The Legislature's Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to allow any person aggrieved by any rule, regulation, decision or order of the Capitol Zoning District Commission to appeal to the director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
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The director would be required to overturn the commission's action upon finding it was "clearly erroneous," under the proposal, by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock. The department's director is former Little Rock City Director Stacy Hurst.
In a voice vote with a few dissenters, the budget committee voted to add this proposed amendment to the commission's appropriation bill -- Senate Bill 46 -- for the fiscal year starting July 1, before it voted to send the amended bill to the Senate for further consideration. Last week, Hutchinson's proposal fell 16 votes short of the 29 required for approval in the committee.
The Capitol Zoning District was created in 1975 by the Legislature to oversee the look of buildings in the neighborhoods around the Capitol and the Governor's Mansion. A nine-member commission reviews building exterior changes and land use, according to the commission. The commission is budgeted $236,878 in the current fiscal year, and its proposed funding for fiscal 2017 is $237,002, according to a spokesman for the Department of Finance and Administration. The commission has three employees.
Hutchinson told lawmakers that some Pulaski County lawmakers were concerned about his original proposal to abolish the Capitol Zoning District Commission and shift its duties and funding into the Department of Arkansas Heritage, "so I retreated from that."
He said his latest proposal would provide an avenue of appeal to people who are denied a permit by the commission or "have a reason that you are upset" with the commission.
"There are some people who are upset with them. Some people love them," Hutchinson said.
He said he doesn't know whether the commission is making good decisions.
"But I do think it is important that we provided as much due process as we can," and allow a decision by the commission to be appealed first to the Arkansas Heritage director, and then to Pulaski County Circuit Court, Hutchinson said.
The state's budget administrator, Duncan Baird, said there was concern that the proposal would "amend the code and it sort of leads back to what we have said all along," that such nonappropriation proposals require a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to be introduced in a fiscal session.
The Capitol Zoning District Commission "does not oppose this amendment," the agency's executive director, Boyd Maher, told lawmakers.
Hutchinson has declined to say who has complained to him about the commission's decisions other than attorney Patrick Cowan, who Hutchinson said contacted him after the senator delayed action last month on the commission's proposed budget for fiscal 2017. Cowan sued the commission over a decision on the height of a fence.
EDUCATION BUDGET
The Joint Budget Committee endorsed Senate Bill 58 -- an appropriation bill for the state Department of Education in the coming fiscal year -- Tuesday afternoon, after state Sens. Joyce Elliott and Linda Chesterfield, both D-Little Rock, released their holds on the bill after meeting with Education Commissioner Johnny Key.
Key is a former Republican state senator from Mountain Home whose decision not to renew the contract of Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus has upset both Elliott and Chesterfield.
Elliott said she had heard "not one word" from Key about her hold, which she placed on the appropriation bill on the first day of the fiscal session.
In response, Kendra Clay, general counsel for the Department of Education said, "Senator, I don't know why Mr. Key hasn't contacted you specifically about the hold. I will be happy to let him know."
Committee Co-Chairman Sen. Larry Teague, D-Little Rock, said, "I don't understand why nobody has talked to her."
Then, Greg Rogers, an assistant education commissioner for finance and administrator, told lawmakers, "It was an oversight on us."
Elliott said she knows that legislative staff contacted the Education Department more than once, "so for people not to know is, frankly, indefensible." Chesterfield said she hadn't been contacted by Key or his staff either.
Later Tuesday, Elliott said she and Chesterfield met with Key for 30 to 45 minutes.
Among other things, she said she told Key that Kurrus' replacement, Michael Poore, needs to begin to engage in the Little Rock community at large because "we cannot move forward without engagement."
Elliott said she is "jaded" by Poore's hiring to replace Kurrus.
"I am satisfied we had the conversation," Elliott said, referring to her meeting with Key.
Asked why Key hadn't previously met with Chesterfield and Elliott, a spokesman for the Education Department, Kimberly Friedman, said in a written statement: "It was a simple miscommunication. The commissioner and the senators had a great visit, and he addressed their concerns."
Chesterfield could not be reached for comment by telephone Tuesday.
A Section on 05/04/2016