Council renews chamber contract and agrees to budget-season talks after chamber requests more funding

The Maumelle City Council voted to approve Resolution 2025-23, authorizing an economic development services contract with the Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce and advancing a plan to discuss any contract increase during the upcoming budget process.

Two public commentators—"Miss Connie," a longtime resident and business owner, and Adam Cunningham, a chamber board member—spoke in favor of expanding the city’s investment in the chamber, saying the partnership had produced successful community events and business support. Kelly Wall, who identified herself and gave a city address, delivered the chamber’s annual report to council: she listed recent events (annual banquet, summer kickoff, food-truck festival that drew thousands), workforce-development efforts such as Career Connect, and a new private-sector group called Accelerate ML that the chamber has helped convene.

Wall said the chamber is requesting an increase in the city’s annual budget allocation and provided examples of funding levels other comparable cities provide. She told council that many chamber events are not profit centers and that additional city investment would help scale workforce and economic-development programming. "We’re just asking for a little bit more investment from the city to help us grow that," Wall said.

Council members said the immediate resolution before them was a modest, one-year contract amount on the agenda; several members signaled support for revisiting the contract level in budget discussions. The mayor and multiple councilors praised the chamber’s efforts and emphasized the need to create a formal contract-for-services structure that fits Arkansas law for economic development spending before committing larger recurring sums. Council moved and passed Resolution 2025-23 and added that staff and council would take up possible increases during the budget process for 2026.