PB budget meeting ends in walkout
A Ways & Means committee meeting on Wednesday to finalize the department-proposed budgets in Pine Bluff ended with a walkout and without a quorum to approve the budget with $120,328 in departmental adjustments.
The abrupt exit of committee members left chairman Glen Brown Jr. unable to finish the meeting.
Emotions broke out inside the City Council chambers after committee member Bruce Lockett presented a proposal to fellow council members identifying how the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Cultural District Project would be funded. According to the handout, approximately $2 million would be funded over a two-year period with $590,584 in 2023 and the remainder in 2024. All council members were present except Lloyd Holcomb Jr.
Earlier this month, the Pine Bluff City Council approved a resolution in support of funding $2 million to construct the district downtown, an initiative headed by city tourism director Jimmy Cunningham Jr., the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County National Heritage Trails Task Force in partnership with the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission, and the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance.
During that meeting, Council Member Ivan Whitfield made a motion to amend the resolution to have the $2 million come from the 5/8-cent sales tax used by Go Forward Pine Bluff.
“They got $6 million. They can contribute to this, so let’s put some money behind what we’re saying,” Whitfield said, adding he is still waiting on GFPB to complete their projects that have already cost approximately $20 million.
Concerning the current budget cycle, Whitfield asked for $2 million from GFPB to be allocated to the cultural district project now and supplemented if other funding comes up later. Though the money is already committed to other projects, Mayor Shirley Washington agreed with the suggestion during that meeting.
“We don’t have a problem setting $2 million aside,” Washington said.
There are plans to have money come from GFPB, Urban Renewal and grants that would equal more than the $2 million request, Washington said. The amendment was approved by all council members, but during the Ways & Means meeting, Whitfield became disturbed after what he felt was a reversed decision.
“I want to identify this $2 million that we have for the Delta Cultural District and make what I believe as chair of Development and Planning where all this originated, the best way to deal with this,” said Lockett. “It doesn’t require us to alter the budget for the 2017 sales tax.”
Lockett put forth a motion to take the $2 million and present an ordinance to define where the money would come from and how it would be distributed.
“I want to sponsor legislation that will define how we carve that out and how it can be done,” he said. “The only place I see where we can get 2 million dollars is from downtown development projects where we already have a reserve of 4 to 6 million dollars.”
Council Member Joni Alexander disagreed with the proposal stating Go Forward Pine Bluff increased its budget by $1.9 million to pay off the aquatic center loan early to avoid high-interest rates, a move she said wasn’t required.
Brown Jr. also stated that the needs and budget increases of the various city departments are contingent on carryover, but he was unsure if there would be enough carryover to accommodate every request.
The mayor’s proposed budget presented by finance director Yaminah Roberts was balanced. According to Roberts, approximately $2 million had to be adjusted after all departments made their budget entries. In addition, all non-uniformed employees would be receiving a 2% raise, and the fire and police department salaries would increase to a recommended salary schedule.
Washington, who was not present during this portion of the meeting, was represented by Roberts, who said all departments received cuts in efforts to balance the budget, and she felt the council should recommend where the money should come from for the budget adjustments.
“Because we are trying to give raises, there will be some cuts. The mayor’s entry is our recommendation and it was balanced,” said Roberts. “Therefore, if there are any additions or subtractions and you are recommending them, it is your power to say where those changes came from. It is on the council.”
Some council members disagreed with Roberts’ opinion and said they felt that the $1.9 million from GFPB could have gone to the Delta Rhythm and Bayou project.
“In the collector’s office, you can’t even pay a bill online, but we’re allowing them to keep increasing and we’re over here going back and forth over $120,000 and can’t even get assurance that carryover is going to be more than that,” said Alexander. “We’re trying to do a twoyear proposal when the money is right there.”
Lockett said the money source was not identified in the City Council meeting, but Alexander had a difference of opinion stating it was indeed identified when all eight council members voted on it.
