Well, we find ourselves back in big-news-making little Tontitown (population 7,400), yet again wondering what’s up with the government there that can’t seem to avoid making statewide headlines.

The city and Mayor Angela Russell now are accused in a lawsuit of unlawfully using the people’s money to pay for private legal representation to cover their expenses in a citizens’ action opposing expansion of the adjacent Eco-Vista landfill.

Washington County resident Mick Wagner, former director of Tontitown’s water utility, recently filed the suit with Fort Smith’s pit bull attorney Joey McCutchen and partner Stephen Napurano.

The flap originated after the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved a permit in 2023 for a 12-acre expansion of the landfill owned by

WM Inc. to accommodate its Class IV landfill space. (Class IV waste is nonhazardous, sanitary construction and demolition debris such as wood, metal, brick and plaster).

Eighteen residents living near the landfill then filed an appeal opposing the expansion, citing a Nov. 2, 2022, resolution by the city stating that it no longer supported the expansion. According to Wagner’s suit, an invoice for the residents’ attorney was paid by the city.

Wagner filed suit under provisions of our state constitution that allow citizens to challenge any allegedly unlawful use of public funds on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated taxpayers.

Wagner alleges that Russell and the city violated the Constitution by “unlawfully appropriating public funds to finance private legal representation for a group of individuals … [and] improperly used taxpayer money to advance private interests, including the mayor’s personal interest, as she resides near the landfill.”

The expenditures, the suit continues, constitute an illegal exaction directly harming taxpayers of Tontitown.

Wagner’s suit seeks declaratory relief to affirm the constitutional violations and an injunction to prevent Russell and the city from continuing to misuse public funds for private purposes. It doesn’t, however, take a position on the merits of the underlying legal action over the Eco-Vista landfill expansion, nor does it advocate for or against the expansion of the landfill, only the misuse of public funds.

“Regardless of the merits of the underlying lawsuit,” says Wagner’s suit, “taxpayer money must not be used to finance private legal representation for a group of individuals, including Mayor Russell herself, in a matter where private interests are at stake. Allowing public funds to be used in this manner sets a dangerous precedent, undermining the constitutional mandate that public money be used solely for public purposes. …

“The Arkansas Supreme Court has stated: ‘Citizens have standing to bring a public funds case because they have a vested interest in ensuring that the tax money they have contributed to the state treasury is lawfully spent. Thus, the only standing requirements we have imposed in public-funds cases is that the Plaintiff be a citizen and that he, or she, have contributed tax money to the general treasury.’” Wagner became a persistent thorn in the side of Tontitown’s government during his stint as its director of water utilities, which I believe can be a healthy thing for any city’s government whose sole mission is to serve the people who vote them into office.

As for McCutchen and Napurano, they’ve continually proven themselves in my book to hold feet to the fire when it comes to matters of transparency and freedom of information in government, even when they gain nothing financially. We would all be better off with more like them in our state.

NOUGHT BUT MEMORIES

Most of us know we lost President Jimmy Carter last month. But did you hear about all the others many of us also appreciated for what they gave us who also departed our world in 2024?

There was Toby Keith, Charles Osgood, Louis Gossett Jr., Bill Walton, Phil Donahue, Willie Mays, Donald Sutherland, Quincy Jones, Carl Weathers, James Earl Jones, Ethel Kennedy, Teri Garr, Jerry West, Richard Simmons and Bob Newhart, among others.

It’s always been interesting to me how one lifespan washes ashore together with others in the same large wave to share moments and appreciation for what we offer to those who come ashore with us, then steadily pulls back into the sea from which we all came as yet another wave arrives.

Not an ideal analogy, I know, but close enough. Whatever you still want to do, valued readers, do it now.

Never forget Albert Einstein’s message: “Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”

Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master’s journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].