County judge to decide millage case

Cave Springs city attorney argues city’s 2017 rate legal

BENTONVILLE — Cave Springs city officials didn’t do much, but they did just enough to make their 2017 millage rate legal, its city attorney argued Friday.

Justin Eichmann said in Benton County Court state law places almost no real requirements on cities in establishing their annual property tax millage. He read through a list of requirements for other actions, from annexations to increasing sewer rates, and pointed to state law provisions requiring ordinances or resolutions be adopted in very particular ways. In the state law regarding the city’s property tax millage, the law only requires the city council to “make out and certify” by “a concurrence of the majority” the city’s millage rate.

“That is the law,” Eichmann said. “That is what is required of the city. A resolution or an ordinance is not required.”

Eichmann provided examples of other Arkansas

towns and cities notifying their county clerks of millage rates by phone, by email or by letter. Cave Springs’ City Council demonstrated its intention to keep the millage at the same rate in the city’s budget, which showed nearly $400,000 in revenue, he said. The council discussed and rejected lowering the millage, according to minutes of a council meeting, and approving the budget showed the council meant to keep the rate the same in 2017 as it was in 2016, he said.

“It’s our contention, judge, that Cave Springs when they made that vote to lower it, after that failed, their intention was to leave it,” Eichmann told County Judge Barry Moehring, who heard the case.

George Spence, representing Treasurer Deanna Ratcliffe, Collector Gloria Peterson, and County Clerk Tena O’Brien, argued the city had a more affirmative duty to show what millage rate it chose to levy.

“I think there has to be some written record someplace showing that there was enough people there to pass it and they passed it,” Spence said.

The county officials named in the filing have a duty to ensure the city’s millage is enacted according to law, Spence said. The state Constitution gives county courts jurisdiction over questions involving millage issues, he said.

O’Brien requested the 2017 millage from the city last year. Nicole Ferguson, the mayor’s assistant at the time, sent the same resolution as the previous year except with a different resolution number.

In March, O’Brien was contacted by an individual who questioned the city’s millage, according to court documents. After the questions were raised, the county stopped distributing the money collected on the Cave Springs millage. The county officials asked for the County Court to decide whether the city properly adopted the millage and the amount, to determine what they should do with the revenue and they be dismissed from any liability to the city.

Eichmann and Spence agreed the city’s requirements are minimal. They disagreed on whether the city had met those requirements.

“I think you have to have some showing of an affirmative vote,” Spence said. “There has to be some sort of written record of that. It has to be clear and that written record, whatever it is, has to be delivered to the Clerk.”

Eichmann said Moehring would have to decide if the city complied with the law or not.

“My argument is we just barely got over the line,” he said. “George’s is that they didn’t. Your decision has be be where is the line?”

Moehring told the parties he would review their filings, the state laws they cited, and the testimony from Friday’s hearing and make a decision. He didn’t set a timeline for that decision.

Eichmann and Spence agreed the city’s requirements are minimal. They disagreed on whether the city had met those requirements.