LR officials set to work on community development effort
Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore said city officials will spend the next 30 days developing a framework and working with city departments because of a targeted community development resolution that was approved by the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday.
The resolution aims to address systemic inequality across four of the city’s seven wards — Wards 1, 2, 6 and 7 — that together roughly encompass the lower half of the city south and east of Interstate 630.
One of the first steps, Moore said in a phone interview last week, is to examine “the baseline of what we’re already doing in those areas.”
According to the resolution’s text, inequities in the wards related to housing, crime, infrastructure and food or financial deserts have helped create two cities in one, leading to “marginalized families, youth and children and generational poverty.”
Per the resolution, the mayor and city manager are strongly encouraged to develop short-, medium- and long-term recommendations to “aid in the creation of generational wealth and boost economic mobility and opportunity” around Ward 1’s South End, the 12th Street Corridor and southwest portion of Ward 2, the John Barrow Road Corridor in Ward 6, and areas of southwest Little Rock in Ward 7.
The resolution also calls for the creation of a Targeted Community Development Initiative working group made up of seven members selected by the mayor, in consultation with board members representing the four wards.
The seven-member work
ing group is tasked with creating a strategic plan that includes specific projects in the areas targeted by the resolution.
Priorities may include “increasing homeownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business development and ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, and neighborhood safety,” according to the resolution.
Additionally, the mayor and city manager are asked to give a biannual update, at minimum, to the board on the progress of the work related to the resolution.
A version of the community development resolution was brought before the Little Rock Board of Directors in the fall but failed to gain approval.
The measure calls for $5 million in spending annually over five years to serve efforts to improve development and living conditions in the communities, with an option to renew at the end of the first five years.
Moore said the resolution’s financial piece represents the biggest hurdle.
“When we look at the current budget, obviously there’s not a lot of room at this point to implement another $5 million type of project,” Moore said, but he added that in the upcoming budget cycle, there might be options for the city to look at the framework that has been established.
When asked whether he saw the annual $5 million element as a hard-and-fast requirement, Moore said he did not. Based on “extensive conversations” with the resolution’s sponsors, Moore said, he thinks of the sum as a goal.
The resolution was sponsored by board members Erma Hendrix of Ward 1, Ken Richardson of Ward 2, Doris Wright of Ward 6 and atlarge City Director Antwan Phillips.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Wright said the $5 million allocation from the city is intended to be used to leverage or incentivize additional funding from other sources.
She said “$5 million won’t do much,” adding that when talking about development, “you could be talking about $20 million — a $20 million project.”
Asked about the resolution’s passage this month compared with its failure last fall, Wright attributed the resolution’s success to the addition of Phillips to the board. Phillips, a local attorney with the firm Wright, Lindsey and Jennings, was elected in November to the seat held by former at-large City Director Gene Fortson.
However, a procedural mistake Tuesday led board members to mistakenly approve the targeted community development resolution in a swift voice vote.
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. had the clerk provide a first reading of the resolution as if the measure were an ordinance. Members then voted on a motion to advance the resolution to a second reading, and Scott ruled that the ayes had it.
Unlike an ordinance, a resolution receives only one reading, City Attorney Tom Carpenter informed board members during the meeting, meaning city directors had just approved the measure.
A motion to expunge the board’s approval of the resolution, sponsored by at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris, failed shortly thereafter when members deadlocked, 5-5.
Wright said she was “surprised” by the procedural hiccups.
Wright said she expects a protest from somebody as a result, even though it was the city attorney — who acts as parliamentarian during board meetings — who advised Scott that the measure had been approved.
There were seven members of the board ready to vote in favor of the resolution, Wright said, adding that they can rely on those votes again if the measure comes back before the city board.
“So it was kind of anticlimactic for me, to be perfectly honest with you,” Wright said.
A spokeswoman for Scott said the mayor supported the targeted community development resolution.
“As Mayor Scott has stated previously and regularly, he’s committed to creating new opportunities for economic growth and quality-of-life improvements in areas of Little Rock that have long been neglected and increase equity among’s Little Rock’s neighborhoods and wards,” spokeswoman Stephanie Jackson wrote in an email Wednesday.
Even before the resolution was approved, the city administration had made progress with an economic incentives package for areas south of I-630 and east of Interstate 30, as well as free Wi-Fi in city parks and a community schools program for neighborhoods requiring more direct attention, Jackson said.
“This resolution also formalizes the City’s commitment to improving the lives of residents throughout Little Rock,” she wrote. “Our budget reflects our priorities, and we’ll continue to prioritize equity work and underserved areas.”