Bryant Church of Christ coming to Alexander

After working with city officials on requested changes to construction plans, the Alexander City Council voted to allow the Bryant Church of Christ to begin construction on its new home. The church will be built on property at 100 Cornerstone Road, across from the Circle K along Highway 111. The church currently rents a building at 9500 Highway 5.

It was Fire Chief Ryan McCormick who was most involved in requesting changes be made to the construction plans. The changes include having all driving lanes and the parking lot paved with asphalt, rather than the original plan to have the parking lot and church surrounded by gravel leading to the driveways. Other changes include an onsite fire hydrant, rebuilding one of the driveways to have a 25-foot radius matching the other driveway, and a "Knox Box" location to provide the fire department emergency access.

Front of proposed Bryant Church of Christ building.

The proposed building size is 60 feet by 90 feet. The floor plan includes five classrooms, an office/audio video room, library/office/workroom, nursery, rest rooms, pastor room, dressing room, baptistry, preparation room, and a sanctuary with seating for 105.

The parking lot will have 22 regular parking spaces and three handicap parking spots. The front of the church will face Highway 111.

The one issue needing to be solved, outside the control of city officials, was getting approval to connect the building to the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority (LRWRA) sewer system. LRWRA provides sewer service to the Pulaski County portion of the city and that portion of Saline County, that abuts with the Pulaski County line, in north Alexander.

The current contract between Alexander and the LRWRA is keeping the city from requesting new connections. The contract, signed in 2018, required the city to write a new zoning ordinance and a master development plan.

Both of which must be approved by the LRWRA and the Little Rock Board of Directors. The contract stipulates there will be no new connections until those two requirements are completed.

The new zoning was adopted in 2019. The master development plan was sent to the LRWRA in 2023 for approval. After more than a year the LRWRA finally decided the only way to release Alexander from the current contract’s requirements is to adopt a new contract.

Currently, City Attorney Chris Madison is negotiating a new contract with the LRWRA. The new contract will eliminate the zoning ordinance and master plan requirements and tighten other language in the current contract.

The expectation is a contract should be available for approval by January. It must be approved by the Alexander City Council, the LRWRA and the Little Rock Board of Directors.

However, church officials want to get out of paying the high rent at their current location as soon as possible. They were able to get approval for the new sewer connection from LRWRA without having to wait for the new contract. Construction is expected to begin before the end of the year.

Other business conducted at the November 18 meeting

City Treasurer can now be appointed

An ordinance changing the position of city treasurer from being an elected position to appointed had its third and final reading. The ordinance was then adopted with all seven council members present voting “Yes.” Council member Tony Staton was absent.

The council decided to change the position of city treasurer from elected to appointed in order to fill the vacancy when no one, who lives in Alexander, submitted a resume after City Treasurer JoAn Churchill resigned effective December 31, 2023. Also, no one submitted a petition for the recent November 5 election, which was to have the position appear on the ballot. With the new ordinance anyone, or any accounting firm, can be hired as city treasurer without being required to live in Alexander.

Jail Cost Sharing Agreement approved

The Jail Cost Sharing Agreement between the Saline County Detention Center and the City of Alexander was approved. The agreement establishes the cost Alexander will pay to house its inmates.

The monthly cost for the calendar year 2025 will be $3,011.59 monthly; $36,139.04 annually. That's up from 2024's monthly cost of $2,527.85; $30,334.18 annually. The cost for 2025 is based on the actual cost for housing Alexander's inmates in 2024.

Under the new agreement the city will still be charging a fee of $20, "[T]o be paid by each defendant upon conviction, plea of guilty, plea of nolo contendere, or bond forfeiture for all misdemeanors, traffic violations, or other first or second-class fines, to defray the cost of incarcerating City Inmates."

Council receives proposed 2025 budget

Mayor Crystal Herrmann presented council members with the proposed city budget for 2025. Council members are expected to study the budget and send their questions and suggestions to city hall to be discussed at the December meeting.

