The Bottom Line: The potential of the voice of the people having a say leaves the stupefied minions twisting in the wind

The Fort Smith Board of Directors spent much of 2026 wringing their hands, inventing reasons to wait, and voting down their own chance to put the form-of-government question on the ballot like adults. They did it in May. They did it again in July. They were prepared to do it a third time tonight.

Then City Clerk Sherri Gard certified the signatures anyway.

Organizers submitted 4,122 names. She verified 2,681 as qualified electors—74 more than the 2,607 required, or 15 percent of the votes cast for mayor in the last general election. The mayor-council question is going on the November ballot whether the current majority likes it or not.

All the procedural theater, the lectures about needing “more time to educate the public,” and the sudden reverence for process after they had already said no twice--none of it mattered. The petition beat the deadline, beat the disqualifications, and beat the Board’s attempt to keep the question off a high-turnout midterm ballot.

This was never a secret. A citizen group led by attorney Joey McCutchen and others, including Shayne McKinney, began collecting signatures early this year after the Board made clear it would not simply refer the question. They asked the Board to do it the easy way. The Board declined. Twice.

On May 19 the vote was 3-3 with one abstention. Directors Christina Catsavis, George Catsavis, and Neal Martin voted yes. André Good, Lee Kemp, and Jarred Rego voted no. Kevin Settle sat it out.

On July 7 it was essentially the same lineup, again short of the four votes needed. Hundreds of residents showed up. The Board still said no.

They talked about education. They talked about timing. Some preferred a 2027 vote, after the current cycle. The effect was the same: keep the question away from voters when turnout would actually be high.

Meanwhile the petitioners kept collecting names, delayed a bit over notarization questions, then turned in the first batch on August 3 and more after that. Gard’s office did the work. The numbers cleared.

Fort Smith has operated under the city-administrator form since 1967. The administrator is the unelected CEO of a $300 million-plus operation with more than 1,000 employees. The seven-member Board hires and fires that person. The mayor’s job is largely ceremonial.

The proposed change would make the mayor the chief executive, create an eight-member council (two from each ward), and make the clerk, treasurer, and city attorney elected offices. In case of a 4-4 tie, the mayor--who would hold that authority from the people—gets to break it.

If voters approve it in November, the first elections under the new structure would be in 2028. If they reject it, state law locks the question out for four years.

That is the actual choice. Not “politicizing City Hall” versus some imagined professional nirvana. The current system already has politics. It simply concentrates the real power in an appointed administrator who answers to a Board that can usually be managed. The petition asks whether voters want that power closer to an election.

Now the moneyed and titled crowd that prefers the current setup has to shift from blocking the vote to buying the vote. Expect the same voices that treated citizen signatures like an inconvenience to discover deep, principled objections to “politicizing” city government.

Watch the billboards go up for the at-large races.

Watch a former director who already had a seat at the table and walked away come back selling experience and stability. Lavon Morton is in the Position 5 race. The current majority will try to lock in one more cycle of the same.

The 4-3 hire of Jeff Dingman last week was the tell. Directors Good, Kemp, Settle, and Martin voted to keep the professional manager they know. The two Catsavises and Rego voted no. Keep the structure they know. Keep the one-vote margin they know. That is not a coincidence. It is the status quo protecting itself.

Mark Twain had it right about politicians and diapers: they should be changed often, and for the same reason. The problem in Fort Smith has been that once the Pampers filled up, enough people were talked into ignoring the smell. The petition just forced the change of clothes onto the ballot.

The campaign to keep the old laundry in place is only getting started. The Fearless Four and their outside handlers now have to make their case to the people instead of to each other.

That is what they spent months trying to avoid.

It did not work.