Council considers microchip ordinance

The Bella Vista City Council approved changes to the city’s employee handbook during its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 24.

The ordinance passed 5-1, with council member Larry Wilms voting in opposition.

The resolution making these amendments was tabled during the January regular meeting, Mayor Peter Christie said, because of legal questions about the adjustments.

“We are prepared to move forward tonight,” he said.

During the Jan. 21 work session, Christie said this revision is geared toward clarifying a lot of the document’s language.

At the same meeting, human resources director Glenda Kelderman outlined some of the changes.

The drug policy, she explained, now has rules about medical

marijuana and forbids employees from having alcohol or controlled medication during work hours.

Employees in safety-sensitive positions may not use marijuana even with a card, she said.

The revised handbook also includes a new worker category, called “casual employees,” for people on payroll, like firefighters on call, who don’t fit the way a typical part-time employee might.

The council also examined an ordinance to remove the city’s existing dog licensure requirements and require proof of microchipping.

The ordinance in question will go to its second reading during the March 23 regular meeting and third and final reading before the council casts a vote during the April 27 regular meeting, assuming the ordinance is not moved to third and final during the March meeting.

Bella Vista Police Department Animal Control Officer Leslie Pratt spoke to the council during its public input session.

“I have not once picked a dog up with a city license,” she said.

Pratt said scanning for a chip is the first thing she does, but assuming the dog is chipped, calling all the companies that record chips can take as much as half an hour, and if an owner can’t be contacted the dog goes to the shelter.

The city pays $109 for every dog the shelter takes from animal control, she said.

Having an in-house database for microchips could save her time and get more dogs back to their owners, as well as save the city money, she said.

“We’re going to save a lot of dogs,” she said.

Council member Steven Bourke said that he’s concerned that requiring microchipping may be overreach on the city’s part because some people may prefer not to microchip their animals, though the city should encourage it.

“The ordinance as it’s been put forward mandates that every dog owner must have a microchip… I would prefer that we work towards an option,” he said.

Bourke proposed an amendment to the proposed ordinance, which retains the existing $20 per year license fee, but waives it for anyone with proof of microchipping.

He also suggested the city and shelter partner to raise awareness about the cost, simplicity, benefits and how to schedule microchipping. Compliance with the current ordinance is likely poor because the public isn’t as aware of existing requirements as it should be.

Bourke’s amendment passed 4-2, with council members Linda Lloyd and John Flynn opposing it.

Lloyd said keeping a licensure option means the city still incurs costs by ordering tags each year and changing to mandated microchipping is a change in requirements more than the introduction of a new one.

“We’re not going from a suggested system to a mandate, we’re just changing the mandate,” she said.

Curt Stoops, who serves on the Bella Vista Animal Shelter’s board of directors addressed the council during its public input session and spoke in favor of the ordinance.

“We are 100 percent behind that at the shelter,” he said.

Of the 392 dogs the shelter took in from the city last year, he said, roughly 5 percent had collars with tags that were up to date, while 60 percent had no collar at all.

Dogs who are microchipped can be more easily returned to their homes, he said.

The council also approved an ordinance allowing the use of class 1, or pedal-assisted electric bicycles on the city’s public trails; clarifications to the city’s sick leave policies for police officers and firefighters; reappointing Doug Farner to the planning commission; a $158,000 ambulance remount and adjustments to the 2020 budget.