Cave Springs and the Manufactured  Outrage Machine: How a False Crisis  Fueled a Small-Town Power Grab

Cave Springs and the Manufactured Outrage Machine: How a False Crisis Fueled a Small-Town Power Grab

By Jerica Morningstar – Civilian Systems Analyst

Full Folder link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BCY2IauUvPUNDhdnq3SHcLKes-FBT2hd

A Small Town, A Big Scandal

Cave Springs, Arkansas – population barely 6,000 – has become the stage for a scandal that reads like a field manual for the Manufactured Outrage Machine. In 2025, Mayor Randall Noblett and the City Council manufactured a fiscal “crisis” — claiming over $100,000 in unpaid IRS payroll taxes — and used it to strip elected Clerk/Treasurer Kim Hutcheson of her powers.

Police were dispatched to block her in the City Hall parking lot, emergency ordinances were rammed through without due process, and her statutory role was outsourced overnight. But the IRS panic was just the smoke. Behind the curtain were land rezoning deals and developer payoffs: Bob David’s subdivisions (Scissortail, Trillium, Osage Meadows), a $10 million sewer project pushed onto taxpayers, and even state power-players like Senator Bart Hester tied in through Sycamore Holdings.

The Story in Three Moves:

1. Trigger a Crisis – A supposed IRS “shortfall” of $103,000 (already paid) was resurrected to justify emergency ordinances and blame Hutcheson.

2. Grab the Power – Treasurer duties reassigned, mail keys locked down, police intimidation used, and oversight gutted.

3. Move the Land – With Hutcheson sidelined, rezonings and plats for Scissortail, Trillium, and Osage Meadows sailed through, positioning developers for profit while residents pay higher taxes, fees, and bond costs.

Why It Matters:

This isn’t just a small-town feud. It’s a national pattern in miniature: outrage manufactured, accountability obstructed, transparency buried. Cave Springs taxpayers are left holding a $10 million bill for developer infrastructure, while their leaders pose with an “award-winning” Downtown Master Plan. The playbook is the same one used by state and national actors — only here it’s stripped bare in a town small enough to trace every move.

The Bigger Picture:

Mayor Noblett: engineered the IRS “emergency” and led the coup at City Hall. Clerk/Treasurer Hutcheson: stripped of her duties, now suing in federal court to restore the voters’ choice.

Bob David: developer consolidating land through LLCs and plats, with taxpayers financing his infrastructure.

Senator Bart Hester: tied through Sycamore Holdings litigation, showing this isn’t just local politics but part of a systemic land-grab. Cave Springs is no longer a sleepy town — it’s a case study in how the Manufactured Outrage Machine operates when power, money, and land converge.

The Cast of Characters and Their Agenda

Kimberly Hutcheson – Clerk/Treasurer (Recorder-Treasurer): An elected official since 2015, responsible for the city’s finances and records. Hutcheson has a history of clashing with mayors over her duties. She was three years into her term (reelected in 2022) when the current crisis hit. As the city’s financial steward, Hutcheson insists she did her job correctly – and indeed, auditors found no issues with Cave Springs’ accounting in the last five years. But she became the perfect scapegoat for a “crisis” manufactured by others.

Randall Noblett – Mayor: Elected in 2018, taking office in 2019. Noblett is described as the chief policymaker for Cave Springs. He’s a former council member who ran against a previous mayor and eventually won. In the office, he’s repeatedly outsourced financial duties and sidelined the Treasurer’s role. When a convenient controversy was needed, he and his allies cast Hutcheson as incompetent – a classic outrage tactic.

City Council (2023–2025): Marc Williams, “MC” Mahmoud Chitsazan, Mike Middlecamp, Erica Velasquez, JJ Thompson, and Jeremy Cobb. Each played a role in enabling Noblett’s moves. Council minutes show them voting through ordinances that stripped Hutcheson of her authority, outsourcing her duties, and backing rezonings that align with developer interests.

Bob David – Developer (Leadership Properties / Aurora NWA / Three Flags Investments): A longtime developer tied to Scissortail, Trillium, and Osage Meadows. David’s projects have been central to Cave Springs’ rezonings, annexations, and infrastructure expansions. Records now show his direct involvement in the Reaves property purchase (over $5M), ending speculation about “silent partners” and proving his role in shaping Cave Springs’ growth.

Bart Hester – Arkansas Senate Pro Tempore / Sycamore Holdings: One of the most powerful politicians in Arkansas, Hester lives in Cave Springs and leads the state Senate. Publicly, he campaigns on expanding affordable housing. Privately, his LLC — Sycamore Holdings, co-owned with his wife Ashley — has filed suit against both the City of Cave Springs and Bob David’s Three Flags Investments over land disputes. This dual role — state leader promoting housing policy while protecting his own property interests — exposes the deeper hypocrisy at play. Hester’s involvement ties Cave Springs’ rezoning drama directly to state-level politics, proving this is not “just a local fight” but a systemic struggle over who profits from growth.

Keep these characters in mind. This saga is about power and profit: who wields the power at City Hall, and who profits from the decisions that slip by under the cover of “crisis.”

