Board member offers own plan to use relief cash

$12.35M set aside as LR’s part of Rescue Plan funding

A member of the Little Rock Board of Directors has offered her own version of a $12.35 million spending plan that would allocate more than half of the city’s second tranche of American Rescue Plan Act money in the wake of a proposal brought forward by city staff.

The resolution sponsored by Little Rock City Director Doris Wright of Ward 6 was discussed at Tuesday’s agenda meeting of the city board.

Board members will have the opportunity to add Wright’s resolution to the agenda during next Tuesday’s formal meeting, but the addition will require a supermajority vote.

At a May 31 meeting, Emily Jordan Cox, Little Rock’s intergovernmental relations manager, presented an initial $12.35 million spending plan for the second tranche. At that time, the city was expected to receive the second tranche of approximately $18.8 million within days.

The money has since been received. Little Rock received the first half of its total allocation of more than $37 million in May 2021.

The overall allocation is the largest out of all the cities in Arkansas receiving funding from the economic rescue package President Joe Biden signed in March 2021. The legislation included $350 billion in direct aid to entities such as states, counties, cities and tribal governments.

Wright’s resolution would increase allocations in several categories when compared to the original proposal presented by Cox.

A senior center would receive $3 million, up from $2 million. At the meeting late last month, Cox suggested the senior-center funding would likely go toward a revamp of a site that has yet to be determined.

Parks and community centers would receive $3 million under Wright’s proposal, up from $2 million, with $1 million expressly earmarked for baseball fields at the West Central Community Center.

During the meeting Tuesday, Wright said she had been trying to get work done on the West Central fields for a number of years but had been unsuccessful; she felt the latest tranche of funds represented “an opportunity to do so.”

Fire facility improvements would receive $1.5 million, up from $500,000. Wright said the additional funding would help the city update its fire fleet, noting the two-year time frame associated with acquiring a new fire truck.

A downtown master plan and related capital needs would receive $1.5 million, up from a $500,000 allocation in the city’s original proposal that drew harsh criticism from at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris for being too small in his view.

The original proposal would have had the Downtown Little Rock Partnership — a separate nonprofit organization that receives funding from the city — raise any remaining costs for the master plan.

The sum for capital needs for the Public Works Department would remain the same at $2.35 million. Cox has said the department needs to make repairs to a landfill and acquire several trucks.

Likewise, the Police Department’s forthcoming real-time crime center would receive $1 million of rescue money under both the proposal from city staff and Wright’s version. City board members at a meeting last week voted to adopt a resolution authorizing the creation of the crime center with an initial allocation of $200,000 from a seized-funds account.

Wright’s version omits spending on categories like infrastructure needs related to economic development, affordable housing and addressing access to healthy food or food deserts.

Under the original proposal, infrastructure related to economic development would have received $1.5 million; the categories of affordable housing and food would have received $1 million each.

Also absent from Wright’s proposal is a $500,000 allocation meant to fund community violence intervention programs.

After some discussion Tuesday, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said city staff have been working to bring back a proposal for consideration.

But he indicated that after some “sidebar” conversation between him and Wright, another proposal might be brought forward with additions that mirror things city officials can all support.

Discussions about how to spend the latest infusion of American Rescue Plan Act money have coincided with the lead-up to an Aug. 9 citywide bond referendum.

During the special election, Little Rock voters will be asked to authorize an extension on three mills for capital improvements that will be tied to a proposed $161.8 million bond issue. Roughly half of the bond proceeds are expected to fund streets and drainage.