After voting 7-1 in December to detach the city’s animal control and code enforcement services from police department oversight, the Pine Bluff City Council will consider undoing the move.
Alderman Bill Brumett, the lone council member to vote against the measure in December, has sponsored legislation to return the animal control and quality of life divisions to the police department. Alderman Win Trafford, who took office in January, is also a sponsor.
The council meets Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Pine Bluff City Hall in the city council chambers.
Prior to 2013 animal control had operated as an independent city department, while the code enforcement division ran as part of the inspection and zoning department.
But in June 2013, at the urging of then-mayor Debe Hollingsworth, the council voted 7-1 to move animal control to the police department. It moved code enforcement to the police department in 2014, renaming it the Quality of Life Division.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Hollingsworth argued that having police officers train and accompany animal control and code enforcement officers would lead to more progress with code enforcement and better safety for the workers.
In June, Hollingsworth vetoed an ordinance passed by the council to detach the animal control division from the police department. The council’s vote followed a controversial incident in which a Pine Bluff police officer assigned to animal control shot and killed a pig in the Jefferson Industrial Park Area.
The officer believed the pig was feral, then-police chief Jeff Hubanks said at the time. Alderman Thelma Walker said witnesses described the pig as a pet owned by someone who lived in the area.
In December, outgoing Alderman George Stepps proposed new legislation to detach both animal control and quality of life from the police department. Stepps said the police officers assigned to those divisions could be better deployed on patrol.
Hollingsworth argued against the measure, saying the arrangement had helped with code enforcement. She also cited evidence that animal abuse correlates with domestic abuse in justifying the police presence with animal control.
On Dec. 19 the council voted 7-1 to detach the two departments. Hollingsworth vetoed the ordinances on Dec. 28, but City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott said the vetoes were invalid because Hollingsworth waited more than five days to issue them.
Police officers assigned to oversee the two divisions returned to work in the police department during the first week of January. Brumett soon proposed the legislation to reverse the vote. He argued there was no data to back up the decision.
The proposals do not come with the support of the Pine Bluff Public Safety Commission. Comprised of Aldermen Brumett, Thelma Walker and Lloyd Holcomb, Jr., the commission voted 2-1 on Jan. 11 against recommending the proposals to the council. Brumett voted in favor. Trafford at that meeting said he did not want to see the divisions “detached without a plan.”
The council approved budget adjustments at its Feb. 6 meeting to transfer funding for animal control and code enforcement away from the police department. One moved the $372,302.53 animal control budget from the police department to the re-formed Animal Control Department. The other moved $482,474 in funding for code enforcement to the new Quality of Life Division of the Inspection Department.