Manufacturing a False “IRS Tax Crisis”

Every good manufactured outrage needs a triggering crisis. In Cave Springs, it was a doozy: Mayor Noblett suddenly claimed in August 2025 that the IRS had “frozen” the city’s bank accounts because of unpaid payroll taxes dating back to 2017. The implication was clear – Kim Hutcheson, the Treasurer, failed to pay our taxes! Outrageous, if true. But evidence shows this crisis was trumped-up and misleading from the start.

Let’s break down the timeline of this supposed IRS fiasco:

  • Historical Context: Back in 2017-2018, Cave Springs did have some payroll paperwork issues – caused by an outside payroll firm, not Hutcheson personally. The IRS Form 941 for 2018 and a W-3 for 2017 went missing or were filed late due to the third-party payroll company’s errors. These issues were fully resolved by 2020: the city switched back to handling payroll in-house, fixed the filings, and caught up on any taxes due. Legislative auditors later reviewed the books and found no lingering problems – no unpaid taxes, no ongoing compliance issues. In short, by 2020, the matter was put to bed.

  • Mayor Noblett’s Outsourcing and Sudden Revelation: Despite the clean bill of health, Mayor Noblett repeatedly outsourced financial duties again in the following years – a move that ironically re-created the potential for confusion. Fast forward to mid-2025: The city allegedly started getting IRS notices about an “outstanding obligation” of over $103,000 in payroll tax going back to 2018. Did the Mayor inform the Clerk/Treasurer, whose job is to handle such matters? No. Noblett and City Attorney Justin Eichman claim they kept it secret on the IRS’s own advice – supposedly because Hutcheson might “falsify documents” if she knew. (Yes, you read that right: they insinuated that the elected Treasurer would cook the books if told about a tax problem.)

  • The Ambush: On August 12, 2025, with only a few hours’ notice, the City Council called a special meeting. Hutcheson was out of town and couldn’t attend on such short notice. At that meeting, Mayor Noblett and the city attorney unloaded their accusations: Hutcheson was “derelict” in her duties; the IRS had frozen accounts; the city owed back payroll taxes – all laid at her feet. She wasn’t even there to defend herself. This was a carefully timed ambush.

  • Moving the Goalposts: By the next regular council meeting on August 26, 2025, Hutcheson was present – and she demanded answers. How had this tax debt arisen without her knowledge? Where was the evidence? The response was essentially to blame-first, explain-later. Council members Jeremy Cobb and Mike Middlecamp publicly berated Hutcheson, peppering her with questions about whether she had certain 2018 tax forms (forms that, recall, were already addressed years prior) and why a deposit account didn’t have a zero balance after tax payments. Their questions made little sense; in fact, there was no evidence that any 2018 taxes were unpaid at all – the council’s own question about the account balance was a “non-issue” given no missing payments had been demonstrated. It was pure performative outrage, meant to make Hutcheson look flustered and guilty in front of the public.

  • The Smoking Gun That Wasn’t: As Hutcheson pressed for actual information, City Attorney Eichman finally let slip an important detail: The IRS had been sending notices of this supposed debt to P.O. Box 36, the city’s post office box. The city leadership assumed that Hutcheson alone had checked that box and had been ignoring IRS letters. Mayor Noblett even claimed in the special meeting that he “never had access” to that P.O. Box. This claim was quickly exposed as false – Hutcheson produced an email from October 2, 2024, proving that Mayor Noblett did have access to P.O. Box 36. In other words, either the Mayor himself (or someone under his authority) had been receiving the IRS warnings for months and not acting on them, or nobody bothered to check the mail until it was convenient to have a crisis. The outrage machine needed a villain, and they tried to make it Hutcheson, even if it meant hiding or ignoring critical information until it reached a boiling point.

  • Silent Fixes, No Transparency: After being caught off guard by Hutcheson’s pushback, the city attorney admitted what had happened behind the scenes: Once the city (read: the Mayor) finally acknowledged the IRS notices, they quietly pulled bank records, met with an IRS officer, and paid the outstanding balance – all without telling the Clerk/Treasurer. That’s right: the supposed crisis was already resolved before they staged the public takedown of Hutcheson. The Mayor and council knew the problem, handled it internally (writing a check for $103k to the IRS), and only then unveiled it as a shocker to justify punishing Hutcheson. They effectively said, “Look at this mess (that we secretly cleaned up without you)! This is all your fault, and now we’re taking action.”

  • Admission of Uncertainty: Perhaps the most telling moment – one that lays the fabrication bare – came when council members conceded they didn’t even know what caused the $103,000 tax shortfall. In the August 26 meeting, after lambasting Hutcheson, the Council admitted “the reason for the outstanding debt was unknown” and they “could not prove that Hutcheson was to blame.” They voted to hire an outside auditing firm to investigate and find the source of the problem. In a sane world, this investigation should have preceded any punitive action. Instead, it was an afterthought – a fig leaf to cover the fact that they had already decided to strip Hutcheson of her powers without concrete evidence of wrongdoing.

