A last-minute addition to the City Council agenda was a proposed ordinance aimed at reducing homelessness, which was passed after much discussion.
The ordinance allows the Economic and Community Development Department to execute agreements with elected officials as part of the Emergency Solutions Grant Program and similar homeless and housing assistance programs.
Last week during the Economic and Community Development committee meeting, director Larry Matthews brought to the attention of committee council members Steven Shaner and Glen Brown Sr. that the federal funds received to help eligible tenants pay their rent would not be available to those whose landlord was an elected city official.
In order to participate in the program, a landlord must enter into an agreement with the city as the provider of the assistance. While program regulations do not prohibit lease agreements between the city and elected officials, Arkansas Code Section 14-42-107, prohibits contracts between a municipality and council members, officials, or municipal employees.
Unless the city council enacted the ordinance specifically permitting those who are prohibited to conduct business with the city, tenants would find themselves possibly homeless.
Council Member Steven Mays said he felt that, because the ordinance was given to the council members only minutes before the start of the meeting, it should be read only once, but Matthews said the delay in passing the ordinance could lead to tenants becoming homeless.
"We are trying to prevent individuals from being evicted from their apartments and home," he said. "As a result, we need it completed because we have eligible individuals who have already received eviction notices that happen to be in the properties of elected officials."
If the ordinance is read all three times, it becomes active immediately, but Mays said he had his reservations about the ordinance and so did Council Member Bruce Lockett, who said he wanted an emergency clause added.
"I'm not comfortable reading something three times and it benefits people sitting around the table without it saying at least there's an emergency that defines the necessity of doing it and I can be able to justify it," said Lockett. "If we are to finish it tonight, we would be best covered if we declare it an emergency."
But according to the City Attorney Althea Scott, no emergency clause was needed.
"This is the time of the pandemic, said Glen Brown Sr., who said last week that he would sponsor the ordinance.
Mays said he still didn't feel there was sufficient time to read and study the ordinance, and he asked it be read once.
"The urgency is we have clients that are about to be evicted from their homes that we can't assist because some of the elected officials own the property in which they stay in," said Matthews. "The benefit is going to the client. The elected official just so happens to get the indirect benefit of the funding. Unless the council acts tonight, chances are that person can be evicted and considered homeless."
Council Member Ivan Whitfield admitted that he was one of the council members who owns property in the community, but he said he has not handed out any eviction notices.
"I will say there are two or three that are on that borderline," said Whitfield. "If you want to know what the emergency is, go visit the person that can't afford to pay their rent. That's the emergency."
Whitfield made a suggestion to read the ordinance twice, give it two weeks and return for a third reading, but a motion was made instead and seconded to read the ordinance three times.
The ordinance passed with Mays and Lockett voting no.
The ordinance will allow council members or other elected officials to participate in the Emergency Solutions Grant Program or similar assistance and homeless prevention programs administered by the Economic and Community Development Department, effective immediately.
A brief intermission during the meeting was held at 6 p.m. to pay tribute to remember and honor the lives lost to covid-19. For 15 seconds the council members and those in attendance joined the statewide tribute for a moment of silence, in memory of the 400,000 people across the country who have lost their lives to covid.
Originally on the council agenda was a proposed ordinance pertaining to burned-out and abandoned structures that would give property owners 15 days to remove or abate the nuisance. That ordinance, which was up for its third and final reading, was removed from the agenda.