10-09-011.46
MINUTES
Board of Directors Room
City Hall - 500 W. Markham
Little Rock, Arkansas
October 9, 2001
5:00 P.M.
The Board of Directors of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas met in a special
meeting session with Vice Mayor Cazort presiding. The roll was called by City Clerk
Nancy Wood, with the following Directors present: Directors Hinton, Pugh, Stewart,
Graves, Lichty, Kumpuris, Adcock, Wyrick, and Keck.
Director Lichty asked, as a point of order, who, called the special meeting. City
Manager, Cy Carney, stated he and Mayor Dailey conferred about the meeting, and
Mayor Dailey had called the meeting. Director Lichty stated, as part of a special meeting
there is a two -hour notification, and stated he presumed that criteria had been met. Mr.
Carney answered that it had. Director Lichty asked would it not also include the courtesy
to let the Board know if there is a special meeting being called. Mr. Carney stated it
should have, apparently it did not, and apologized for that. He stated that every board
member should have had notice, he said he knew some of the board had discussed, at
least informally last Friday, that there would be a need for an action item related to
Central Arkansas Water service to the Governor's Mansion, and believed most of the
board members had talked about that the last Friday, but obviously not everyone was
present at that meeting, and again apologized.
Mr. Carney told the board that the item for the special meeting relates to the resolution
that was passed at last Tuesday's regular meeting. A piece of legislation which asked
Central Arkansas Water to consider certain actions related to the proposed improvements
related to water service and the expansion and improvements proposed for the
Governor's Mansion. The resolution of action that was passed was in his judgment, not
adequate enough to send a clear signal to Central Arkansas Water. What has been drafted
for the board to act on today is an action asking, at your request as a Board, that the
Central Arkansas Water's Utility Board consider participating in planned improvements
related to water service at the Governor's Mansion related to their six or seven million
dollar expansion program. Two other key points, last evening, the North Little Rock City
Council passed a similar action in effect, asking Central Arkansas Water Board to
consider participating. At the last Board of Director's meeting, the board had
information indicating this project was approximately $98,000 in scope. Mr. Carney said
his staff had worked today and yesterday with the engineering firm, Central Arkansas
Water, and North Little Rock and believed the total amount of work actually would be
considerably less than this, and suggested that some in house account work with Public
Works Department, North Little Rock and Water Utilities, that the number could be
considerably lower than this. The action tonight is to simply put the burden in the venue
for the Central Arkansas Water to consider at a meeting later in the week, but also directs
that staff look at opportunities to participate in the project. Mr. Carney was convinced
that the project proposed, at least parts of it, are unique and are located in the City of
Little Rock, it would be of help to this overall project related to the improvements at this
site and would be desirable. It was his recommendation to the board to pass the resolution
and therefore request Central Arkansas Water to consider this at their next meeting.
Director Lichty stated these are the sorts of things that test ones patience and challenge
ones metal in public service. He said this is not the same thing that was passed last week.
This is an entirely different thing, and thought it important that the Board understood
exactly what they are doing. He stated that what in fact is happening is that the Board
would be asking Central Arkansas Water to provide funding, services, whatever
resources to run a waterline on essentially private property. The private property in the
sense that it is owned by the State of Arkansas and occupied by the Governor of the State,
makes it unique, but the whole concept is the same, and never before, at least in his
information, had any water utility been asked to do something of this scope and of this
nature. In his judgment, he said it does set a serious precedent. He said what was
approved last week, whether known or unknown, was simply to authorize the Central
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Arkansas Water to make those improvements or move those waterlines in their right of
way, which they had by right. Director Lichty stated at the last meeting, Little Rock's
City Attorney, and Central Arkansas Water's attorney, were still discussing the concept
of "public good ", and haven't come to a resolution of that, and whether there has been a
resolution or not, he did not think "public good" was ever intended to extend to this
particular type of service. The one thing that has changed, is where it was on a fast track
last week to get approval of this board without review of the Central Arkansas Water
Commission, it at least is going back to them, and that was one of the points he was
trying to make when he stated last week the City did not want to "Hop Scotch" an
apparatus that had been established for that purpose, and having said that, he stated he
had not spoken to one member of Central Arkansas Water who is in favor of this
particular item. He said there were a couple of other things that needed to be brought out,
and that was that utility, Central Arkansas Water negotiated a franchise rate not unlike
the ones that were just approved, or set for the agenda to approve next week, that they
pay to the respective cities to in effect, compensate them for doing things like this.
