The Little Rock Board of Directors voted 9-1 Tuesday to approve a $222 million 2022 general fund city budget — but only after procedural bumbling of the sort that’s been commonplace at meetings this year. Director Doris Wright was the lone no vote.
The budget provides for a 2% raise for all city employees.
The vote came at 9:45 p.m. at a special called meeting, two hours after the regular meeting adjourned — the least amount of notice to the press required under Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
All ordinances require three readings from the city clerk. Board members frequently make motions to suspend the rules and advance ordinances in one meeting through three readings. Such a motion requires approval from eight of the 10 board members. Tuesday marked the second reading of the budget ordinance, but a motion to suspend the rules and advance it to a third reading failed seven to three with At-Large Director Antwan Phillips and Directors Ken Richardson and Kathy Webb voting to move forward.
After the motion failed, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said there would be a special called meeting at noon Wednesday. At-Large Director Dean Kumpuris said it was a toss up whether he’d be able to make the meeting, but said he’d offer two amendments:
Section 11. Review and Modification of Budget Items
This Ordinance to approve the budget for 2022 is not an indication that all of the programs, departments, and expenses, included in the background documents for a line item meet with the approval of the Board of Directors; therefore, the Board reserves the right to review the policy implications of any program, department, or expense, and the make appropriate modifications as deemed appropriate beginning on January 1, 2022, and extending through December 31, 2022.
Section 12. Department of Finance to Provide Documentation Promptly
The Department of Finance is charged with providing to any member of the Board of Directors promptly, which is a time period not to exceed seven (7) calendar days, any and all information requested by any member of the Board of Directors as to a particular program, department, or expense; further, any such request shall be shared with all elected members of the Board of Directors, and the City Manager.
Kumpuris later successfully amended the budget ordinance at the special called meeting.
Asked by Phillips to clarify the intent of the first amendment, Kumpuris said, “I’m just trying to say this is what our job is. If you say what your job is, then we know what we’re doing. We all think of things during the middle of the year we want to change. If you want to change something, and five other people to go along with you, that’s democracy. This is not meant to do anything with this budget. It’s just meant to say 10 or us need to wake up and do our job.”
Richardson said he was troubled by the timing. Kumpuris has been a director for more than 25 years. What’s changed other than the election of a black mayor? he asked.
Kumpuris said Phillips questioning another policy earlier in the year had woken him up and reminded him that he needed to be more dutiful.
But this comes amid an ongoing power struggle with the board and the mayor. At last week’s agenda meeting, Kumpuris said he wanted pull the city’s office of diversity, equity and inclusion from the budget, so the board could have a policy discussion about what it does and provide some guidance and then potentially put it back in the budget in January. He said he didn’t know what it did and thought it was a source of contention. He backed off after City Manager Bruce Moore said such a move would effectively lay off staffers in that department. Throughout budget talks, board members have repeatedly questioned job postings for part-time constituent relations positions in the mayor’s office of executive administration, suggesting that they were signs of executive office bloat and, from Director Wright, that they would potentially undermine her ward leadership.
Director BJ Wyrick said she voted no on the motion because she wanted the city to rethink its bulky item collection rates. Citizens get one item that doesn’t fit in a trash can picked up for free. Additional items cost $25. Wyrick said she believed that limit was leading to people dumping items and she asked that the city remove the limit and adjust the budget accordingly. After much back and forth, Scott persuaded Wyrick to delay her request until the first of the year at which point the budget could be amended if necessary.
At the regular meeting, Director Wright said she would vote no on the budget because a line item for an outdoor education program at the West Central Community Center hadn’t been added as she requested. As a director she should have the right to request a line item on the budget, she said.
Once those issues were aired, Phillips suggested they revisit the motion, but City Attorney Tom Carpenter said the board couldn’t revisit the motion in the same meeting. So they arrived on the special called meeting.
The board also approved the extension of the local disaster emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic until April 26. The local mask mandate on city property will continue until then. Vice Mayor Lance Hines voted against the resolution.