The day after property taxes were due the first bill including an $18 solid waste fee the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District Board received an update on one lawsuit filed regarding the fee.
The lawsuit is one of six filed in the district, consisting of Baxter, Boone, Carroll, Marion, Newton and Searcy counties, but the Carroll County suit was the first to make court proceedings.
The bulk of the suits are the same, but the plaintiffs are individual residents of each county. Fayetteville lawyers Matt Bishop and Wendy Howerton filed all six suits. The plaintiff in Carroll County is Paul Summers.
Each of the suits alleges the court-ordered $18 fee collected on business and residential property taxes is actually a tax and an illegal exaction. They ask the court to block collection of the fee, which is directed to pay back investors who bought bonds in 2005 used to purchase the now-defunct NABORS landfill.
The Harrison Daily Times reports at Tuesdays meeting, district lawyer John Verkamp said a hearing was held on the Carroll County suit in Berryville in August.
After the hearing, Judge Scott Jackson ordered the lawyers in the case file briefs answering some questions he had.
Verkamp said all those briefs had been filed, and the case is ripe for a decision. He also mentioned some subpoenas that had been filed in the case.
Summers issued subpoenas to Bank of the Ozarks, First Security Bancorp and Crews and Associates, Inc. for information pertaining to the identity of bondholders and payments to them.
All three of the companies filed motions to quash those subpoenas. Crews motion states that even if federal law allowed violation of privacy, disclosing the names of bondholders at a specific time wont make a difference.
Bank of the Ozarks moved to quash stating the plaintiff requested information the bank, which isnt even a named party in the lawsuit, has a duty under federal law to protect.
Verkamp told the board Tuesday all that matter could be a moot point if Judge Jackson grants the motion to dismiss the suit.
Board president and Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass asked Verkamp what would happen to the lawsuits in the other five counties if its dismissed in Carroll County.
Verkamp said those cases are all different before judges in two other judicial circuits, so there could be different outcomes.
Board member Tim McKinney said there had been two separate state police investigations into money mishandled by the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District, yet no charges were ever filed. He said it was a tragedy no one was ever held accountable.
Verkamp also updated the board on a suit filed by Methvin Sanitation against the district and the White River Regional Solid Waste Management District in Fulton County.
By law, the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste District has charged Methvin Sanitation $2 per ton of solid waste leaving the district to another landfill. Methvin hauls waste to Fulton County, but the White River district has also been charging Methvin $1 per ton dumped at that landfill, the lawsuit states.
Methvin alleges being forced to pay two fees is against the law and asks for reimbursement.
Verkamp said that lawsuit is in the discovery phase. A decision in that case hinges on a similar suit filed in Benton County that will soon be before the state Supreme Court for a final decision.
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