Did Alexander’s Monday night meeting have to be canceled?

(OPINION)

In an apparent panic, the regular monthly meeting of the Alexander city council was canceled after Alderwoman Andrea Bearden E-mailed the Arkansas Municipal League Monday (June 20) morning about the regular meeting held in May. According to sources one of her concerns is that the May meeting was illegal because the council didn’t schedule it during the April meeting. Bearden along with Aldermen Louis Hobbs and Andy Mullins were absent from the May meeting.

Actions taken at the May meeting included votes to:

• Establish May 16, 2016 a regular scheduled meeting;
• Set the third Monday of the month during 2016 as the council’s regular meeting night;
• Passed an ordinance allowing a cash register to be used for financial transactions at city hall;
• Passed a resolution establishing dollar amounts for the cash register and petty cash, and
• Increased the city’s prosecuting attorney’s monthly salary from $500 to $700 per month.

Meeting notices were posted throughout the city announcing both the May and June meetings as is customary before every regular and special meeting. Since the May meeting wasn’t scheduled in April the council took the precautionary action of voting at the start of the May meeting to have the meeting.

This is the second time this has happened in 2016. In January a similar situation occurred when the council didn’t schedule the January meeting during the previous December meeting. Before starting the January 25 meeting a vote was taken setting the date and time of the January meeting. Since the third Monday of January is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday the meeting is always held on the fourth Monday.

The meeting schedule is normally not a problem because it’s included in the “Organization of City Council” (OCC) document. However, this year getting one passed has been complicated by Bearden’s insistence that aldermen have the same type of access to city hall and its equipment as city employees and the mayor.

An OCC was narrowly passed at the March 21 meeting. Mayor Paul Mitchell vetoed it on Wednesday.

In his veto he cited, “Changes made (in the OCC) will do nothing but cause disruptions in the City Hall front offices which is contrary to the public interest. Some of the actions taken by the City Council have nothing to do with organizing the City Council for their meetings.”

A veto override was not attempted since the original vote passed by only five to three, which is one vote less than the two-thirds needed to override a veto.

Voting “Yes” were Louis Hobbs, Lonny Chapman, Andy Mullins, Farren Wadley, and Bearden. Voting “No” were Stephanie Beck, Melissa Ratliff and Dan Church.

During the February meeting a second OCC without the city hall access language was offered. It failed five to three with Hobbs, Chapman, Mullins, and Bearden voting “No” and Beck, Ratliff and Church voting “Yes.” Wadley abstained on both versions causing each to fail.

Based on information provided by sources explaining the reason for the cancellation of the meeting, there seems to be some confusion as to whether the lack of an ordinance is keeping the city council from meeting. Based on Arkansas Code the only place an ordinance is mentioned in connection with meetings involves special meetings. Arkansas Code (2014), “Title 14 - Local Government, Subtitle 3 - Municipal Government, Chapter 43 - Government Of Cities Of The First Class, Subchapter 5 - Powers and Duties Generally, § 14-43-502 - Powers of council generally; 2-(B) The mayor or any three (3) aldermen of any city or town, regardless of size or classification, may call special meetings in the manner as may be provided by ordinance.”

There are two problems with this section of the code. While it does state, “regardless of size or classification,” the 43 of 14-43-502 is the designation for, “Cities Of The First Class” as stated in the code’s title. The City of Alexander is a City of the Second Class. The second problem is it states, “[M]ay be provided by ordinance,” not “Shall.” In legalese “May” usually indicates optional, not mandatory.

As for the Organization of City Council, Arkansas code appears to only require it for Cities of the First Class. In code, “14-43-501 - Organization of governing body,” it states, “(a) (1) The members of a governing body elected for each city or town shall annually in January assemble and organize the governing body.”

As in 14-43-502 this section is found in the Arkansas Code for Cities of the First Class even though it refers to them as, “[C]ity or town.” “Town” is the classification used for municipalities smaller than Cities of the Second Class. There is no mention of needing it in the form of an ordinance. Also, in the section set aside for Cities of the Second Class there is no mention of a requirement to, “Organize the governing body.”

Municipal League Attorney Mark Hayes and Mayor Mitchell are working out the details of how to either schedule a regular meeting without an Organization of City Council the city may or may not need, or how to schedule a special meeting without an ordinance the city may or may not need. If and when this is sorted out the announcement for the next meeting will be posted in the city at City Hall, the Post Office, Hess, the Saline Water and Sewer Office, and Elmo’s. A notice will also be found here and on our other social media sites.