In sum, the IRS payroll tax “crisis” appears to have been largely manufactured. A past clerical issue was resolved years ago, yet city leaders resurrected it, mischaracterized it, and withheld key facts to create an atmosphere of emergency. By the time the truth (no ongoing malfeasance, and Mayor Noblett’s knowledge of the IRS notices) started to come out, the machinery of outrage was already in motion. And that machine had a specific target: Hutcheson’s office.

Emergency Ordinances and Police Power: The Coup at City Hall

Having stoked the flames of scandal, Mayor Noblett and the Council moved with lightning speed to consolidate their power. They utilized a tactic straight from the playbook of authoritarian bureaucracy: the late-night “emergency” ordinance. These are laws passed without the normal readings or public notice, taking effect immediately – meant for true crises like natural disasters. In Cave Springs, the “crisis” was one of their own making, but they invoked “emergency” powers to ram through measures that effectively neutered the independent Clerk/Treasurer’s office overnight.

On August 26, 2025 – the same meeting where the council admitted they lacked proof against Hutcheson – they introduced Ordinance No. 2025-16, titled “An Ordinance to Assign the Duties of the City Treasurer; Declaring an Emergency”. Under this law (passed unanimously), all the Treasurer's duties were stripped from Hutcheson and reassigned to another person, Penny Mertes. Mertes is the former Treasurer who had resigned back in 2015 after a similar duty-stripping move – now brought back as the Mayor’s hand-picked stand-in. The emergency ordinance took effect immediately, forcing Hutcheson to relinquish control of city finances on the spot.

To underscore the punitive, personal nature of this move, the Council also passed an unusual companion ordinance: one that set new rules for access to the city’s post office boxes (P.O. Box 36 and others), also under an emergency clause. This law was clearly aimed at Hutcheson – the same P.O. Box 36 that Mayor Noblett falsely claimed he couldn’t access was now placed explicitly under his control by law. Imagine that they went out of their way to legislate who can hold the mail key, as if that were a life-or-death emergency for the city. It’s hard to find a better example of how the machinery of local government was weaponized to target one person.

But ordinances weren’t enough. The police were enlisted in this campaign of intimidation. According to Hutcheson’s federal lawsuit, on the day she was removed, Cave Springs Police Chief Rick Crisman and Lieutenant Keith Lawson actually blocked Hutcheson’s car in the City Hall parking lot and refused to let her leave. In doing so, they unlawfully seized her and possibly city records in her possession – a blatant violation of her Fourth Amendment rights (unreasonable search and seizure) as alleged in the lawsuit. Let that sink in: an elected official, guilty of no crime, was effectively detained by police at the behest of the Mayor and Council, presumably to prevent her from retaining any documents or evidence that might tell her side of the story. This kind of strong-arm tactic is almost unheard of in small-town governance and speaks to the depth of the power play underway.

City leadership also moved swiftly to control information and money. They passed a resolution to update the signatories on city bank accounts – likely to remove Hutcheson’s access and ensure only the Mayor or his loyalists could move funds. They approved hiring an outside accounting firm (Landmark PLC) for “consulting services”, possibly to further exclude the elected Treasurer from financial oversight. In short, within a matter of days, Kim Hutcheson was Treasurer in title only. Every aspect of her job – handling money, keeping records, accessing mail, participating in financial decisions – had been reassigned, outsourced, or locked down by emergency decree.

Local observers noted the irony: this was a de facto coup at City Hall, executed not with guns or violence, but with sudden ordinances and police blockage of a car. It’s governance by ambush and fiat. And if it sounds familiar, that’s because Cave Springs has seen a version of this before. Back in 2015, the City Council (which included Randall Noblett at the time) passed an ordinance stripping the then-Treasurer’s duties, leading to that Treasurer’s resignation. In 2016-2017, former Mayor Travis Lee bitterly fought with Hutcheson, even locking her out of her office for a week and trying to restrict her access to city systems. Hutcheson had to sue the city in 2017 for essentially trying to push her out of her job (that lawsuit was dismissed on technical grounds). The pattern is unmistakable: when certain power-holders in Cave Springs can’t get their way through normal governance, they weaponize procedure and even law enforcement to sideline those who stand in their way. It happened in 2015, in 2017, and now again in 2025 – each time with Hutcheson as a common denominator, either as target or participant. This isn’t just a one-off conflict; it looks like a systemic playbook.

What makes the 2025 episode different (and perhaps more egregious) is the elaborate fabrication of a public outrage as cover. The previous spats were largely internal power struggles. This time, Mayor Noblett and the Council manufactured a narrative of fiscal emergency –“The city’s in danger, the taxes haven’t been paid, outrage!” – to justify extreme measures. It’s governance by moral panic: create a villain (Hutcheson), declare a crisis, seize extraordinary powers, and hope the public is too alarmed to question it. Unfortunately for them, the facts are now coming to light.

Land Rezoning and Developer Deals: Cui Bono?

Amid the manufactured chaos at City Hall, another story was unfolding in Cave Springs – one of rezoning prime land and greenlighting lucrative developments. It’s here that we find the answer to the classic question cui bono? – Who benefits from all this?

