Approval of an $80,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed against the city by Gerald Abbett and Jerold MacDonald was approved during a special City Council meeting Monday night.
The meeting was held before the monthly work session began.
This resolution approving the settlement carried, with Alderman John Flynn voting against it.
The case, staff attorney Jason Kelley said, centered around two Street Department employees alleging age discrimination.
The employees, he said, retired in late 2013 or early 2014, and then sued the city for age discrimination.
"We denied the allegations of age discrimination," he said, "and we still do."
Bella Vista has some coverage through the Arkansas Municipal League Legal Defense fund, he said, which covers half of the settlement in an employment discrimination case, as well as the legal costs incurred by it. So while the total settlement will be for $80,000, the city will only be responsible for $40,000.
While it functions like insurance, he said, it is not insurance.
While he does not believe the city has done anything wrong, he said, further litigation can carry a significant risk to taxpayers. An offer like this, he said, can mitigate that risk.
"You have to make financial decisions in these cases," he said, "and that's what I think the council did."
During the special meeting, aldermen also approved the millage rate, which was kept the same.
The business discussed at this week's work session will be voted on during the next City Council regular meeting, at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the American Legion.
Aldermen discussed changing the zoning of property at 5 Bella Vista Way (U.S. Highway 71) from residential to commercial came before the City Council during its work session Monday night. The change is from residential (R-1) to commercial (C-1).
"Many of you will know this as Pat Cooper's home on 71," Christie said. "This was brought up in front of the Planning Commission and sent to us with their blessing."
Kelley said that it is important to note that, while the applicant had a specific use in mind, the council needed to keep the entire realm of possibilities for a C-1 property in mind before they approved a rezoning.
Shortly after this, the council discussed an ordinance that would waive the requirement for formal, competitive bidding, allowing the city to purchase salt and sand based on the current price and availability.
"This pops up every year on the agenda," Christie said, "giving (Street Department director) Mike (Taggart) the opportunity to go buy sand and salt."
The council discussed appointing a member to the board of zoning adjustment to fill an expiring term.
The appointee's term would last, Christie said, until Oct. 1, 2019.
Chris Suneson, director of Community Development Services, said the appointee, A.J. Morris, has already been on the board for the last six months, during which he's been filling in.
"Given your acceptance of that, he would like to be reappointed."
The council talked about the amounts of the liens that would be certified to the Benton County Tax Collector against certain properties to cover grass-cutting expenses, among other nuisances the city has taken care of when property owners have failed to keep their land up to code.
"We've actually spent about $7,500 in expenses maintaining properties since September," Suneson said.
He added that some of that has been recouped very recently, and that the council would have an updated version of this proposal to reflect these paid bills at next week's regular meeting.
Next up, the council talked about renewing the lease for the Community Development Services' office space.
Suneson said that they were offered a $100-per-month increase on a single-year renewal, though the property's owner, Vancon Properties, offered to keep the rent the same if the city agreed to a five-year lease.
The final resolution in this dense, short meeting was an authorization to enter into a contract with Marion Company to construct an addition to the Street Department building for $64,870.
"This is the one we have been talking about and recently went to bid," Christie said.
After the meeting was adjourned at 5:31, Christie had a couple of announcements to make.
First, he introduced the city's new IT director, John Moeckel. Christie said that four candidates were interviewed, and a variety of tech-centric questions were thrown at them.
"John was the only one who nailed every one of them," he said.
Before everyone could leave, Christie introduced the earliest forms of the city's budget for next year. While it was far from complete, he said, he wanted input from the council before going much further.
"Let me give you some of the highlights, plus a couple of other pieces of business," he said.
Next year, he said, he wants to focus on police and IT.
The Police Department, he said, has requested 10 additional staff members, including three officers, as well as some equipment.
In terms of IT, he said, the city needs to consider a stronger file backup system, as well as a thorough security audit.
"There is a marked increase in hacking," he said. "And we have a lot of significant information with the Police Department, the Ambulance Service, the Fire Department -- not to mention our own people."
There are also increased expenses, he said. For instance, health insurance for city employees may become more expensive, and the city is in the process of shopping around.
Bentonville, he said, is also increasing Bella Vista's court assessment fee from $8,700 per month to $13,000 each month.
"In their defense, our load has gone up," Christie said.
In order to discuss the budget in far greater detail, Christie said he may call a special work session to focus on it.
"I really would like to have it done in November," he said, "so we can start all of our planning for next year."
General News on 10/19/2016