The Pine Bluff City Council at its regular meeting Monday approved a pre-construction contract for the city’s proposed aquatic center. The council also passed resolutions to accept grants for a project to complete the Lake Saracen recreation trail and for a project to improve the appearance of streets in downtown Pine Bluff.
In addition, the council voted to re-name a portion of downtown the “Delta Rhythm and Bayous Cultural Entertainment District.” Meanwhile, a staff request for an extra $5,000 to pay for increased water usage at the city’s animal shelter sparked a debate over the Police Department’s supervision of the shelter while the Animal Control Department was embroiled in a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
The resolution on the proposed aquatic center authorizes Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington to execute a $78,000 contract with Little Rock-based CDI Contractors, LLC. to provide “pre-construction phase services.” CDI would prepare an estimated cost for the project, a schedule of work and drawings and specifications for the facility.
Alderman Bill Brumett said he had been told that CDI “has a history of not working with local contractors.”
A general contractor such as CDI typically oversees a large construction project and awards contracts for various individual jobs within the project to electricians, roofers and other specialists.
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Alderman Steven Mays said CDI had in a presentation guaranteed 30 to 40 percent of the work to local contractors.
“That’s a high number that’s local,” Mays said. “They vowed to help save some money as well.”
Mays called it “one of the best presentations I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” and urged the council to “give [CDI] a chance to do a good job.”
Alderman Bruce Lockett suggested that the council consider in the future amending the city’s municipal code to add local vendor participation as a factor in awarding contracts.
Washington said she also had concerns about the contract. She said she would like to negotiate a lower price than $78,000 for the pre-construction work. She also wants to negotiate a lower figure for CDI to be compensated should it complete the pre-construction contract ahead of schedule. Alderwoman Thelma Walker asked whether the council would be asked to vote again on the contract if changes are made to it. Washington said it would.
Jill Floyd, a representative of CDI, said she had been speaking with Go Forward Pine Bluff Chief Executive Officer Ryan Watley about involving more local contractors in the project. Watley is overseeing a local contractors union that is aimed at training local contractors and funneling work on local projects to them.
A request for $5,000 to pay for increased water usage at the city’s animal shelter prompted a debate about the Police Department’s role in overseeing the shelter. Lt. Mike Jenkins of the Police Department began overseeing the Animal Control Department after the department’s interim director was placed on paid leave in early April.
The interim director, Hodges Stewart, 37, was charged in May with two felony counts of fraud – drug paraphernalia following a joint investigation of the Pine Bluff Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Investigators allege Stewart took “unauthorized control of 87 (100 ml) bottles of Ketamine, which is a Schedule 3 narcotic used in the euthanizing of animals,” according to a probable cause affidavit. Ketamine, known on the street as “Special K,” is a disassociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects, according to the DEA.
The Animal Control Department was previously supervised by the Police Department, but the City Council voted in December to detach animal control to make it an independent city department. Police Chief Ivan Whitfield has said previously he assigned Jenkins to temporarily oversee the department during the investigation. Washington on Monday said she did not assign Jenkins but approved the Police Department’s oversight.
Assistant Chief Kelvin Sergeant said Monday that animal control’s $2,200 budget for water use in 2017 was exhausted by May. Sergeant said the department was operating both the old animal shelter and the new facility, as well as taking in more animals, so more water was required for both septic use and to spray down cages. Another $5,000 was necessary to see the department through the end of the year, he said.
Lockett questioned how the Police Department could legally supervise the Animal Control Department if the latter was an independent department according to the municipal code.
“How would the police department be even discussing a budget adjustment if they don’t have the authority to do so?” Lockett said. “We have a standing ordinance that separates the police from animal control. If we want to put them back together, we have to do an ordinance merging them again.”
City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott said she believed Mayor Washington had the power to assign a Police Department officer to oversee animal control.
“We can review it further, but I believe at this point the mayor can put in who she wants,” Hadden-Scott said, citing the fact that the mayor oversees all city departments.
Lockett asked Hadden-Scott if she wanted him to seek a further legal opinion from the state attorney general. Hadden-Scott said yes. The council also voted to appoint Floyd L. Stice to the Pine Bluff Planning Commission. Stice replaces longtime chairman Lou Taylor, who stepped down last week two years into his three-year term. In the meeting of the council’s ordinance and resolutions committee, which meets prior to every City Council meeting, the council debated whether to appoint Stice to a full term or serve out the rest of Taylor’s.
Assistant City Attorney Joe Childers said Stice would have to serve the rest of Taylor’s term unless the council drafted legislation to change it. Mays said he did not know Stice and expressed displeasure with recent Planning Commission decisions such as approving a medical marijuana cultivation facility off University Drive near the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Mays also decried the issuance of new permits for liquor stores in the city. Liquor store permits are granted by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. In the City Council’s meeting, Mays withdrew a resolution he had proposed that would establish a one-year moratorium on the zoning approval and issuance of occupation licenses for alcohol package stories, saying he “had made my point.”
The council also passed a resolution designating three contiguous streets in downtown Pine Bluff as the “Delta Rhythm and Bayous Cultural and Entertainment District.” The district spans from Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue, and runs east to west from State Street to Walnut Street, omitting Main Street.
The resolution commits the city work with the Delta Rhythm and Bayous Alliance to encourage public art and outdoor live music venues in the district. The council voted to accept a $245,000 grant from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to complete the last unfinished stretch of the Lake Saracen recreation trail. As part of the resolution, the city pledges $61,250 in matching funds toward the project.
It approved a related resolution that authorizes the mayor to execute a $283,349 contract with Pine Bluff-based 1911 Construction Co, Inc. to perform the work to complete the trail. The council also voted in favor of a resolution to accept $500,000 from the AHTD to complete the Pine Bluff Downtown Streetscape project. The resolution pledges the city to contribute a $125,000 matching payment for the grant.
During public comment, a man named Brainard Bivens spoke about the Go Forward Pine Bluff plan on behalf of a group called Arkansas Community Organizations. Bivens asked that, should a sales tax to fund the Go Forward plan pass, the City Council not allocate funds to the Go Forward Pine Bluff non-profit corporations unless it met three conditions. The conditions are that funds be allocated on a project-by-project basis with specific costs and timelines; that no project be funded by the City Council unless it is approved by a majority vote of the council; and that if the council votes not to a prove a particular project, it give the Go Forward non-profit 30 days to alter the proposal. Should the council deny the proposal a second time, Bivens asked that money from the sales tax “address needs of low-income Pine Bluff residents and neighborhoods.”