Spa City rejects annexation suit deal

HOT SPRINGS — The Hot Springs Board of Directors declined an offer Tuesday to settle the final lawsuit holding up the city’s annexation of Enclave Study Area B, which was scheduled to come under city authority in April 2016.

Attorneys for lead plaintiff Rex Houston, who is part of the group Opponents of Ordinance 6121, emailed the settlement offer to City Attorney Brian Albright on March 10. It offered to dismiss Houston’s claims and forgo an appeal in return for the city repealing the January 2016 ordinance that annexed Area B, roughly a square mile between the city limits and Lake Hamilton.

Albright advised the board not to accept the offer in light of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s affirmation last month of lower court rulings dismissing two other lawsuits filed against the ordinance.

The high court upheld Garland County Circuit Judge Homer Wright’s ruling against plaintiffs George Pritchett, Russell Skallerup and Bruce Mitchell, who argued they were disenfranchised by the board’s action. The previous week, the state Supreme Court affirmed Garland County Circuit Judge Marcia Hearnsberger’s denial of Pritchett’s petition to compel the city to certify a referendum petition on the annexation ordinance.

Wright dismissed Houston’s claim in January and granted the city’s motion for summary judgment, ruling the city had complied with the state’s annexation code by properly coordinating the annexation with the Arkansas Geographic Information Office and giving all Area B property owners the opportunity to appear at a January 2016 public hearing on the issue.

Todd Wooten, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, declined to comment on whether his clients will appeal Wright’s ruling.

The board has adopted four ordinances annexing lands between the city and Lake Hamilton under the authority of the expanded enclave statute, which broadened enclaves to include areas contiguous to a city on three sides and a lake or a river on a fourth. A municipality’s governing body can annex enclaves by majority vote.

The board last month repealed ordinances annexing Enclave Study Areas C and D in lieu of scheduling a special election that would have referred the ordinances to voters. Annexation opponents gathered more than 6,000 signatures in support of referendum petitions on the ordinances.