Waldron mayor storms out of special city council meeting

WALDRON, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A Sept. 24 Waldron special city council meeting ended before a final vote was put in for a water bid project when Mayor David Millard told council members “Well kiss my butt,” before storming out of the meeting.

The meeting started by discussing water tank piping needed to finish a backwash rehab project that has been a problem for about three weeks.

Mayor David Millard, council members Mark Ashford, Josh Lovett, Jeff Gilbert, Chad Owens, and Doyle Dickens were in attendance. Dawna Young arrived late.

Millard started the meeting by discussing two options presented to the council members by a man named Brandon, to either tie two tanks together or pay $100,000 per month.

“A while back we had trouble getting water to certain areas out there. Well, we got that fixed,” Brandon told the council.

But now the two-year-old tank does not have enough water to backwash. However, the council members felt they didn’t have enough information on bids to feel comfortable casting a vote.

“We got to fix it, No. 1, or we run our citizens out of water and, No. 2, I think they can backwash while they work on rehabbing the tank. It’s something that had to be done years ago,” the mayor said as Brandon finished explaining the situation.

A push for the city to continue a contract with a company that has been doing the city’s fire pumps was at the forefront.

“We got a contractor who still has an open contract. He’s been doing the fire pumps for him to give us a price. It’ll be cheaper to go with someone you already got a contract with,” Brandon said.

City council members were verbally upset about the lack of bids available, timeliness and rush. Brandon told them they had three days to do something or face a longer fix.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on that I’m not happy about,” one council member said.

Council members asked what would happen if they didn’t make a decision that day, Brandon replied they’d have to wait a year.

Moments later, the mayor stood up in anger.

“I can’t convince you SOBs, but I got some grandbabbies. You think you’re inconvenienced? Well, kiss my butt,” the mayor said as he left the room.

The city voted to have the most senior member, Young, take the place of the mayor. They decided to continue the talks in a later meeting.

Millard told KNWA/FOX24 that Young’s appointment to take the mayor’s place was only for the city council meeting.

The next Waldron City Council meeting will be on Oct. 3.

Watch the full video of the meeting here.

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