Council Member reminds others of meeting rules

After what happened during the October 21 meeting, Council Member Joy Gray took time to review the council’s rules on when council members get to discuss topics and how a member of the public can be given more time to speak. Shortly after the October meeting began Council Member Harold Timmerman questioned whether the city attorney is allowed to sit with the council and mayor because he’s not elected. Council Member Juanita Wilson questioned whether any of the city’s ordinances, adopted since January 1, 2023, are legal since she has never seen them posted around the city as required. Neither of these items were on the agenda.

As the first topic under New Business, at the November 18 meeting, Gray quoted and explained passages from the Organization of Council manual.

“So on page 11 of the Organization of City Council, that we voted on and we signed off on to the beginning of this year, it says, ‘Each member will be allowed up to an initial five minutes to debate any issue before the council,’” Gray said.

Timmerman and Wilson were working under the assumption council members get five-minutes to discuss any topic relevant to the council.

“That's not the case,” Gray said. “If there's an issue before the council, each of us gets five minutes.”

“If you want something added to the agenda, it either needs to be added before the meeting or it needs to be added by two thirds vote once the meeting starts,” Gray continued. “That includes your problem with seating charts,” referring to Timmerman’s complaint from last month.

“That includes your problem with how things were posted,” Gray noted to Wilson. “All of that needs to be added to the agenda appropriately. So that is how that works.”

Gray then went on to explain the rules concerning the “Public Comment” section of the agenda.

“’Citizens may address the council during the public comment portion of the agenda for three minutes without interruption,’” she began again reading from the Organization of City Council. “’A timer will be used to ensure that all citizens have equal time. If any citizen would like to address the council longer, the council may extend the time limit once for an additional three minutes by suspension of the rules with a two thirds vote.’”

“So you may not yield your three minutes,” she explained. “No one in here can say, oh, you can have my three minutes. We didn't do it when people that we didn't like were getting up and talking. So we're not going to do it when other people that we're going to follow the rules.”

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, December 16, at 6:00 pm in the courtroom of the Alexander Municipal Complex (City Hall). Meetings are open to the public.

Alexander meeting punctuated with discussions of seating, legal ordinances and how the council should function

The October Alexander Council meeting was paused twice during the meeting to hear comments from two council members about meeting protocol and legal requirements concerning the posting of ordinances. Before the meeting ended the city recorder added her two-cents when it comes to how the council should function.

Where does the lawyer sit?

Before department heads could give their monthly reports at the October 21 council meeting, Council Member Harold Timmermann wanted to know why the city attorney is sitting with the mayor during city meetings. Timmermann claimed a city attorney shouldn’t be sitting with the council and Mayor Crystal Herrmann can’t answer a question without input from City Attorney Chris Madison.

“We have a city attorney sitting at our council meeting to be invited by the city council,” Timmermann said. “The city council meeting includes the eight council members of (and) the mayor and the recorder. And that is it at the table.”

Council members, the mayor, city recorder, and city attorney are seated at tables in the city courtroom. The mayor, city attorney and city recorder are seated at tables facing the audience. Council members are seated at tables, which form a V-shape.

“The thing is, he is not part of the city council,” Timmermann said. “He is not part of the city council meeting.”

Timmermann expects Madison to sit with the public and wait for a member of the council to ask him a question, or wait to speak about a legal issue on the agenda. Madison is the first city attorney who has attended every meeting for at least the past 18 years.

“I sit at the council table, at the council, at every other city I've ever worked with,” Madison said. “I've had other council meetings and other towns.”

The discussion ended with Timmermann leaving the council meeting. From that point forward any vote taken by the council his absence was counted as a “No” vote.

Are ordinances adopted since January 1, 2023 legal?

Before starting “Old Business” Council Member Juanita Wilson expressed her doubts that ordinances adopted since Mayor Chrystal Herrmann was sworn-in to office January 1, 2023 are legal. Wilson says she hasn’t seen any ordinances posted at any of the designated locations she visits regularly in Alexander.

Wilson is basing the requirement to advertise adopted ordinances on Arkansas Code 14-55-206 (2023).