The short answer: developer Bob David and his web of LLCs stand to gain, and by extension, so do the city officials allied with him. Removing a vigilant Treasurer/Recorder from the equation cleared the way for a spree of favorable decisions for developers.

Consider these concurrent developments:

  • Trillium: A major residential project on 93+ acres near Hwy 264 and Murdock Road, inside Cave Springs. It’s spearheaded by Trillium Development Company LLC, which is linked to Bob David (he’s listed as a contact for the property). Trillium promises mansion-style condos and single-family homes – a potential goldmine in rapidly growing Northwest Arkansas. In 2024, the city’s Planning Commission and Council were entertaining rezoning applications for Trillium’s land (e.g. RZ2024-09 and RZ2024-10). Such rezoning would typically change rural or agricultural land to residential/mixed-use, vastly increasing its value. Pushing these through without a hiccup would be easier if any internal critics or sticklers for procedure were muted. Hutcheson, as Recorder, would normally be responsible for accurate minutes and ensuring ordinances are properly documented – roles that could prove inconvenient if, say, someone wanted to gloss over required public notice or fast-track approvals. By sidelining her, the Mayor and Council removed one more layer of oversight from the Trillium deals.

  • Osage Meadows: Another ambitious plan in Cave Springs – a 54-acre mixed-use development at 925 and 975 N. Main Street. The project (by Osage Meadows LLC) aims to put large commercial lots along Highway 112 with 121 single-family homes behind them. Rezoning for this Planned Zoning District (PZD) was on the city agenda by mid-2023. Who’s behind Osage Meadows LLC? While not immediately obvious from public documents, it’s notable that the land is adjacent to Osage House, a high-end event venue, and smack in the corridor of growth. Developers like Bob David, known for capitalizing on NWA’s boom, are often involved in or supportive of such projects (whether directly or through partnerships). Approving a 121-home subdivision requires not just rezoning but also negotiating infrastructure: roads, sewer, and water. Sure enough, one of the Cave Springs Council’s moves in August 2025 was authorizing the mayor to negotiate sewer easements for the city. That could well be tied to enabling projects like Osage Meadows to hook into city utilities. Doing this while public attention was fixated on the Hutcheson drama is politically convenient.

  • Scissortail Expansion: The Scissortail neighborhood has been a huge success just outside Cave Springs. Developed by Bob David’s company (Leadership Properties), it’s a gated community with hundreds of high-end homes. Part of Scissortail lies in the adjacent city of Bentonville, but recent decisions brought more of it under Cave Springs’ jurisdiction. In 2022-2023, there were efforts to annex or formally incorporate Scissortail’s Phase II and III into Cave Springs, ensuring the city reaps the benefits of property taxes and growth (and the developer gets city services). Indeed, a news blurb noted “Scissortail will now be considered part of Cave Springs.” This kind of annexation or planning decision typically comes before the city council. A compliant council – one not prone to tough questions about long-term infrastructure costs or the rushed timing of votes – is a developer’s best friend. By eliminating dissent within city hall, Noblett and allies greased the skids for Bob David’s projects to move forward swiftly.

The 2017 Lawsuit and a Pattern of Retaliation

Kimberly Hutcheson, the elected Clerk/Treasurer, has been here before. In 2017, she sued the City of Cave Springs after her duties were stripped and her rightswere  violated. The city not only lost that case — it had to formally admit to violating her civil rights and pay all of her attorney costs. That precedent matters: it proves the pattern of retaliation is not hypothetical. It is documented in a court record, and it shows Hutcheson has been targeted before for doing her job correctly.

The Street Fund “Hack,” Not Mismanagement

The oft-cited $14,780 that disappeared from the city’s Street Fund in 2021 has been twisted into a political weapon. The truth is straightforward: the city’s bank account was hacked. Hutcheson worked directly with the Cave Springs Police Department and the bank to have the funds returned. The Arkansas Legislative Audit required the incident to be noted in the report for transparency, but it was not mismanagement. The money was recovered. That hasn’t stopped Mayor Noblett and his allies from presenting it as if Hutcheson had mishandled funds — a sleight-of-hand designed to justify stripping her authority.

The $10 Million Sewer Hookup for Scissortail

The deeper scandal lies not in Hutcheson’s stewardship but in the deals made for developers. Bob David, through Leadership Properties and Three Flags Investments, forced the City of Rogers into a land swap. When Cave Springs approved Scissortail, it locked the city into a $10,000,000 bill for sewer and water infrastructure over the next decade. Taxpayers, not developers, will shoulder that cost.

The absurdity is clear: half of Cave Springs households are still on septic systems. The other half are already paying over $600 annually to the Cave Springs Improvement District, a bond run by Brett Hash that is not even owned by the city. Those residents are still paying off the old sewer system they don’t use anymore — and now, the entire community is being forced to fund new sewer lines for Bob David’s Scissortail phases and whatever else he decides to build. The beneficiaries are developers. The burden falls entirely on residents.

