The sponsor of a measure to repeal a Pulaski County ordinance that purportedly authorized racially segregated water fountains plans to rescind the measure after learning that the ordinance in question never existed.
"We're just going to pull it and continue business as usual," District 6 Justice of the Peace Donna Massey, D-Little Rock, said Thursday.
Massey proposed the repeal after receiving an email from a county resident that contained a picture of a drinking-fountain plaque that said "WHITES ONLY" and referred to "Ordinance No.: 50-3102."
Resident Jim Lynch wrote that the plaque belonged to a friend of a friend who collects old signs. Lynch was concerned that the ordinance referred to on the plaque might still be on the books, and urged Massey and County Judge Buddy Villines to repeal it if it was.
Pulaski County officials said they have no records of ordinances before 1977, when quorum courts -- the legislative bodies of counties -- were changed through a voter-approved amendment to the Arkansas Constitution and subsequent legislation.
Last week, the Pulaski County Quorum Court voted to give preliminary approval to repealing the drinking-fountain ordinance, with various justices of the peace arguing that repeal would at least be symbolic, even if the law wasn't on the books.
But Lynch said Thursday that he had since learned that the friend of a friend had made the plaque himself and that the ordinance reference was not authentic.
"I feel very foolish about this," he said.
"I said, 'Donna, if you want to come throw eggs at my house, I'll help you do it,'" he said.
Lynch said the email that contained the photo of the plaque also contained photos of numerous other signs, such as one for Esso gasoline before the Esso brand became ExxonMobil. Some signs carried the authentic names of other old brands, and other signs were authentic to the segregation era.
Lynch said the collection depicted the mid-20th century time period, when plaques like the water-fountain one were common in the South.
Lynch said the man who owns the signs declined to comment.
After the Quorum Court vote last week, Lynch said he got a call from the friend who had sent him the pictures of the signs, telling him that the man who owns the signs had made the drinking-fountain plaque, along with some others in his collection.
"I just almost melted into the floorboard," Lynch said.
"I like to think of myself as the kind of guy who looks before he leaps," he said.
Massey said the proposal to repeal the ordinance didn't cause any harm and that Lynch has always been a good, active member of the community.
"Things happen," she said. "Fortunately enough, it's something we can squash before it's really a big deal."
Last week, District 15 Justice of the Peace Shane Stacks, R-North Little Rock, had asked if the Quorum Court could repeal an ordinance if it couldn't be found on the books, and officials said doing such would create no legal problems.
Before learning that the ordinance was fictitious, Massey and Quorum Court Coordinator Joy Pensinger said records predating 1977 are scarce and that officials could not confirm that the ordinance ever existed.
On Thursday, acting County Attorney Amanda Mitchell said Amendment 55, which reorganized quorum courts in 1977, may have, for the first time, given justices of the peace the power to pass laws.
"I don't know that the Quorum Court even had the authority to pass laws prior to 1977," she said, referring to an article in The Journal of Politics.
Jonathan Greer, general counsel with the Association of Arkansas Counties, referred to an Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture entry and said quorum courts may have been more judicial than legislative before 1977.
Metro on 10/24/2014