Section-1 Part-A of the code begins with the requirement that, “All bylaws or ordinances of a general or permanent nature and all those imposing any fine, penalty, or forfeiture shall be published in some newspaper published in the municipality.”

Since Alexander does not have a local newspaper the city is provided an option in Part-B, which states, “In municipalities in which no newspaper is published, written or printed notice posted in five (5) of the most public places designated by the governing body in an ordinance or minutes of the governing body shall be deemed a sufficient publication of any law or ordinance.”

Originally, the five locations were City Hall, the Post Office, Hess Gas Station, the Mobil Station at the I-30 interchange, and Elmo’s Grocery on West Azalea. With the closing of Hess that location has been replaced with the Saline County Waterworks and Sanitary Sewer office.

“There have been no publications in the five posted places in this city since January 2023,” Wilson said. “So you have failed to do your duty to have that done until that makes everything we have voted on illegal.”

“They do get posted. They do get posted. I've heard this one. Wow,” Herrmann shot back. “We'll start taking pictures of the newspaper in front of it from this point forward.”

“I cannot control the post if they get ripped down or removed,” Herrmann said later.

“And then they're posted on our Facebook and stuff, too,” the mayor added.

A lack of information and decorum

City Recorder Sharon Bankhead took time, during the Public Comment section of the meeting, to lay down some hard truths about how the council is functioning as a judicial entity. Bankhead says there’s a lack of communication between city hall, the council, the residents, and even not telling her when there are issues that need to be addressed at the next meeting.

“The city council is a legislative policy making a body of the city,” Bankhead began. ... “The council impacts ordinances, resolutions, and other orders necessary to execute the city of [sic] affairs.”

Bankhead said, as part of her regular job, she is in contact with the Arkansas Municipal League (AML). The AML serves as a link between Arkansas municipalities and the state. The organization also translates state law for cities to aid in keeping their actions within the law.

“We talk about our meetings, and they have told me, personally, our meetings are [a] laughing stock,” Bankhead said.

Bankhead provided one example of the hypocrisy demonstrated by some council members.

“We were trying to fire Mr. Huck (Planning Commission Chairman) because of something he has said, but it happens in meetings all the time,” Bankhead noted. “We put each other down, make a sign, remarks about somebody's statement.”

Bankhead pointed out that each council member will hear different comments from their constituents based on where they live in Alexander.

“Council members represent each community,” Bankhead said. “Y'all represent different people. So, people are not telling you the same thing in that community that they're telling someone else in another community. So, that person has to bring it to the council.”

Earlier in the meeting, during the discussion about the posting of adopted ordinances, Bankhead asked for clarification as to where the city is posting notices and announcements.

“Because I have heard older members (Residents), because I know them, say, they don't know about our meetings,” Bankhead continued. “They want to come to our meetings. But they don't know they're not posted where they used to be, which I tell them some of the businesses are no longer in a [sic] business.

“So, you know, but the one thing everybody uses is the post office,” she continued. “And there's not been one there. You (Referring to Mayor Herrmann) said you posted there, maybe we do need to take a picture and see who's removing it. Because that's a federal building, and if we find out who's doing it, they're in trouble.”

Going back to Council Member Harold Timmerman’s comments at the beginning of the meeting Bankhead said, “We've never had an attorney. I have been on this council for 14 years. And I don't care what you say, we've never had an attorney to sit beside the mayor and tell her how to vote.”

Bankhead told Herrmann she should be keeping council members informed about ordinances and resolutions that are in the pipeline so they can communicate to their constituents what’s ahead for upcoming meetings.

“The council is supposed to know what the city is doing,” she said. “That's your job, to inform your council members, I'm doing this ordinance, I'm doing this resolution, or whatever.”

Bankhead said she doesn’t have a problem with Madison sitting next to the mayor. She does have a problem with him deciding how Bankhead does her job.

“But he's taking my job,” she said. “Now he has the problems with the ordinances numbers, because the way it was done, I thought it was going to lead (to problems).”

Before Madison convinced council members to change the numbering system of adopted ordinances and resolutions, each number would begin with either an O or an R representing Ordinance or Resolution. Following the letter designation would be the date of the meeting by year, month and day; followed by a number if more than one was adopted during the same meeting. Also, ordinances and resolutions were never numbered until adopted.

