The Arkansas City Management Association (ACMA) held its annual spring conference and business meeting April 9-11 at the Hot Springs Convention Center, where they discussed a variety of issues and challenges faced by local governments, including residential redevelopment, municipal hiring processes and succession planning.

The ACMA welcomed educator, author, historian and longtime public servant Dr. Kay Goss to speak on Friday, April 12. Goss, who is now an adjunct professor in the Executive Master’s Program in Crisis and Emergency Management at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, served as associate director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 1993-2001, where she was in charge of national preparedness training, higher education and exercises. She shared insights from her career and a history of her professor and mentor during her time at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Henry M. Alexander, known as the “father” of city management in Arkansas. In these turbulent political times, steady leadership at the local level is essential, Goss said. “It has never been more important to be a local official than it is now. Because, for example, it’s proposed that FEMA be abolished, so that comes to the states. Well you know it’s going to come to the local level because you have the equipment, you have the knowledge and you are there on the ground, and that’s the only thing that can really substitute for FEMA.”

At the annual business meeting on the morning of Friday, April 12, the ACMA presented its new slate of officers for 2025-2026. The new officers are: Harrison Human Resources Director Danny Presley, president; Hot Springs Deputy City Manager Lance Spicer, vice president; Hot Springs Deputy City Manager Denny McPhate, secretary/treasurer; and Fort Smith Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman, immediate past president.

At the close of the conference, the ACMA presented four students in Master’s of Public Administration programs from across the state with the $1,000 Dr. Henry Alexander Scholarship Award. The students are: Amy Lanning, Arkansas State University; Alexis Rowland, Southern Arkansas University; Jordin Wiley, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and Dalton Young, University of Arkansas.

Learn more about the ACMA at www.armunileague.org/about/acma.