The Pattern

Combine these facts, and a clear pattern emerges. When challenged, Noblett and the council attack Hutcheson, repackaging resolved incidents as scandals. Meanwhile, they quietly approve rezonings and infrastructure obligations that funnel public money into private development. The manufactured outrage serves as cover for the real story: the taxpayers of Cave Springs are subsidizing Bob David’s empire.

The Award-Winning Cover Story

In September 2025, the Cave Springs Downtown Master Plan was named Plan of the Year by the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association. Consultants celebrated it as a model for small-town growth, with glossy renderings of redesigned Main Street, conservation-minded trails, and “balanced” zoning districts.

On paper, it looks visionary. But context matters: this recognition came just weeks after Mayor Noblett and the Council stripped Clerk/Treasurer Hutcheson of her powers and pushed through rezoning maps that aligned perfectly with developer priorities.

 The award functions as political armor — a talking point for officials (“look, we’re a model city”) — while the real story is taxpayers on the hook for $10 million in sewer infrastructure, half the town still on septic, and developers like Bob David positioned to reap the rewards.

It’s the Manufactured Outrage Machine in high-gloss form: chaos inside City Hall, legitimacy outside with a plaque on the wall. The plan may indeed improve aesthetics and walkability, but its timing and use as political cover cannot be ignored.

Sycamore Holdings and the Political Layer

The developer web doesn’t stop at Bob David’s subdivisions. Enter Sycamore Holdings LLC, owned by Arkansas Senate Pro Tempore Bart Hester and his wife, Ashley. Sycamore is actively suing both the City of Cave Springs and Three Flags Investments (David’s company) over land disputes. That means the state’s top legislator — one of the most powerful political figures in Arkansas — isn’t just an outside observer, he’s a player in the very turf wars reshaping Cave Springs. Hester publicly campaigns for bringing affordable housing to Arkansas. But here in Cave Springs, his LLC’s actions tell a different story: protecting property interests, resisting density, and fighting for leverage against rival developers. It’s the same playbook residents already recognize at City Hall — speeches about community on one hand, deals that benefit the few on the other.

This shifts the Cave Springs case from a “local zoning controversy” into systemic territory. The $10 million sewer bill for Scissortail shows how taxpayer burdens are created. Hester’s litigation against Bob David shows how power brokers maneuver over who profits. And Mayor Noblett’s council maneuvers show how political cover is provided along the way. Cave Springs isn’t just dealing with growth — it’s become the proving ground for how developer ambition and political muscle collide, leaving ordinary residents holding the bill. In all these cases, it’s not that Kim Hutcheson could unilaterally stop a development – she couldn’t. But as Recorder/Treasurer, she had tools to promote transparency: insisting meeting minutes reflect community objections, ensuring legal procedures (like public notice periods for rezoning) were followed, or flagging budget concerns (e.g. “Can the city afford to maintain new subdivision infrastructure?”). Such actions can slow down or complicate a developer’s plans. It’s telling that once Hutcheson was out of the picture in late August 2025, the path was clear for the Mayor and Council to finalize their vision of Cave Springs’ growth with minimal pushback.

To illustrate, on August 26, 2025 – the same night they stripped Hutcheson’s duties – the Council also passed or discussed a new Master Street Plan and Future Land Use Map for Cave Springs. These documents determine what areas are slated for development, what roads will be expanded, etc. Approving them solidifies where developers (like David) can build next. Coincidence that this happened while the Treasurer (who might question the rush) was figuratively duct-taped in the corner? Unlikely.

Sycamore Holdings and the State Connection

The Cave Springs controversy isn’t confined to City Hall or one developer. It now reaches the Arkansas State Senate.

  • The Hester Connection: Court filings confirm that Sycamore Holdings LLC — owned by Bart and Ashley Hester — is in active litigation against both Cave Springs and Bob David’s Three Flags Investments. This makes Hester, the Senate Pro Tempore, both a political power broker and a direct stakeholder in Cave Springs’ land battles.

  • Hypocrisy in Policy vs Practice: Hester has built his political brand on promoting affordable housing for Arkansas. Yet in Cave Springs, his LLC is fighting to block developments in his own backyard. It’s a “Not In My Backyard” stance dressed up as statewide policy.

  • Systemic Implication: With Noblett pushing rezonings inside City Hall, Bob David expanding his subdivisions, and Hester litigating over land, Cave Springs has become a nexus where local governance, developer profit, and state-level political power all collide.

It all boils down to profit and control. The Manufactured Outrage Machine doesn’t create a frenzy for fun; it’s in service of someone’s agenda. Here, the agenda was twofold: consolidate political power in the Mayor’s office and council faction, and facilitate favorable conditions for private development deals. Bob David’s fingerprints (direct or indirect) are on many of the big land transactions in Cave Springs. After the dust settled, who emerged unscathed and smiling? The Mayor and council – newly unchallenged at city hall – and developers like David, who saw their projects face fewer bumps in the road.

