A private nonprofit's control of a banquet hall and kitchen in Little Rock's West Central Community Center has several patrons upset, and the city attorney is reviewing the agreement that allows it.
The city used tax revenue to build the $6.4 million community center off Colonel Glenn Road that opened in November 2016.
The city agreed to provide a 50-foot-by-30-foot meeting space for the Rosedale Optimist Club, which sold the land and surrounding ballparks to the city in 2008 for $1. Its offices used to be located on the site, but the city tore down that building to construct the community center.
Little Rock officials also agreed to provide a private entrance and a kitchenette to the club.
"Access to the kitchenette or meeting space does not occur without the [club's] express written approval," the original agreement states.
The club gets revenue from rental fees to use its room, which the city attorney said raises legal concerns about a private entity profiting from a public city space.
When construction of the center was completed last year, the club discovered that the room originally designated for it didn't meet the agreed-upon specifications, club President Lori Hudman said. It was then decided to let the banquet hall be the Optimist Room.
An amendment to the 2008 agreement signed in April of this year by Hudman and City Manager Bruce Moore says the Optimist Room will be locked when not in use, and the club will have first priority to use the room, but the city can use it when it is not reserved by or being occupied by club members.
The Optimist Club has nine members. The Optimist Room can hold 70 people in a banquet dinner-type setting and has standing room for even more.
The April agreement says revenue from rental fees for the banquet hall and kitchen will be split between the club and the city, after the city recoups the cost of staffing events. It costs $300 to rent the room for three hours, $50 to rent the kitchen, and $50 for each additional hour the room is used.
The center's manager said it usually is rented out every Saturday and Sunday.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter said he was never consulted on the agreement and that it poses some legal concerns.
"There's a real question about what the city has done in terms of giving certain control of city buildings to the Optimist Club," Carpenter said.
He explained that the original agreement was meant to allow space in the center for the club to operate in a noncommercial way since it gave the land to the city for $1 and the city tore down the original club building.
"What it turned into is the ability of the club to decide who can use the banquet hall and to have some authority over who can use the banquet hall and to get revenue from use of the banquet hall. At that point, the taxability of the entire property becomes an issue," Carpenter said.
The city does not pay taxes on public property used for the public's benefit.
Carpenter said there is also a First Amendment concern with giving the club control of who uses the room.
Hudman said groups can submit applications to use the banquet hall. The club reviews those applications at its monthly meetings and decides whether to allow the groups to use the room for free or for a charge.
"For example, the community wanted to use it to do Kwanzaa. We looked at that as that's promoting a type of religion, and we don't want to get in the middle of that. It's against our Optimist creed. So we said you can rent it, but it's not free use," Hudman said.
"But there's a couple of times it has been used for some community things," she said. "Police officers have come and done community outreach-type things, and there's been no charge."
Carpenter said the Kwanzaa example is troubling because a group cannot be denied access to city property based on their religion. The city also has an ordinance that requires its vendors and contractors to not discriminate based on religion, among other things.
"The Optimists can't keep the [Ku Klux] Klan out," he said, as an example.
People in the Aging and Active Seniors Program that is run out of the community center Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. have started a petition asking to be able to use the Optimist Room.
"Our rationale is that the space is unused at this time [of the day], and with the use of this space, the seniors would have access to the commercial kitchen that the Little Rock taxpayers paid for," the petition said.
It includes 158 signatures.
Organizer Musheerah Tharpe said she turned in the petition to the city manager and Mayor Mark Stodola last month. The mayor said he never received a copy.
Moore said in an email that he was aware of the complaints.
"I do think we need to sit down with the leadership of the Optimist Club and develop a new partnership agreement, which I plan on doing in the first quarter of 2018," Moore said.
The April agreement says it will be reviewed after a year.
Tharpe, 81, goes to the West Central Community Center four days a week.
"If we could use that room, Care Link would bring us meals. We could participate in Meals on Wheels and we would have meals every day," Tharpe said. "But there's not enough room in the room we do have, and there's no kitchen facility where we are. That room has a full kitchen and everything you need."
Hudman said the club didn't know of the petition or any complaints. She said club members would be willing to sit down with the petitioners to discuss the issue.
Hudman said community members should view the club's room and the kitchen as separate from the community center.
"The room itself, they need to think of that as that is our separate building," Hudman said. "They need to sit down and have a talk with us instead of doing this petition."
Carpenter disagreed with the idea that the club owns the room.
Hudman said the money the Optimist Club gets from banquet rentals is used for community activities, such as sponsoring baseball teams and after-school programs for youths.
"We don't hoard it. We don't have a big humongous bank account that we do fun stuff on," she said.
Ward 6 City Director Doris Wright has asked Carpenter to draft a legal opinion about some of the questions and concerns surrounding the Optimist Club's control of the room and kitchen.
"I have a group of senior citizens who are very upset that they are not allowed to use the banquet facility and kitchen at the [community center]. Also, they are upset that they are not allowed to use the handicap entrance into the building and that the front entrance is not handicap accessible," Wright wrote in an email to Carpenter.
"They have to walk all the way up front. Most of my seniors are in their 80s. They have walkers. That's what I'm upset about," Wright said in an interview.
The 2008 purchase agreement between the city and the Optimist Club said the city would provide an entrance solely for the club's use. The city may use the entrance, and it may be used in the event of emergencies if the club agrees, the document states.
Wright wants to know if the city could meet its obligations to the club if it were to build a separate facility next door to or attached to the center.
Carpenter said he's drafting a response.
Wright also wants to use the banquet hall and commercial-grade kitchen soon for a training program for which she has received a grant.
The grant is to train people for the hospitality industry -- servers, hosts, dishwashers and front desk clerks. She wants to partner with culinary arts students to set up a mock dinner to allow those being trained in the service industry to practice the trade.
"My concern is we are going to run into an issue when we try to use this facility for this training program," she said.
Metro on 12/24/2017