EUREKA SPRINGS -- In her closing remarks during Monday evening's City Council meeting, Mayor Dana Joy responded to council member Rae Hahn's criticism of a lack of law enforcement in the city by telling Hahn, "As you're going into your budget review on Thursday, and before you start talking about cutting again, I'm going to remind you about your talking about more law enforcement. You can't enforce if you're cutting the budget. If you're expecting everybody to be there, you can't cut them back. Just making a statement. Now …"

  "You should come … [inaudible]," Hahn interrupted.

  The mayor cut her off with "Rae, you've had your say."

  "You should be there," Hahn insisted.

  "If you have questions or issues … before you get to this table … I would suggest you do your homework. Call your police chief and find out the answers to these questions before you get here. Before you stand here and you talk about how our police department is not doing their job. Pick up a phone and make a phone call …"

  "Point of order, I don't believe …" called Hahn.

  "No, no, no, this is not point of order at this point." The mayor fired back, "this is comments."

  "This is point of order, I make my comments, you make yours …" Hahn continued to argue.

'This is the end'

  "I'm sorry, this is the end, these are the mayor's comments. So pick up a phone and make a call. Now, with that said, it's protocol," the mayor responded to another interruption. "I listen to you guys and then I get to say what I need to say,"

  "That's right," Scheunemann agreed.

  "All I'm asking is do your homework. Call if you have a question. It doesn't have to be a drawn out thing," the mayor urged the entire council while making eye contact with Hahn. "It doesn't have to be issues. It can be a working out process. It doesn't have to be this hard," the mayor said.

  The exchange was triggered when Hahn accused the Eureka Springs Police Department of lax to no enforcement of traffic offenses. She cited incidents of a "Ms. Zumwalt's" driveway being repeatedly blocked with no to, finally, little response from Police Chief Earl Hyatt.

  Hahn also referenced repeated complaints of reckless driving on Paxos at Emporia by Laura Carlsen who appeared before the council earlier to voice her concern about the safety of her two young children. Carlsen said the speeders and reckless drivers live nearby and have already done property damage. She was inquiring about the possibility of speed bumps but was concerned about the wear and tear the slow down devices might inflict on her car.

Scheunemann's 'present'

  Scheunemann, in his closing remarks said, "I'd like to address some misunderstandings that repeatedly keep popping up about me voting 'present.' Once again this came up with Mr. Gary [Stephen Gary who appears in front of the council as 'Sock Puppet Man,' or a history professor, and at Monday night's meeting as a Dr.Seuss-type of Uncle Sam], Mr. Ken Pownall from our Planning Commission, who has recommended that either I step aside and allow someone else in here and refund the money I've been paid as a council member. And the newspaper, the Lovely County Citizen, has unfortunately not reported my explanations but has done a very good job of reporting the arguments or attacks against me. So very simply, I want to explain what this is."

  At this point he held up a visual aid of the state statute for filling an aldermanic vacancy, asked the camera operator to zoom in and then read the statute word-for-word. "There have been experts, lawyers, educated people who say, 'Well, oh no … for example our state representative [Bryan King] says 'shall elect' may conjure up the idea of an election, but in this case it actually means appointment, selection, etc. This my friends, my citizens, is a fraud in my opinion. And this is why I've been voting 'present.'"

  He then moved to the state statute that provides for the removal of an elected official from office. He used a visual aid for this also. After outlining the procedure and explaining how such a case would move through circuit court, he concluded by pointing out that Roberts Rules of Order stipulates that if you feel that illegal activities are occurring you may vote "present."

  "This is why I vote 'present.' And I've been encouraging members of the City Council to vote 'present' as well. Because that would immediately stop any further meetings which would be illegal without proper representation of the people, which the representatives here [at the council table] are representing the people. The mayor is representing the administration. So this is very important that I vote 'present' as I am legally required to by state law. Not by some lawyer who says 'Oh, I know better or this actually means something else.' This is the word and I'm appealing to the citizens, which is what we have in a republic, is a citizen government, you are the absolute authority in government. So this is the reason I've been doing this, just for y'all who haven't been made clear of this."

Hughes volunteers

  Greg Hughes introduced himself to the council and offered to serve on the City Planning Commission. He told the council he had experience in planning, but not in the usual way. He said he had developed family ranch land with a density of one home per every 170 acres with all utilities underground so as not to destroy the view. Previously, he had managed a 40,000-acre family ranch. He and his wife Kathy moved to Eureka five years ago.

  "The town needs vision, long term vision, not just a short fix. And I'm willing to get on there and bring another point of view," Hughes said. He will attend the next council meeting.

  Approximately a "battalion" of anti-dog poop "soldiers" told war stories about how they "cut their feet" stepping on a pooch's "business."