The Manufactured Outrage Playbook: Cave Springs as a Case Study

If all of this sounds outrageously brazen for a small city, that’s because it is. But it’s also part of a larger pattern we’re seeing in communities across the country – a Manufactured Outrage Machine at work. The concept, coined by investigative observers of political corruption, describes a cycle where politicians fabricate or exaggerate a crisis to trigger public anger or panic, then use that outrage to justify grabs for power, fundraising, or punitive action against rivals. Cave Springs now joins the list of case studies in how this playbook can play out anywhere, even in “quiet” small towns.

Let’s connect the dots to the broader framework:

  • Identify a Target & Theme: The target was Clerk/Treasurer Hutcheson, a holdover official not aligned with Mayor Noblett’s faction. The theme chosen for outrage was “government incompetence/corruption” – specifically the idea that she didn’t pay taxes, endangering the city. Notice how this theme plays on fundamental citizen fears: nobody wants their city in trouble with the IRS. It’s dry enough that few understand the details, but scary enough to provoke anger. This is a common tactic nationally: pick an issue that triggers moral or fiscal panic (e.g. “missing money,” “crime wave,” “ethical lapses”) and pin it on your opponent.

  • Control the Narrative: Noblett and the council controlled information flow – withholding IRS letters, then releasing selective facts in a dramatic, one-sided presentation. Hutcheson was kept literally out of the room for the first ambush. By the time she could respond, the narrative (“city accounts frozen by IRS because of her”) had been cemented in headlines and on social media. In manufactured outrage campaigns, controlling the initial narrative is everything. First impressions stick; corrections come later and often too quietly. Cave Springs officials ensured the first impression was as damning as possible.

  • Amplify with Emotional Language & Symbols: Declaring an “emergency,” invoking the dreaded IRS, hinting that Hutcheson might “falsify documents” – these are emotionally charged signals. They paint a picture of a rogue treasurer, untrustworthy and dangerous. Locals who didn’t know the backstory could easily be swept up: Our money’s at risk! She might be covering her tracks! Even the use of police to block her hinted at criminality, though she wasn’t charged with anything. This is classic outrage machine behavior: make it seem like the very fabric of order (financial or moral) is under attack by the target.

  • Circumvent Normal Process: Once public outrage (or at least council outrage) was sufficiently stoked, the leaders bypassed normal checks and balances – using “emergency” ordinances to do things that normally require debate and due process. By definition, the outrage machine seeks to operate faster than facts can catch up. In Cave Springs, they didn’t wait for an audit or investigation; they didn’t give Hutcheson a hearing or a fair chance. They moved to punishment immediately, because outrage, once invoked, demands action now. This impatience is a feature, not a bug, of the playbook.

  • Benefit from the Aftermath: After the dust settled, ask who came out ahead. We’ve identified that: the Mayor’s office emerged more powerful (with an appointed ally doing the Treasurer’s tasks), the council faced one less independent voice, and development deals moved forward smoothly. On a larger stage, manufactured outrage often serves re-election campaigns or career advancement. In this local instance, it served those in power by removing an impediment to their agenda and likely shoring up a narrative for the next election (“We took decisive action to fix a crisis!”). It’s not hard to imagine Mayor Noblett touting how he “saved Cave Springs from a financial disaster,” – a disaster he largely concocted. This is how the outrage machine perpetuates itself: create a mess, play the hero fixing the mess, and ride the wave of public support (or fear) to the next goal.

Cave Springs’ saga should be a wake-up call. When you hear dramatic claims about a sudden crisis in government – especially if it serves to concentrate power in fewer hands – pause and dig deeper. In this case, digging deeper reveals a disturbing abuse of trust. The outrage was aimed at the wrong person; the true wrongdoing was committed by those loudly pointing fingers.

Appendix: Timeline of Key Events & Unanswered Questions

June 2015: City Council passes Ordinance 2015-04, stripping the elected City Treasurer (then Penny Mertes) of all duties. The Treasurer resigned immediately after being rendered powerless. This early episode foreshadows the 2025 playbook of using an ordinance to push an official out.

October 2015: Council merges the Recorder and Treasurer offices and appoints Kim Hutcheson to the combined role (Ordinance 2015-08). Notably, the ordinance outlined her duties – attempting to resolve the “no duties” trick from June. Hutcheson becomes Recorder-Treasurer.

2016–2017: Mayor Travis Lee repeatedly clashes with Hutcheson. She is accused (without proof) of not doing her job, and at one point, Mayor Lee locks her out of City Hall for a week. In

In January 2017, a rogue council faction (including then-Councilman Noblett) tries to fire 10 city employees and “clarify” Hutcheson’s duties in a surprise move; the Mayor vetoes it. Hutcheson sues the City in February 2017 for violating her rights, but the case is dismissed without prejudice (meaning not on the merits). Unanswered: Who were the instigators of the 2017 attempted purge (besides Noblett), and did that power struggle lay the groundwork for today’s conflict?

