Parks panel gets larger by two seats
The El Dorado Parks and Playgrounds Commission has two more seats, per a recent vote by city officials to expand the commission from five to seven members.
El Dorado City Council members agreed March 5 to amend City Ordinance No. 1013 to enlarge the size of the commission.
The amendment calls for all seven members to live within city limits and for one of the additional members to be appointed to a four-year term and the other to a five-year term.
Their successors will be appointed to full terms of five years each.
Council members suspended the rules and read the ordinance three times during a regular meeting March 5, with Council Member Dianne Hammond making the motion for final passage.
Th council voted in favor of the ordinance voted 7 - 0 — Council Member
Mike Rice was not able to attend the meeting — and enacted an emergency clause, meaning that the new ordinance went into effect immediately after it was adopted.
The vote followed months of discussions that began last year regarding the makeup of city boards and commissions and if a recent decision by the city to take over the administrative duties for the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex would affect the EPPC.
In July 2019, council members agreed to include a position for council representation on the EPPC and Council Member Andre Rucks volunteered to serve.
Mayor Veronica SmithCreer reminded council members in January that they had not moved forward with the matter and council members resumed the discussion during a special meeting Jan. 23.
They agreed then that they would not designate a seat on the EPPC specifically for a council member, nor would they limit a council member who serves on the commission to a term of two years, the same term limit for a city council position.
Council members explained that should Rucks not win re-election for his council seat, he could continue to serve out his term on the EPPC.
Additionally, EPPC members who attended the specially called meeting said they would draft amendments to their operating rules, including laying out the terms for unexcused absences and qualifications for candidates who wish to serve on the commission and other issues and submit them to City Attorney Henry Kinslow review.
EPPC members included chairman Ken Goudy, David Hurst, Alexis Alexander, Brian Jones and Felton Burgie.
For years, the city and Union County have shared, pro rata, annual operating expenses for the multi-purpose facility, which has softball and baseball fields, pavilions, playgrounds and RV rental space.
The complex sits on city-owned property, just outside city limits on Champagnolle Road.
In late 2019, the county proposed a new joint operating agreement in which it relinquished to the city its administrative role for the complex.
Council members approved the agreement in January. Under the new agreement, the county agreed to pay half of net operating expenses, not to exceed $100,000 annually.
City and county officials initially discussed if the complex board of directors, which oversees operations at the complex, would be dissolved and/ or folded into the parks and playgrounds commission.
The city council later decided the keep the board intact, separate from the EPPC, until a master improvement and expansion plan is completed for the complex.
The first phase of the two-phase improvement plan is underway at the complex and the work is being covered by the $2.6 million from the El Dorado Works tax, a onecent city sales tax that is earmarked for economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects.
Anyone who is interested in serving on the EPPC or any city commission or board may request an application by calling City Clerk Heather McVay at 870-881-4877.