The Little Rock city attorney on Tuesday indicated officials had no choice but to proceed with a contract with the Arkansas Municipal League to participate in the organization's legal defense insurance pool, at least during the first part of next year.
City Attorney Tom Carpenter said there was "no way" to go out to bid on an alternative insurance arrangement between now and the end of the year.
Carpenter's comments came during the city board's agenda meeting Tuesday to allow city officials to prepare for the upcoming formal meeting.
The contract with the Municipal League for 2022 would have Little Rock pay up to $488,284 to participate in the insurance pool, according to a copy of the ordinance on the Little Rock Board of Directors' Dec. 21 agenda.
A vote will likely happen sooner. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. indicated during Tuesday's meeting that a specially called meeting later this week would allow elected officials to take care of the board's agenda, including the 2022 budget, so they can avoid having to meet next week.
Earlier this year, Carpenter objected to the handling of the $300,000 settlement to the 2019 fatal police shooting of 30-year-old Bradley Blackshire.
The Municipal League, along with lawyers the organization hired from two outside firms, handled settlement negotiations in the case on behalf of the city.
The case had been turned over to the Municipal League after Carpenter's office withdrew in August 2020 because of a conflict involving separate litigation that had been filed against the police chief.
On Tuesday, the city attorney told at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris, who has consistently spoken out against the way the settlement was reached, that he had drafted a section for the ordinance that says the city would enter into the contract but reserves the right to withdraw without penalty if officials go out to bid and find a better option.
Kumpuris asked if Carpenter would provide him with that language, and Carpenter said yes.
Shortly after the police shooting, Blackshire's estate sued Little Rock and two officers who have since left the department in federal court. Charles Starks -- the officer who killed Blackshire and was fired as a result, only to get reinstated and finally resign last year -- was represented separately in the litigation.
After news of a tentative settlement appeared in the court docket in October, Carpenter argued the agreement needed board review, citing both its nonmonetary components, which he said constituted a policy decision, as well as the existing law on the city manager's spending authority with regard to competitive bidding.
In exchange for the estate dismissing the lawsuit, the Municipal League agreed to pay $250,500 of the $300,000 sum. Little Rock, through the office of City Manager Bruce Moore, agreed to pay $49,500, an amount that fell under the $50,000 line that would have required formal city board authorization.
Members of the board expressed concerns about the way they, through the city attorney's office, were seemingly left out of the loop on the agreement's terms and the fact that a settlement was imminent.
At a meeting Nov. 2, Kumpuris again critiqued the way the settlement agreement was reached but said he would not offer a resolution related to it.
"I think we just need to suck it up, swallow hard," Kumpuris said at the time. "We've been tricked. It's been done, and let's move on."
Nevertheless, city directors in a 6-4 vote two weeks later approved an ordinance from Vice Mayor Lance Hines, who represents Ward 5, to clarify that settlement agreements were not covered under the city manager's unilateral spending authority.
The ordinance said board members and the mayor must get notified by the city attorney or a representative with regard to a proposed settlement.
Before the vote on Hines' ordinance, Municipal League Executive Director Mark Hayes had questioned the measure's legality, citing the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Hayes said the law prohibits polling officials on a settlement.
In November 2020, the city board authorized the insurance-pool contract with the Municipal League to cover the current year for a maximum payment of $427,728.
Carpenter said during Tuesday's meeting that the Municipal League's item on the agenda also included the organization's dues for 2022, though he did not break down how much of the sum represented dues.