Youth curfews on LR’S agenda
Board talks focus on teen programs
The Little Rock Board of Directors will revisit a proposed ordinance that would allow the city manager to create emergency youth curfews in designated areas of the city.
The board also discussed funding for the city’s prevention, intervention and treatment programs, which provide a variety of services for young people through nonprofit organizations.
Problems with the city’s e-mail server prevented a draft of the proposed curfew ordinance from being distributed at Tuesday’s agenda meeting, but the board agreed to discuss it at its regular meeting scheduled for next Tuesday. City Manager Bruce Moore told the directors that a copy of the proposal would be distributed before the meeting.
Moore said he was still discussing some of the legalities with City Attorney Tom Carpenter and did not release many details, including how the areas targeted by the curfew would be chosen and what the process would be to enact such a curfew.
The city’s existing curfew law requires people under the age of 18 to be indoors between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from midnight to 5 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The city also has a daytime curfew that requires minors to be inside from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. when school is in session. Both curfews have certain exceptions.
The discussions about adjustments to the curfew and prevention programs came less than a week after Michael Sadler, 58, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14year-old Michael Stanley.
According to Little Rock police reports and witness statements, Sadler chased the teen with his van after he took Sadler’s wallet, running the youth down and then beating him. The attack took place during school hours.
The curfew proposal was described as similar to one from last year that would have given the city manager the authority to declare a 72-hour emergency curfew in specific areas or throughout the city based on “dramatic situations.” A public hearing would be required to extend the 72-hour curfew under that proposal.
Moore did not discuss the details or say whether any changes had been made in the proposal since it was last discussed in September.
The board also discussed plans for approximately $6 million dedicated to the city’s prevention, intervention and treatment programs, which are part of the city’s Department of Community Programs. The money, which had been scheduled for release to the programs in January, has been held up by board discussion on ways to evaluate whether the money will be spent effectively.
The funding includes an additional $3 million in revenue from the city’s 1 percentage point sales-tax increase that went into effect in January.
Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson asked whether the money that doesn’t get spent this year because of the delay will roll over into next year’s budget. Moore said he believed it will.
The board also discussed trying to improve the partnership between the city and the Little Rock School District in an effort to improve the efficacy of the programs, as well as creating an accountability system for the organizations that do receive funding.
“We want to know if this money is going to be spent well,” said Ward 3 Director Stacy Hurst. “In the past, [the Department of Community Programs] has given small grants to a lot of organizations. Maybe we should rethink that, and empower the organizations that we believe in and give them more funding ... enough money to be effective.”
No vote was taken on the funding. Moore said the board would likely move forward with programming requests in small amounts, rather than a lump request for the entire $6 million.
Both the prevention, intervention and treatment programs and the city’s curfew were enacted in 1994 as part of a larger youth intervention initiative.