Under the Madison system each ordinance or resolution is numbered by the year followed by a consecutive number based on the order of adoption; 1, 2, 3, etc.. They have also been pre-numbered, which caused a problem in September when a newly presented ordinance had to be adopted in one meeting. The number of an ordinance, still in the process of being approved, had to be used for the ordinance passed in September; hence the need to renumber subsequent ordinances.

“So, the way we were doing it should have stayed,” Bankhead said. “And, that should have been discussed with me before we did it anyway.”

“I didn't get to know about it until I got to the meeting, that we would change (the numbering method),” Bankhead continued. “That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about that's happening with the meetings. We need to respect each other's roles.”

Casting aspersions on Herrmann’s meeting skills Bankhead began, “And the mayor, the public (attending the meetings), I respect each one of them because they are members (of the community), but most of them are your friends or whatever. You should be gaveling them when they make noise in this meeting.”

“My rebuttal to that,” Mayor Crystal Herrmann began. “The city attorney does not sit here and tell me how to vote this thing, kid.”

“If it wasn't for the discord, all of some of these council members, our city would be so much healthier,” Herrmann continued. “We'd have so much more city business done without some nonsense. And it does take an attorney plus the Municipal League because y'all don't even want to respect the man that it's all hired as our city attorney and his degree.”

“Y'all voted this” (for the attorney), Herrmann said. “[T]he mayor does not have the right to hire the city attorney. I want the public to know the council has to vote and approve our city attorney.”

“I did not know Mr. Madison before taking office,” she continued. “And you and you want to talk about disrespect of the citizens.”

“Ms. Bankhead, you have said their news sometimes, she claimed. “And, been disrespectful to council members and our citizens.”

Herrmann ended the discussion with a plea to voters.

“Please, God, please go vote,” Herrmann began. “No, please pay attention to some of the big haters. Okay, because it's been going on here. Please. Amen. Amen. Amen.”

Alexander Council Member attacked; Relatives arrested

Arkansas State Police investigating:

According to a press release issued November 4, 2024, by the Arkansas State Police (ASP), on Thursday, October 31, 2024, the ASP Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was called to investigate a disturbance in the 15000 block of Robert Evans Road in Alexander due to a report of a gunshot.

The investigation revealed that Alexander City Council Member Wayne Smith, 63, had been threatened and assaulted after a verbal argument by two family members, identified as Kymesha Maxwell, 29, and Kymberly Clark, 60, both from Alexander.

Witnesses were interviewed and evidence was collected at the scene.

Special Agents with ASP CID arrested Clark and Maxwell and transported them to the Pulaski County Detention Center.

Clark was charged with Felony First-Degree Aggravated Assault. Maxwell was charged with Felony Terroristic Threatening and Misdemeanor First-Degree Assault.

Three ordinances; Second reading, Third reading and a do-over

Thinking the issue of not being able to fill the vacancy in the office of city treasurer had been discussed to a conclusion, Alexander City Council members were expecting to conduct the second reading of an ordinance that will change the city treasurer’s position from elected to appointed. Three public readings for any ordinance is required unless two-thirds of the council votes to suspend the second and third readings and approve the ordinance at one meeting.

But, Council Member Juanita Wilson wanted to re-litigate the issue one more time. Wilson said, “You need to look at Arkansas code 1444, and this is what it says.”

Quoting Arkansas code 14-44-106 Wilson said, “If a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor, marshal, recorder, treasurer, or recorder-treasurer in any city of the second class, at the first regular meeting after the occurrence of the vacancy the city council shall proceed to elect a person to fill the vacancy either by a majority vote of the council members or by a call for a special election to be held in accordance with § 7-11-101.”

Wilson has been consulting with an attorney from the Arkansas Municipal League.

“Miss Wilson,” Mayor Crystal Herrmann began. “We need to get someone in place to be held accountable for our bookkeeping.”

City Attorney Chris Madison stepped in with a summary.

