Earle Council taking care of city business

Earle Council taking care of city business

News & Notes from June meeting

news@theeveningtimes.com

Earle made it official that Councilman Bobby Luckett, Sr. can serve as the city’s building inspector.

The city council amended its ordinance governing the conditions under which city officials or family members can do business with the city to state the reasons why Luckett was hired to fill the position.

“This was something that the auditors told us we needed to do,” said city attorney Davis Loftin. “It cleans up our ordinance.”

Luckett was hired in 2015 by then Mayor Carolyn Jones to fill the job after they were unable to find another qualified candidate. The city has an ordinance which allows family members of elected officials to provide services to the city, but auditors wrote the city up in its 2015 audit because the city did not state a specific reason why he was hired.

Auditors found that the ordinance was not sufficiently detailed enough and recommended the council go back and revise the ordinance to state the actual conditions of why Luckett was hired.

An Arkansas Attorney general opinion cautions cities not to pass a blanket ordinance which allows for the hiring of family, and instead to name the specific individual for the position and the reasons why.

The change allows Luckett to enter into an agreement with the city to provide services as building inspector.

Councilman Kenneth Cross voted against the ordinance.

In other business:

• Road Department supervisor Nemi Matthews informed the council that garbage collection is going well but that they are out of garbage containers until the new ones they ordered arrive.

“They can call and we will put them on a list and get them one as soon as they get here,” Matthews said.

Matthews also said the boom truck broke down but they got it fixed, and that they are cutting grass “as fast as they can when it’s not raining.”

• Matthews also implored residents to please make sure they have numbers on their homes in order to aid police and fire in locating their homes.

“We have so many problems with emergency and police trying to find addresses,” Matthews said.

“A lot of homes don’t have them. So please make sure your address is visible so we can find them.”

By Mark Randall