BELLA VISTA -- The Bella Vista City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the purchase of four new vehicles for the Police Department and a resolution for almost $400,000 in new furniture to be used by the department in its new Public Safety Building during its June 27 regular session held at the District Court Building.
The 2022 Chevrolet Tahoes will be purchased through a contract with Superior Automotive Group after a third reading of the ordinance, which waived the requirements of formal competitive bidding.
It also marks a change from the type of vehicle usually purchased by Chief James Graves' department.
"If you'll remember at the work session Chief told us basically they can't get Chargers anymore no matter where he looks," Mayor Peter Christie told the council. "They have found four Tahoes available, and he does have the money in the budget."
The total purchase amount is $171,412.
After the ordinance passed by a unanimous vote, the council took up the furniture issue and the resolution authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into a contract in the amount of $364,356.63 with L&M Office Furniture through a state procurement contract.
But an amendment to the resolution first had to be passed by the council due to a change in the dollar amount.
"This evening Mr. [Jason] Kelly handed out an amendment because at the work session we were talking about the $364,000 figure and last Thursday the vendor said, 'Oops, sorry, we forgot to give you a gasoline increase as well,'" said Christie. "It was a 3% increase, which exceeded the budget, which is $370,000, and so the vendor was able to knock the priced down to $369,999.99 which keeps it under budget."
Kelley, the city's attorney, explained, "This is a purchase that's supposed to be made through a state procurement contract, and so one of the questions I had was if there's a state procurement contract price, you can't just throw in a 3% increase because gas is expensive. So I wanted to make sure that extra amount was included in the state procurement agreement. We got verification this morning that those procurement agreements were amended to reflect a fuel surcharge."
The amended resolution was passed by a unanimous count.
Another item which passed unanimously was an ordinance amending the Bella Vista zoning ordinance and map to rezone property from a conservation district to a neighborhood commercial district. The parcel is currently a parking lot located east of Riordan Hall, a parcel on which a new member services building will be built for the Property Owners Association.
"What we're talking about is rezoning a parking lot that's part of the Kingswood parking lot, right at the far end that is seldom used," Christie said.
The council also passed an ordinance amending city code to address grading plan requirements, grading and erosion control permits and land alteration requirement, and for other purposes. It was the third reading of the ordinance, and it passed along with an emergency clause.
Two items that didn't make it to a vote were an ordinance amending a section of city code regarding access management to provide clarification regarding access drive distance from intersections, as well as a resolution changing the name of Mold Lane to Mac Lane.
The ordinance, a couple of items of which are still being worked on, received a second reading in the regular session and is scheduled for either a third reading in the next regular session or a vote to table the item.
"They're still working on a couple of issues," Christie said. "If they have not worked out these issues by July they will move to table."
Christie said the ordinance centers around the subject of being able to put a driveway next to an intersection.
When asked what exactly was the issue, Senior Planner Derek Linn said, "Not so much an issue per se, but an opportunity to look at another section of code that is very similar to the subject that we have originally spoken about, and to try, while we're making this effort, to fix another issue that we have not captured previously, so just thinking a little more holistically about this topic. That's what it is ... just to make sure we're not missing anything and to make sure we have the proper details to move that forward."
As for the resolution seeking a name change of Mold Lane, Christie said, "We tabled this in May because council was looking for a 'thumbs up' from the other neighbors on the street. There were four of them, and we've heard from three. Planner [Taylor] Robertson told me today they're still waiting for a reply from the California owners of one of the pieces of property."
The council then passed a motion to table the resolution until its July regular session.
The council's next work session is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. July 18. The next regular session is set for 6:30 p.m. July 25. Both will be held at the District Court Building.