Mayor Jackie Sikes gave a disturbing presentation at the last city council meeting.
It’s taken us days to go over it. But we finally did it.
As usual, we discovered Mayor Jackie’s claims are a misleading attempt to hide what’s really going on at the campground.
Last City Council meeting, Mayor Jackie Sikes gave intentionally misleading information in her presentation about the campground. We asked local resident John Calaway to expose these slides line by line.
We know it’s long and complex. But this breakdown explains what’s really happening. Everyone should read this.
Slide 1
Let’s start with slide 1 in Jackie’s presentation.
The 3 year lease should actually read “2025-2027.” Because it’s NOT a one year lease.
Slide 2
This is the second slide Jackie showed.
It says Jackie wants Code Enforcement head Dallas Clark to no longer be required to respond to maintenance calls on any city property:
Needless to say, Jackie’s plan to have Code Enforcement not work creates more problems than it could potentially solve.
According to John Calaway:
“Are we assigning Dallas just to work on the campground? What happens with the conference center? Senior Citizen Center? So, they will need to increase their budgets to cover outsourcing a maintenance repair? How will that save money?”
The answer? It won’t save money. It will cost more. The Mayor knows this.
Slide 3
In Jackie’s third slide, she called for hiring yet ANOTHER person at the campground.
Despite the campground losing money already, she is trying to hire someone else. This is happening despite her promises that it would be ran by volunteers!
John Calaway had some very serious questions about this:
“We were told the volunteers would take care of the mowing at the campground. Now you are asking to hire another person? At what pay scale? Doesn’t that add to the cost of running the campground?”
Slide 4
In the 4th slide, Mayor Jackie claimed that the Arkansas Corps of Engineers would NOT allow a sublease. We discovered this was a lie.
According to John Calaway:
“We know for a fact that the Corp was willing to grant a sublease based on an email from them that was FOIA’d. The mayor wouldn’t set up a meeting where some city council members could meet with the Corp to explain things and hear info directly from the Corp. Paying for the insurance will add more costs to the operation of the campground. When you combine that with the new employees, the campground budget will swell excessively.”
Mayor Jackie Sikes has prevented city council members from going to meet with the Corps of Engineers with her. She is using her private meetings with them to influence the Corps of Engineers against the City Council and railroad the Community Club.
Slide 5
In slide 5, Mayor Jackie claimed that it was wrong to question the expenses at the campground. She said it was like the fire department.
This is a very stupid comparison. It also comes at a time where the city is losing money under Jackie’s mismanagement.
According to John Calaway:
“Comparing the campground to the fire department is childish. The city council’s main responsibility is for citizen safety! The campground does not figure into citizen safety!“
If Jackie was REALLY making money at the campground like she claims, why is she rationalize losing money with it?
Slide 6
In slide 6, Mayor Jackie claimed that it’s wrong to ask how many volunteers work at the campground when trying to figure out how to budget money for it. Jackie INSANELY compared it to the library and fire department.
City Councilwoman Ruth Krotz was concerned that there weren’t enough volunteers to keep the campground going without overextending the city’s budget.
According to John Calaway:
“The fact that Mayor Jackie told us that the volunteers would take care of mowing and maintenance, but now Jackie wants to transfer Dallas to the campground and let the campground hire someone to mow. This seems to indicate that Ruth was correct that there are not enough volunteers.”
Slide 7
Jackie’s campground is getting “funding” from her husband’s 501C3. Nobody knows where the money is coming from. The City Council wants to know how stable the source of donations is before signing any commitments.
In slide 7, Jackie ATTACKED the city council for wanting to know where this magical money was coming from. She claims it’s none of their business.
John Calaway says it’s obvious that the city council should know:
“People were told that the money they donated would be used for the campground. It is imperative that the city council see the financials from the non-profit so they can ascertain that the money is there to keep the campground running and to make sure the money is being spent based on the wishes of the donors, and so they can see what the non-profit paid for to make their decision on whether the city can afford to run the campground if the non-profit fails or relocates. The city council also needs to see the expenses of the non-profit so they can monitor any changes that might occur regarding salaries, etc., to keep a running total on monies available to be used on the campground.”
Slide 8
In slide 8, Jackie claimed the city council PREVENTED her from applying for a grant for a new boat ramp. She says that she will be blocked from getting a grant again.
This is a lie. It’s already too late for Jackie to get matching funds to get a grant. In fact, Jackie wouldn’t know how to get grants because the city has not received one grant since Jackie took office!
“It is impossible for the city to get the grant for the boat ramp. The city doesn’t have the $500k matching funds; no equipment to do the in-kind work, and the mayor has alienated the engineer that drew up the plans. The timeline for signing a new lease has nothing to do with the grant for the boat ramp project. The community club cannot work on land they don’t have control of! What would keep the city from raising boat launch fees again while allowing no parking places for vehicles and trailers!”
Slide 9
In slide 9, Mayor Jackie Sikes falsely implied that the Corps of Engineer would not allow her to apply for any grants under the current lease. She also claimed that the Corps of Engineers would not allow the Community Club to be involved.
Written documentation shows this is false. In fact, the Community Club was able to lease the campground for years.
Only after Jackie’s meddling did this change.
