Fort Smith Administrator Ray Gosack heads under the microscope again on Tuesday (July 17) as the Fort Smith Board of Directors prepares for an executive session to evaluate his performance.
In May, the board collectively agreed that Gosack had performed his role satisfactorily, but City Directors Steve Tyler and Pam Weber, who moved at the July 10 study session to place Gosack’s second review in two months on the agenda for the next regularly scheduled meeting, have fueled speculation.
“I am very pleased with the leadership of Ray Gosack. He has taken our city to a new level of excellence. The March tax vote to continue our city’s progress spoke loudly,” City Director Don Hutchings said Thursday (July 12). “We have much to do. Our future is bright. The unusual board action of continuous evaluations of our City Administrator sends the wrong message. Micro-managing is not our solution. I have no idea why the directors are calling for another evaluation. We just had one May 15.”
Hutchings added that he hoped “we can move on to important issues, like jobs and new businesses coming to our great city.”
Fort Smith Director Andre Good seemed even more off-guard than Hutchings.
“I am shocked! Although I can not mention what was discussed in the board’s executive session, I am curious to know what’s happened since Ray’s last review 2 months ago. Can you imagine what this looks like to folks outside of Fort Smith and our citizens?” Good wrote in a Facebook post.