“I’m being insulted,” interrupted Whitfield. “How can my alderman sit here and tell me we did not identify where that money was coming from? I made a motion that we get $2 million from the upcoming 5/8-cent sales tax. It was passed by a council, 8 to 0. There’s no further discussion needed and now we come in here and say we don’t know where the money is coming from.”
As back-and-forth discussions continued between various council members, Lockett told Whitfield there was a budget in place when he made the motion to allocate the 2017 sales tax. “You did not present a plan on how to change that,” said Lockett. “I am only saying to back up what you said that we identify the $2 million in the surplus that we have downtown in downtown projects and come back with an ordinance.”
Whitfield said he felt as if the $2 million should all be given to the Bayou and Cultural District up front in the same way that GFPB has its funds readily available as they progress through its projects.
“The project does not require the $2 million today,” said Brown Jr. “It does not have to have the $2 million right now.”
“…and Go Forward didn’t need that $6 million,” said Alexander, adding she no longer had respect for GFPB “because of the total dismantling of the necessary relationships between the City Council and the Mayor’s office.”
“We have to do a lot of different things,” said Brown Jr. “We have to do land acquisitions, architects and engineers. All of those things are a process so all Council Member Lockett is proposing is that we try to make these $2 million work best.”
Whitfield addressed Assistant City Attorney Joe Childers about the legislation that was passed by the council without the council reversing that motion.
“Is that not the law of the land,” asked Whitfield. “What can happen to not carry out what the council said? Who has the authority to stop it and it was not vetoed?”
Childers replied that the resolution was passed with a verbal amendment on the floor that said the funds would be sourced from the 5/8-cent sales tax from 2017.
Childers then revealed that the amendment was inadvertently not added to the printed resolution before it was signed by the mayor.
“The mayor signed it before it got changed,” said Childers, who took the blame in that matter. “So that resolution was adopted as submitted. To correct that, after consultation with Mrs. [Janice] Roberts, there is another resolution which will amend the previous one to say explicitly to be sourced from thecent sales tax passed in 2017.”
Appalled by what he had just heard, Whitfield with a startled reply said: “So you’re telling me there is another resolution coming?” At this point, Whitfield stood up and began to gather his things, accusing council members of having preliminary meetings to make decisions and said GFPB has more funding compared to the city’s reserve.
Lockett continued on and carried his motion to incorporate the two-year plan and said at the next meeting they would discuss how the money would be transferred and who would oversee the project. The motion was seconded by Brown Jr.
Whitfield made his exit, and Lockett left soon afterward, as the time he had set aside for the meeting had expired. With prior department head budget meetings lasting up to 45 minutes, this meeting was approaching the two-hour mark.
One by one other council members not on the committee began to walk out as Brown Jr. continued the Ways & Means meeting. Committee member Steven Mays Sr. walked out in the middle of Brown Jr.’s talk, saying he couldn’t support what had just happened, leaving Brown Jr. unable to pass the budget on to the full council for approval.
Explaining his position after the meeting, Brown Jr. said in the past, anytime there were budget adjustments within the departments, those requests would come from carryover funds from that year.
“This is not anything different than what we have done in the past,” said Brown Jr. “We had a number of requests from different departments. The mayor presents her budget. It’s a balanced budget. Any changes that are made from that have to be addressed in some way and the only way we have been able to address those is from the carryover funds.”
Priority, according to Brown Jr., will be determined by the mayor. “The mayor and the finance director will meet up and determine what the greatest needs of the city are and the biggest concern for the city at that time,” he said. “Based upon that, that’s how they choose to fund the carryover, which still will have to be approved by the council.”
Brown Jr. was lost for words when asked about his meeting ending unexpectedly with no approval to pass the budget.
“I just wish the council could actually get on one accord and pass this budget,” he said. “This is important to do for the employees and different departments that we have in the city. I think we just took some small things within the budget and made those reasons to not pass the budget as a whole, but I’m confident we’ll be able to get together in the near future and work out some of these differences and get a budget passed before the year ends.”