The Pine Bluff City Council is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to call a special election for the five-eighths cent sales tax proposed by Go Forward Pine Bluff as part of an effort to revitalize the city.
The council’s vote will determine whether the tax, which is projected to raise $31.5 million over seven years and cost about $15 a month per household, is placed on a ballot in June for voters to approve or reject.
The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall. According to a Friday announcement from Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington’s office, the meeting will be streamed live on Facebook at the city’s page: www.facebook.com/cityofpinebluff/
While the Go Forward initiative is billed by many as Pine Bluff’s best chance for revitalization, it has a building movement of detractors. Among them are Pine Bluff Alderman Steven Mays.
At the final community forum on the project held Thursday night, Mays questioned the use of the phrase “responsible party,” which is used in the literature published by Go Forward Pine Bluff, specifically since the literature refers to Go Forward Pine Bluff as the responsible party.
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Carla Martin, who served as chairman of the Pillars group for the plan, said the term means that Go Forward Pine Bluff will work alongside people who can make the plan’s objectives happen. For example, people chosen by the mayor and council who have particular expertise in areas such as community development, zoning and the like.
Mays has been especially outspoken about the Go Forward plan on social media, often urging voters to turn down the initiative.
In a comment about the plan at 5:49 a.m. on Thursday, Mays posted: “I’m not Supporting The 30 MILLION DOLLARS. GFPB. MESS. … WAKE UP CITIZENS. OF PINE BLUFF Arkansas WAKE UP. ….WAKE UP .THIS MESS IS RENEWED. SLAVERY IN 2017.”
More than a year in the making, Go Forward Pine Bluff was created by a grant from Simmons Bank to the Simmons Foundation and involved 100 members of the community who met each month to brainstorm and discuss ideas in four different areas, or pillars, which included: government/infrastructure; education; economic development and quality of life. Go Forward officials say the entire program is designed to improve the city’s economy by offering things that people want in an healthy city, such as improved restaurants, sporting activities and a vibrant downtown.
Among the recommendations within the government/infrastructure component are a complete update of city codes, the elimination of one way streets, and improved planning and zoning.
A separate ordinance on Monday night’s agenda specifies the uses for which funds collected from the proposed sales tax could be spent. Proper uses include a multi-purpose center, a municipal master plan to overhaul the city’s zoning codes, a land bank, blight removal, neighborhood watch programs, amateur baseball and basketball tournaments and an employability training program, among other items, according to the ordinance.
The council is also scheduled to vote on an ordinance amending the city’s code of ordinances to include e-smoking devices in the city’s anti-smoking ordinance.
Two pieces of legislation are up for a first reading. Legislation has to be read publicly at three meetings, by law, before the council may vote on it.
One of the two items up for first reading would repeal an ordinance passed by the council at its March 20 meeting that waived competitive bidding to allow the Police Department to purchase vehicles from Trotter Ford, Inc. and Smart Chevrolet, Inc.
“There was a discrepancy between the advertisement and the procedure employed to process the offers received,” the legislation states.
Also up for a first reading is an ordinance providing for the issuance and sale of bonds to fund new library capital improvement projects. Pine Bluff voters voted on November 8 in favor of a ballot measure to issue bonds to the city of a maximum amount not to exceed $14.06 million.
The bonds are to pay for the acquisition of land for a new main library branch downtown, construction of the branch, and renovation and expansion of the existing Watson Chapel Branch.
Commercial Managing Editor John Worthen and Commercial reporter Ray King contributed to this report.