Smith is structured have already spoken with their signatures. The only remaining question is whether certain directors will spend their remaining time still trying to obstruct the inevitable or finally step aside and let the process run its course.