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Council adopts rules amendment and debates antiquated city-code property-sale requirement
Summary
The council adopted an ordinance amending council rules (O2613) and engaged in substantive debate about a 1980 code provision (section 2.4(a)) that appears to require council involvement in advertising city real-estate transactions; the city attorney said state law validates past sales and staff will circulate a recommended code cleanup.
The North Little Rock City Council voted to adopt an amendment to its rules and procedures (ordinance O2613) and then discussed whether an older provision in the city code governing advertisement of real-estate transactions should be repealed or updated.
The ordinance (O2613) was read aloud, motioned and adopted, including action on the emergency clause. The city attorney said an updated copy of the rules and regulations will be emailed to council members this week.
After the ordinance vote, several council members raised concerns about section 2.4(a) of the municipal code (adopted in 1980), which appears to require that any city sale, lease or conveyance of real estate be brought before the council to discuss advertising and terms. Multiple council members said they could not find any historical instance where the procedure in that specific code section had been followed and raised the possibility of repealing or amending the obsolete language.
The city attorney advised that state law allows sales and leases to be approved by a majority of council members present and voting, and said he had reviewed the city's records and believes past transfers are legitimate under state law. He offered to provide additional legal opinion and to circulate minutes or legal research to the council if members want to seek further review (including an opinion from the attorney general if they choose).
Council members asked staff to research the minutes and the history of the code provision so they can consider a formal cleanup of obsolete or conflicting code language. No specific sale was reversed or otherwise affected by the discussion that evening; the topic was raised as a policy/cleanup issue for future action.