Spring 2017: A Legislative Audit finds multiple compliance issues in the Cave Springs city government, tagging both Hutcheson and Mayor Lee for various failures. Notably, one finding was that Hutcheson allegedly overpaid herself $14,509 in 2016 without council approval – a point her detractors love to cite. (Hutcheson disputed many audit findings, and subsequent audits showed clean improvements.) The 2017 audit essentially said everyone at City Hall had some fault. Unanswered: Were any lessons learned or procedural fixes implemented after 2017? Or did factions simply bide their time for the next round?

Feb 10, 2020: In a work session, Mayor Noblett (now in office) and Hutcheson present findings of a new audit to the Council. It’s noted that IRS forms for 2017–2018 were missing, and some tax remittances were late. These were traced to the third-party payroll provider’s mistakes, not malfeasance by city staff. The Council at that time agreed to bring payroll back in-house to prevent future issues. By all accounts, the issue is resolved and closed. Unanswered: Did the city ever formally settle whatever balance or penalties were due for 2017–2018 with the IRS at that time? (If so, why did a debt resurface in 2025? If not, why didn’t the Mayor/Council follow up?)

October–November 2021: According to a Legislative Audit financial report, six unauthorized withdrawals totaling $14,780 were made from the City’s Street Fund bank account between Oct. 8, 2021, and Nov. 15, 2021. These withdrawals were not approved by the Council and remain unexplained in public records. Unanswered: Who made these unauthorized withdrawals, and where did the money go? Were they ever investigated? This glaring red flag – money leaving city coffers without permission – did not become a public scandal, raising questions about double standards. (If Hutcheson had been suspected, one imagines it would’ve been trumpeted loudly, yet it wasn’t. So who was responsible?)

Fall 2022: Hutcheson is re-elected to another four-year term (2023–2026) as the city’s Recorder-Treasurer. Around this time, Cave Springs officially becomes a City of the First Class due to population growth, and the Council passes Ordinance 2022-10 formally reclassifying Hutcheson’s title from Recorder-Treasurer to Clerk/Treasurer. This is mostly a semantic change in line with state law as the city grows.

Oct 2, 2024: Email evidence (later Exhibit C in the lawsuit) – Hutcheson corresponds with Mayor Noblett about P.O. Box 36 and confirms that the Mayor had access to it. This will become critical in 2025 when Noblett claims he was unaware of IRS mail. The email shows the Mayor did know how to get into the city’s P.O. box. Unanswered: Why did the Mayor later pretend to lack access? Was someone else actually checking the mail and not reporting it?

Early 2025 (est.): The City of Cave Springs begins receiving IRS notices about an outstanding payroll tax balance of ~$103,000 related to 2018 and onward. These notices go to P.O. Box 36. There is no indication that Hutcheson was informed at this time. Sometime before August, Mayor Noblett quietly contacts the IRS, obtains bank statements, and pays the IRS debt in full. Cave Springs sends a report about this issue to the Arkansas Legislative Audit Committee (suggesting they knew it would attract attention). Unanswered: Why did a 2018 tax obligation persist for 7 years? Was this amount interest and penalties on something from 2017–18 that was overlooked? Or were there additional failures in subsequent years (2019, 2020…) due to outsourcing or other errors? The Council later admitted they didn’t know the root cause – a stunning confession. The city’s finance staff or contractors should be able to pinpoint missing payments. The fact that they could not (or would not) explain it suggests either gross incompetence or that the truth would undermine the “blame Hutcheson” narrative (e.g., what if the fault lay with a contractor or someone else’s oversight?).

August 12, 2025: Special City Council Meeting at 3:00 PM. Called on very short notice, catching Hutcheson out of town. Mayor Noblett and City Attorney Eichman present the bombshell allegations: The IRS froze accounts, and the city owes back taxes; Hutcheson is responsible. They even claim the IRS advised them to keep it secret from her (to prevent “falsification” of records). The Council passes Resolution 2025-39 authorizing payment of the IRS debt through the end of 2024 (essentially retroactively approving the $103k payout Noblett already made).

Hutcheson’s name is dragged through the mud in her absence. Unanswered: Was this meeting even legal under Arkansas’s open meetings law, given the scant notice? And why the rush, since by then the IRS issue was apparently resolved with payment?

August 26, 2025: Regular City Council Meeting. This is the climax of the saga. Hutcheson is

present and fights back.

Key happenings:

  • Council members and the Mayor double down on accusations, leading to heated exchanges. Hutcheson asks for evidence and the source of the debt; none is provided satisfactorily.

  • Mayor Noblett implies he never had access to the IRS notices, which Hutcheson debunks by referencing the October 2024 email.

  • The Council admits they don’t know why the taxes were unpaid and votes to hire an audit firm to investigate.

  • Ordinance 2025-16 is introduced and passed with an emergency clause, immediately reassigning all City Treasurer duties from Hutcheson to Penny Mertes. Hutcheson is effectively stripped of her job’s authority on the spot.

  • Ordinance 2025-17 (implied by agenda item 9) is passed as an emergency, controlling access to City P.O. boxes (to ensure Hutcheson can’t touch incoming mail).

  • Resolutions are passed to change bank account signatories and bring in an outside accounting consultant.

