City director calls for LR panels to have voice from each ward
City Director Erma Hendrix wants to change the makeup of Little Rock’s various boards, commissions and committees so that most of them would include a representative from each of the city’s seven wards.
Her proposed ordinance to accomplish that will appear on the city Board of Directors’ agenda for discussion Tuesday, with a possible vote the next week.
Hendrix’s proposal would only apply to boards and commissions that have at least seven members. Smaller boards would not have to add positions to get representation from all seven wards.
“We have a lot of wards where people are excluded, [and some where there is not a] mention of residency of a person from Ward 1,” Hendrix said when pitching her request to fellow city directors.
Hendrix represents Ward 1, which includes downtown and east Little Rock.
“It shouldn’t be a problem for anybody up here. All seven wards should have someone represented on boards and commissions. We have very few boards without seven persons. Some of them are loaded up with three-fourths of the people from one ward. I think that’s unfair,” Hendrix said.
A review of data provided by the city clerk’s office shows that 25 of 34 boards and commissions appointed by the city have seven or more members.
A resident from Ward 1 serves on 22 of the 34 groups. Of the 25 groups that might be altered under the proposed ordinance, six don’t have a Ward 1 representative.
In all, 47 of the 328 collective board and commission members reside in Ward 1, which is equal to one-seventh of the total — about 14 percent.
The proportions are not the same for other wards. Ward 3, which includes the more affluent Heights neighborhood where Mayor Mark Stodola lives, holds 111 of the seats, or 34 percent.
Stodola said that when a position with a ward residency requirement comes open, he sometimes has a hard time getting a resident from that zone to apply.
“We advertise these positions, and oftentimes where we do have a designation for an individual from certain wards, no one ever applies, so we have to figure out how to make it an operational board,” Stodola said.
While some smaller commissions have an even makeup of representatives from most of the wards, others are examples of the issue Hendrix wants to address.
On the 27-member Arkansas Arts Center board of trustees, all 24 members appointed by the city come from wards 3 or 5.
The 11-member Planning Commission, on the other hand, has a representative from every ward except Ward 1.
Some city directors questioned how Hendrix’s proposed ordinance would work with groups like the Advertising and Promotion Commission and the Little Rock Airport Commission, which require certain industry positions to be filled, such as a restaurant owner or a pilot.
Hendrix’s rule wouldn’t apply to those, City Attorney Tom Carpenter said. A provision of the proposed ordinance exempts commissions that require certain positions to be held by people with a “special expertise.”
The rule also wouldn’t apply to boards like the Metropolitan Housing Alliance board of commissioners, which essentially appoints its own members and is only subject to approval and rejection by the Little Rock Board of Directors.
Under the proposal, all other committees that have members appointed by the mayor and approved by the city board and that have at least seven positions would
have to follow the rule.
If the policy were adopted by the board, current board and commission members would serve out their terms and be replaced as terms expire, until every ward is represented.
Ward 6 City Director Doris Wright said she had no problems with the proposed change.
At-large City Director Joan Adcock said she would like to amend the ordinance to state that no city board member who serves as a liaison to one of the various commissions can serve as chairman. Currently, newly elected Ward 4 City Director Capi Peck serves as chairman of the Advertising and Promotion
Commission.
Ward 5 City Director Lance Hines said he was against Adcock’s suggested amendment on chairmen, noting he once served as chairman of the Children, Youth and Families Commission.
Hendrix said she isn’t looking to have her ordinance bogged down with more requirements.
“If you don’t care that you have anybody [from your ward] on a board, I’m not talking to you,” she said to her colleagues. “But I’ll guarantee you that Ward 1 will have and has had many persons not appointed to boards and commissions” without a rule such as the one she’s proposed.