THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 LR board vote approves $5M in budget cuts

196 employees furloughed; summer programs canceled

City directors voted Wednesday to cut nearly $5 million from the 2020 Little Rock budget, furloughing almost 200 part-time workers and cutting funding for summer programs that can’t take place in the time of covid-19.

The $4,928,545 budget adjustment amounts to a roughly 2.3% cut to the $212 million budget the city board approved in December. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. proposed the cut because of the economic uncertainty brought on by the covid-19 pandemic.

Little Rock officials expect diminished sales tax revenue because of social-distancing measures put in place by the city and the state, but they don’t yet know the full extent of the impact of the coronavirus.

“These are tough decisions that we don’t want to make, but to preserve and protect the majority of our people this is the best thing to do,” Scott said.

The board approved the budget adjustment at a special meeting Wednesday that the mayor called the previous evening. Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson voted no on the ordinance.

The budget adjustment includes:

■ $513,758 from personnel expenses.

■ $493,666 from operating expenses.

■ $2,921,121 from special projects.

■ $1 million from the city’s contingency fund.

To cut personnel expenses, the city will furlough 196 employees for 120 days, beginning officially Saturday. Of the 196 furloughed workers, 170 worked in parks, golf facilities, the Jim Dailey Fitness and Aquatics Center or the zoo, all of which have closed because of the pandemic.

The other 26 were employed throughout other general fund departments, city finance director Sara Lenehan said. None of the employees included in the furlough receive city benefits.

Lenehan said the $513,758 figure is an estimate based on the average hours worked

by those part-time employees during the pay periods from Jan. 1 to March 20.

Ward 6 representative Doris Wright echoed a proposal she made Tuesday that the furloughed employees be offered jobs answering calls for the city’s nonemergency line.

Scott said he was working with Police Chief Keith Humphrey to increase the line’s capacity, but that he would want to make sure the employees have call center experience.

The city also is cutting some contributions to outside agencies and taking into account $148,000 in savings from not administering the summer playground program, an annual recreational day camp for children.

The adjustment cuts

$233,333 in funding from the Arkansas Arts Center, $64,000 from the Museum of Discovery and $48,333 from the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.

In the special-projects category, $1,362,082 was cut from the summer employment program; $1,073,334 will be saved from suspended contracts for prevention, intervention and treatment service providers; funding for summer recreation will be reduced by $300,000; and $70,705 will be retained from the canceled playground program.

The city also cut $45,000 from legislative consulting, $25,000 from the closedto-the-public Curran Hall, $25,000 from the canceled Little Rock Tennis Open, and $20,000 from the canceled Sustainability Summit.

The $1 million contingency allocation will be utilized to help offset anticipated revenue

reductions.

Richardson was critical of the decision to cut funding for the summer prevention, intervention and treatment programs and the summer employment program.

“It seems like we’re tapping into [prevention, intervention and treatment programs] once again at a disproportionate rate,” he said.

City Manager Bruce Moore said the decisions to cut funding for those programs was based on timing. Workers from the city’s Community Programs Department typically begin preparing for the programs in March and April. Meanwhile, Gov. Asa Hutchinson banned gatherings of more than 10 people, making it impracticable for the programs to operate with the groups of 200 to 300 students.

“The decision was made not so much that we’re not supportive of these programs

going on, it’s just the timing,” Moore said.

Community programs director Dana Dossett added that employers that the city would have worked with for its summer employment program are becoming more hesitant to let in outside people because of the pandemic.

Ward 3 City Director Kathy Webb raised the idea of cutting the city’s higher salaries.

“We talk about sacrifice, and often it seems like the folks at the top sometimes are asked to sacrifice the least,” Webb said.

Scott said his administration has discussed an acrossthe-board pay cut for all employees but ran into legal ramifications.

The mayor said he may propose another budget adjustment as the economic impact of the pandemic becomes more clear.