  • Immediately after or during the meeting, Police Chief Crisman and Lt. Lawson corner Hutcheson in the parking lot, preventing her from leaving. It’s not clear if they confiscated any city property from her at that moment, but the intimidation is recorded in her lawsuit.

Sept 15, 2025: Hutcheson files a federal civil rights lawsuit (5:25-cv-05191) against the City of Cave Springs, Mayor Noblett, all six council members, and the two police officers. Claims include violation of due process (removing her without a hearing), bill of attainder (punishing an individual via legislation), Fourth Amendment violation (the seizure by police), and other constitutional injuries. She seeks reinstatement and damages. The lawsuit also shines a light on many of the facts recounted above, as well as the history of the 2015 duty-stripping ordinance and her prior clashes.

Sept 24, 2025 – Downtown Master Plan Awarded “Plan of the Year.” While the city was embroiled in lawsuits, audits, and power struggles, the Arkansas Chapter of the American Planning Association awarded Cave Springs the “Plan of the Year” for its Downtown Master Plan. Officials used the award as external validation of progress, even as residents faced unresolved IRS tax questions, lawsuits over due process, and multi-million-dollar infrastructure burdens tied to Scissortail and other developments. The timing underscores the dual narrative: dysfunction inside City Hall versus polished recognition outside.

Oct 2025 – Present: The City Council reportedly did hire an outside firm to determine the source of the IRS debt, as promised. However, as of this writing, the findings have not been made public. Meanwhile, Penny Mertes continues to perform Treasurer functions, and Mayor Noblett enjoys unchallenged authority over city finances. The lawsuit is in its early stages; the city initially sought to dismiss it. Unanswered: Will the third-party audit report ever be released, and will it identify the culprit or cause of the tax issue? If it exonerates Hutcheson, one would expect her allies to publicize it – and conversely, if it implicates the Mayor’s management, one might expect a quiet burial of the report. Transparency is still lacking on this front.

This timeline lays out a roadmap of the power play. Crucial gaps – such as the true cause of the IRS debt and the identity of those unauthorized 2021 withdrawals – remain unexplained by the officials in charge. Those gaps look more like cover-ups when viewed in context.

Conclusion: Demand Transparency and Accountability

What happened in Cave Springs may feel like a local soap opera, but its implications are universal. Democracy decays in darkness, whether in Washington, D.C., or a small Arkansas city hall. Here, a clique of officials manufactured outrage, exploited procedural loopholes, and sicced the police on an elected colleague – all to tighten their grip on power and grease the wheels for their agenda. They assumed no one would notice beyond city limits. They believed a bewildered public would buy the narrative. They assumed wrong.

This crisis in Cave Springs is a warning to communities everywhere. It shows how easily a “trusted” leader can distort facts to create a scapegoat, how a council can abandon checks and balances in favor of mob mentality, and how quickly rights can be trampled if citizens and press aren’t paying attention. It exemplifies the Manufactured Outrage Machine at a micro level: a false crisis was weaponized to serve political and financial ends.

Now, it’s up to us – the residents, the Arkansas public, the media, and good-government advocates – to demand real accountability. That means: insist on seeing the third-party audit results about the IRS issue; demand answers about those mysterious 2021 withdrawals; scrutinize every emergency ordinance and whether true emergencies existed. It means supporting efforts to strengthen laws against “bills of attainder” and wrongful removal of officials – so that no future council can punish someone without due process as Cave Springs did. And it might mean sending a message at the ballot box that manufactured outrage will not be rewarded with re-election.

For Kim Hutcheson, it means a fight in court to clear her name and restore the voters’ choice. For Mayor Noblett and the council, it means the spotlight is now squarely on them; if their actions were as righteous as they claimed, they should welcome transparency at every turn. If not, well, sunlight has a way of disinfecting the rot.

In the end, this is about more than one town. Cave Springs is a case study in a national pattern – a pattern of outrage and division being cynically used to grab power. But shining a light on it can make a difference. Let the story of Cave Springs be a rallying cry for townsfolk and watchdogs everywhere: Don’t let a manufactured crisis blind you to a manufactured coup.

Demand the truth, demand accountability, and remember that even in a tiny city hall, democracy is worth fighting for. Transparency now, accountability now – before the Manufactured Outrage Machine rolls into the next town.

Sources:

  • Cave Springs Clerk/Treasurer’s federal civil rights Complaint (Hutcheson v. City of Cave Springs).

  • Cave Springs City Council Meeting Agendas and Minutes Emergency Ordinances 2025-16, 2025-17, and Resolution 2025-39. (Aug. 2025) showing 

  • Arkansas Legislative Audit findings and correspondence notes (2020, 2021). City financial audit report

  • Change.org Petition and historical records on the 2015–2017 Cave Springs conflicts.

  • Development information for Trillium, Osage Meadows, and Scissortail projects.

  • Hutcheson v. Cave Springs Complaint, Exhibits, and PacerMonitor docket. (All documents on file with the author)

  • Cave Springs Downtown Master Plan Named Plan of the Year by APA Arkansas- NWA Daily September 24, 2025

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