“We are basing the idea that the Corp would not allow the community club to run the campground (like they did for years) and close it down is based solely on information you have heard. Written documentation seems to indicate otherwise. And again, the city cannot afford the boat ramp grant as stated previously! Also, if the Corps allowed all campgrounds to be closed, they would have to reprint all their flyers and brochures… not likely to happen!”
Slide 10
Mayor Jackie tried to blame the Community Club for all complaints against her mismanagement at the campground — which is INSANE.
Her “toll booth” that she calls the “welcome hut” had many complaints by people across the community that she forced to get trackers to get to their boats.
It’s laughable that she blames the Community Club for the anger against her. In fact, the Community Club complained BEFORE Jackie made her bad decisions. Not after.
According to John Calaway:
“The club tried to stop all those things the mayor initiated before they were put into practice to avoid confusion and inconvenience. Remember, the mayor changed the pricing and number of passes two or three times, causing mass confusion. What Corp campground that charges for boat launching doesn’t have a convenient parking lot for boaters? The mayor stopped issuing the QR codes after she received a letter from the Corps telling her to stop. The lawsuit that was threatened was in part due to the lines that were present when the mayor first started her operation of the check-in hut. The Corp clearly stated that the hut could be moved and even sent the paperwork to the city to fill out. This would have been an excellent time for cooperation, especially after the community club offered to pay for the move. And no, the mayor is not responsible for the parking problems, but the mayor is responsible for causing the parking problems and alienating tourist traffic during the holiday weekends, causing harm to the marina and the financial earning potential of the bay itself! This was all done to create hardship for the marina!“
Slide 11
Jackie went even further. She claimed that she was smart to cancel her plan to charge people to go to the Marina.
In reality, it was stupid that she ever tried to charge tourists to begin with!!!! The Mayor can’t take credit for not doing one of her dumb ideas.
According to John Calaway:
“Why would we want to charge visitors just to go to the marina? That should never have been initiated in the first place. The mayor can’t take credit for cleaning up her mistake! This also supports the argument that the mayor was only trying to hurt the marina, whose income is used to support many of the amenities that our citizens enjoy! Instead of cooperating with the marina hosting vendors, we wanted to charge them for spaces that the vendors previously had access to!“
Slide 12
In slide 12, Mayor Jackie FALSELY claimed that she halted negotiations on a grant for the Marina boating access because she was concerned about parking.
The parking issues are in Mayor Jackie’s mind.
John Callaway explains:
“What other Corp park negotiates an agreement for a place for boats and vehicles to park? Other Corps parks furnish those parking spaces, free of charge. The mayor wants to offer parking at the top of the hill on the right side. This is dependent on several things: #1. Would the Corp even allow a parking lot to be built? #2. Where would the city get the money to construct a parking lot? #3. The mayor would hold the community club hostage over negotiations each year for the rental price of the parking lot. This is just another rainbow and lollipops solution! Also, give some thought to the boat launchers; they are going to launch their boat, come back and park at the top of the hill on the right side, and then hike back to the boat ramp! Don’t think that will solve any problems! Many times, the person that backs in the boat is the one who pilots the boat!”
Slide 13
Jackie PRAISED her husband’s 501C3 for “giving” money to the campground.
The only problem? There’s no telling where that money actually came from because they won’t reveal the source. Heck, it may have come from funds earned at the campground for all anyone knows.
According to John Calaway:
‘Don’t remember the non-profit ever saying the “extra expenses.” We don’t know how much money has been donated to the non-profit for the campground because they are keeping their financial records closed. And sure, they don’t have to share those records, but for an administration that touts transparency, this seems a little counterintuitive! Again, people donated money to the campground! This is exactly what we warned about last year before signing the lease. More and more of the expenses will have to be covered by the city. This is equivalent to the “bait and switch tactic.”‘
Slide 14
Jackie falsely claimed that the campground needs to submit for a new grant with parking issues figured out. But THERE ARE NO GRANTS available for this.
According to John Calaway:
“What grant is the city going to attempt to get to separate the swimming area from the boat launch? Who sponsors it? What is the name of it? What is the deadline for this grant? The mayor hasn’t written one single grant since becoming the mayor; who is going to write this grant? Is this going to be like the grants that French Hill’s office was going to find for you, that is until you told them to stop looking! Is it a matching grant… 50-50… 80-20? The city council is tired of surprises and half-baked information. The mayor needs to bring us in on the entry level and not work with her unofficial advisors and circumvent the council members!”
Slide 15
In the last summary slide, Mayor Jackie quietly brushed off expenses and tried to paint the catastrophic financial issues at the campground in a positive light.
She even went so far as to claim the broken pipe issues at the campground are fixed. In reality, it’s going to be a reoccurring problem.
The campground is not profitable.
John Calaway delivered the following response:
“The water leaks were pointed out, and the community club shared the amount of water leak repairs it had done. The mayor was warned that this is a recurring problem, and to not think there will be some more major issues with water lines is foolish! This is an unknown cost and could become quite expensive! The community club repaired everything on the checklist the Corp issued, so actually, very little expense was charged to the city. Now, the expenses to repair the issues on the checklist issued this last April, when the Corp inspected the campground, were expenses that come with operating a campground. The fact that those items were listed less than one year after the community club repaired the others simply shows that there will be annual expenses to keeping the campground up and running!”