Central Arkansas Water's primary responsibility is to the rate payers of Central Arkansas
Water, and thought this was a real stretch to expect the ratepayers of Central Arkansas
Water to subsidize, what in effect is a private water service to a residence. Director
Lichty felt this was opening up a precedent that is inappropriate and the Board needed to
be careful of approving or recommending that they do this. Director Lichty stated for
that reason, he recommended that the Board not approve this resolution, and send a
strong signal from this board that they support the Central Arkansas Water Commission
and their management in this particular request, if in fact the City of Little Rock and the
City of North Little Rock, think this is a worthwhile project, then they as a city, separate
entities, through their Public Works or through adopting some kind of ordinance or
resolution to set aside funds for that purpose, should they do it, but felt this is not
something that Central Arkansas Water as a utility, should underwrite and particularly if
it involves out of pocket expenses that they are going to have to go out and contract with
someone to do that. Director Keck stated the uniqueness of this is that the Governor's
Mansion is a whole lot more than a private residence. It is used to entertain and host
guests from all around the world, and it is used for a number of different occasions and
the improvements which are probably 20 to 25 years past due, are finding a way to get
them done in a manner that is as cost effective as possible. Director Keck thought
because of the great public good and the pride that can be had in our city of the
Governor's Mansion being located here in our city, thought this item needed to move
forward with this recommendation. Mr. Carney gave an overview of the scope of the
project saying it was divided into two parts, the first part was the extension and provision
of fire service at three different locations including the extension of water mains and fire
hydrants at three sites to serve this property, particularly the expanded version of the
property. Part two is the service lines, serving the building. The second key point is the
nature of the joint venture, even though the details have not quite been worked out, it
seemed to him the fire protection is a key part from the City of Little Rock's standpoint,
and the water utilities is key in providing water for fire protection and felt that was a
unique kind of feature compared to just a service line. He was convinced that between
the Cities of Little Rock, North Little Rock and the water utility, that would create a joint
venture and share in the cost at a greatly reduced total compared to the original engineer
estimate at $98,000, and was hopeful in the next few days this could be defined more
clearly.
1. RESOLUTION NO. 11,137 - To request Central Arkansas Water to assist with
various water utility improvements at The Arkansas Governor's Mansion Renovation; to
authorize the City Manager to assist with the project and for other purposes.
The resolution was read. Director Keck made a motion to adopt the resolution; Director
- -- Adcock seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken and recorded as follows:
Director Hinton, yes, Director Hinton, yes, Lichty, no, Keck, yes, Stewart, no, Wyrick,
yes, Kumpuris, yes, Graves, yes, Adcock, yes, and Vice Mayor Cazort. The vote was 7
yes, 2 no. The resolution was adopted.
Director Stewart introduced the delegation from twelve African Countries who were here
to observe the working of the state and local government, and was a part of a leadership
program sponsored by their country.
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Director Hinton asked Mr. Carney for a recommendation on how to get the ordinance
enforced dealing with dumping of furniture and debris on the curbsides. Director Adcock
stated she thought part of the problem was that when people move there is no water
service and trash collection is not done due to any water being turned on at these sites.
Director Wyrick asked for consideration to have flashing lights at Mabelvale Junior High
School due to the narrow road, the deep ditches, and that traffic was heavy and speeding
was a problem. Director Graves announced that she was an Ad Hoc Commissioner for
the Little Rock Airport Commission and they had met today. She said some schedules
have changed and airline load factors are ranging from sixty to ninety percent, and it is
coming back up. Director Stewart thanked staff for the light at Asher and Western Hills.
Director Stewart had some questions about the contract granted to Cranford, Johnson,
Robinson and Woods for the Domestic Violence Ad Campaign. Mr. Carney, City
manager stated that money was part of the Future Little Rock money for the year and was
an appropriation for and to the Domestic Violence Commission. The source is Future
Little Rock, and that was the Commission's decision to expend their dollars for that
specific contract. They recommended it to the Board and the Board acted on the contract.
Director Stewart said there was confusion on the contract by the Domestic Violence
Commission and asked Mr. Carpenter if all the legal problems on the contract were
answered. Mr. Carpenter said it was his understanding they had been and had received
an indication of that today from Barbara Osborne, and thought they had a meeting with
representatives from Cranford and Johnson to work out the details of the contract.
Director Graves stated she was also an Ad Hoc Commissioner for the Domestic Violence
Commission, and had missed this past meeting, but that Barbara Osborne told her that she
had met with them and felt it was worked out and close to being able to sign the contract.
Director Stewart said at the meeting, the biggest problem was that they had not been able
to get the information from Cranford and Johnson. Director Stewart asked what was the
amount last year? Mr. Carpenter, Director Graves, and Mr. Carney concurred that it was
the same amount, $75,000. Director Stewart said it was her understanding that it was
$35,000. Director Graves stated that they have two separate budgets, they have money
the Commission has given for their programs, and they had $75,000 additional dollars for
advertising and that was her understating when she went through her orientation at the
beginning of the year. Mr. Carney suggested that it might be helpful to have the detailed
history, such as the dollar amount, the scope of the contract and the proposed work and
present it to the Board.
Director Keck made the motion to adjourn: Director Kumpuris seconded the motion, and
by unanimous voice vote of the Board members present the meeting was adjourned at
6:00 P.M.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
I CLE , NANCY WOOD
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MAYOR JIM DAILEY