“And so without having filled the vacancy, which is the responsibility of council for almost a year, and after waiting until after the filing period for this upcoming four-year term, we proposed the appointment of a city treasurer because the law allows the appointment of a city treasurer by ordinance,” he said. “So I have to say what you're saying, you're correct.”

The council decided to change the position of city treasurer from elected to appointed in order to fill the vacancy when no one, who lives in Alexander, submitted a resume after City Treasurer JoAn Churchill resigned effective December 31, 2023. Also, no one submitted a petition for the upcoming November 5 election, which was to have the position appear on the ballot. Once the ordinance goes into effect anyone, or any accounting firm, can be hired as city treasurer.

The six council members present voted to read the ordinance by title for its second reading. Six out of eight provides the two-thirds vote needed to read the ordinance by title only rather than reading the entire ordinance.

Voting “Yes” were council members Joy Gray, Angela Griffin, Gina R. Thomas-Littlejohn, Joe Pollard, Mitchell W. Smith, and Juanita Wilson. Council Member Tony Staton was absent for the entire meeting and was counted as a “No” vote. Council Member Harold Timmerman was present at the beginning of the October 21 meeting but left shortly after it began, so was also counted as a “No” vote.

Also under Old Business at the October 21 meeting

Ordinance amending Zoning Regulations gets third reading and is adopted

An ordinance, amending the zoning regulations passed in 2019, received its third and final reading by title only. Council members then voted to adopt the ordinance.

The ordinance amends two items. It adds text to the definition of "Recreational Vehicle" which reinforces that its illegal to live permanently in an RV within the city. The ordinance also removes the term "Duplex (site-built)" from Section 9 Mixed-Use Residential District.

Stormwater ordinance returns for third reading

Before moving on to New Business, Mayor Crystal Herrmann asked council members to add a third item to Old Business. Council members approved adding the Stormwater Ordinance to the agenda.

“So there was some confusion during our ordinance reading (last month),” Herrmann began. “It was originally brought to the table along with our Animal Control Ordinance.”

Both ordinances were first brought to the council at the July meeting. While the Animal Control Ordinance received its first reading in July, the Stormwater Ordinance was tabled for further study. Its first reading was at the August meeting.

“So there was some confusion with how many times, once we moved forward with the Stormwater Ordinance, that had been read,” Herrmann said. “Last meeting (September) we stated that had been read three times. In fact and now we've been read twice. So now we need to go back and give it its third reading so we can move forward legitimately with our Stormwater Ordinance.”

City Attorney Chris Madison took the blame for the error. He said while writing the list of ordinances that needed to be renumbered, he lost track of when the Stormwater Ordinance received its first reading.

All council members present voted to have the ordinance read by title only. They then voted to adopt the ordinance. This new ordinance essentially duplicates the existing ordinance but with the addition of a permitting process to control stormwater related construction.

Under New Business

City sells fire truck to Shannon Hills

The Alexander City Council approved a resolution selling the fire department’s 1994 Pierce Arrow Fire Truck to the Shannon Hills Fire Department for $30,000.00. In a letter to Mayor Crystal Herrmann Fire Chief Ryan McCormick said the $30,000.00 offer is a, “[F]air market value for an apparatus of this age and use.”

Council sets minimum price for bulldozer

The Alexander City Council approved an ordinance to establish the minimum price of $25,000.00 for a diesel-powered bulldozer owned by the city. City Attorney Chris Madison explained to council members the bulldozer would first be put up for auction with the $25,000.00 as the minimum acceptable bid. If that fails the bulldozer would be advertised at that price.

Annual property tax approved, again

The Alexander City Council approved the annual ordinance setting the tax rate on all real and personal property for the next property tax collection cycle in the Pulaski County portion of Alexander. The tax rate will remain at 0.0015 mills per dollar valuation. The maximum rate is 0.005 mills. At the September council meeting an ordinance was adopted establishing the same tax rate for the Saline County portion of Alexander.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, November 18. Meetings begin at 6:00 PM and are held in the courtroom at the Alexander Municipal Complex (City Hall). Meetings are open top the public.