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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-18 - Minutes -Council Member Sonia Harvey Ward 1 Position 1 Council Member D'Andre Jones Ward I Position 2 Council Member Mark Kinion Ward 2 Position I Vacant Ward 2 Position 2 Mayor Lioneld Jordan City Attorney Kit Williams City Clerk Kara Paxton City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Meeting January 18, 2022 City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 1 of 25 Council Member Sloan Scroggin Ward 3 Position I Council Member Sarah Bunch Ward 3 Position 2 Council Member Teresa Turk Ward 4 Position 1 Council Member Holly Hertzberg Ward 4 Position 2 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council was held on January 18, 2022 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 219 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mayor Jordan called the meeting to order. In order to create social distancing due to the Coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic Council Members Sonia Harvey, D'Andre Jones, Mark Kinion, Sloan Scroggin, Sarah Bunch and Teresa Turk joined the meeting via online using a video conferencing service called Zoom. City Clerk Treasurer Kara Paxton joined the meeting via Zoom from her office in City Hall. Mayor Lioneld Jordan, Council Member Holly Hertzberg, City Attorney Kit Williams, Chief of Staff Susan Norton, Chief Financial Officer Paul Becker, Chief of Police Mike Reynolds, Fire Chief Brad Hardin and staff members from the IT Department were present in City Council Chambers while demonstrating recommended social distancing. Pledge of Allegiance Mayor's Announcements, Proclamations and Recounitions: Presentation of the City of Fayetteville Martin Luther King Brotherhood Award City Attorney Kit Williams: For the last 20 years it has been my honor and privilege to recognize a worthy City of Fayetteville employee to receive the City of Fayetteville, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brotherhood Award. This award has been given annually in recognition of the city employee whose service to our city and community best exemplifies Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of equality, justice, brotherhood and service. This year's honoree joins a distinguished list of city employees who have embodied Dr. King's dream and have helped fulfill his legacy of service. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 2 of 25 One reason I've enjoyed serving Fayetteville as City Attorney for 20 years, is that virtually all of our City of Fayetteville employees from Clerks to Maintenance Workers from Patrol Officers to Truck Drivers, do their jobs with professionalism and efficiency. They serve our citizens with courtesy and competency. It's been very rewarding to work along with my fellow city employees. Our honoree tonight is a Water Distribution Maintenance worker. He has done such good work that he has been placed in the role of Interim Crew Leader, supervising his repair crew. Utilities Director, Tim Nyander, reports that this honoree displays natural leadership and inspires his crew by his own example. He has created an atmosphere of brotherhood and friendship within his Maintenance Division and motivates others by his positive attitude and work ethic. Water Maintenance crews must be ready 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to repair serious water main leaks to ensure our citizens have safe and reliable water to drink and use. On September 20, 2021, his crew and others got called out when one of our principal transmission mains ruptured. He, as well as others, worked 22 hours straight to get this massive main rupture repaired in the shortest time possible. This was especially difficult and unpleasant because of the torrential downpour that occurred, most of that night and into the early morning. However, despite the storm and the deep and dirty hole they had to work in to repair that essential water transmission main, Michael Strong not only persevered, but he led by a positive can -do spirit. 22 hours later, the main transmission line was repaired, and clean water was again flowing. Then on Christmas Day, Michael Strong and a fellow employee were notified of a drainage problem. They left their families on Christmas Day and responded to our citizen's request for help. They discovered our citizen's kitten had been trapped in a storm drain. The kitten's leash had been caught and stuck on a drain tile, from which the kitten could not free itself. Michael and his partner jumped into action and quickly rescued the kitten to the relief and delight of our citizen; a Christmas gift from the City of Fayetteville. Michael Strong and many other city employees treat all of our citizens, rich and poor, young and old, with genuine respect and the best possible service. Michael Strong displays dedication to our citizens welfare, whether it's a stormy night repairing a difficult rupture of a water main or responding to save a kitten for its owner on Christmas Day. Michael Strong is a worthy recipient of the 2022 City of Fayetteville Martin Luther King Jr. Brotherhood Award. Michael Strong: Thank you. I appreciate it. Mayor Jordan: Congratulations, Michael. Citv Council Meeting Presentations, Reports, and Discussion Items: Acenda Additions: None 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 3 of 25 Consent: .approval of the January 4, 2022 City Council Meeting Minutes. APPROVED Krapff Reynolds Construction Company: A resolution to approve a one year extension to the contract with Krapff Reynolds Construction company in the amount of $590,789.00 for rehabilitation of sanitary sewer manholes throughout Fayetteville, and to approve a change order providing for a 5% price increase on item costs. Resolution 17-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Black & Veatch Water and Sewer Rate Study: A resolution to approve an increase in project contingency funds in the amount of $25,000.00 for scope of work modifications as needed for the water and sewer rate study being performed by Black & Veatch Corporation. Resolution 18-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Fayetteville Fire Department Administrative Operating Procedure Policy: A resolution to approve Fayetteville Fire Department Administrative Operating Procedure Policy AOP-101, General information and Introduction. Resolution 19-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Amend Resolution 343-21 Service Appreciation Pay Budget Adjustment: A resolution to amend resolution 343-21 and approve a budget adjustment increasing the 2021 Budget by the amount of $19,274.00 to reconcile actual expenses on checks given to employees as part of the service appreciation pay. Resolution 20-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Renew Public Vaccine Incentive and Establish Covid Sick Bank: A resolution authorizing Mayor Jordan to renew a program to encourage unvaccinated employees of businesses in Fayetteville and Fayetteville residents to get vaccinated, and to establish a Covid-19 Sick Leave Bank for city staff with a Covid-19 diagnosis to cover a 5 day quarantine period. Resolution 21-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Council Member Harvey moved to accept the Consent Agenda as read. Council Member Turk seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Council Members Scroggin, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Bunch was absent during the vote. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 4 of 25 Unfinished Business: RPZD-2021-005 (1032 S. Razorback Rd./The Retreat at Fayetteville): An ordinance to approve a Residential Planned Zoning District entitled R-PZD 2021-0005 for approximately 13.65 acres located at 1032 South Razorback Road. At the January 4, 2022 City Council meeting this ordinance was left on the first reading. Council Member Scroggin moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Jonathan Curth, Development Services Director stated he did not have any new information on the item and was available for questions. Will Kelstrum, Bates & Associates Representing the Applicant gave a brief history of the item. He stated this comes from a recommendation from the Planning Commission with a unanimous 8 to 0 vote. He spoke about tree preservation. He stated the property is nearly surrounded by medium to high density student housing and it's in close proximity to the university. He stated it's the right development in the right location. He stated approving this PZD is a good opportunity for the City Council to get to see what it's getting in advance. Council Member Turk: I have some concerns. I asked last week if anybody from the city could go out and figure out how many acres of trees there are. I guess that's not available at this point. I did a Google map calculation and with this development and we're going to lose seven acres of trees, even with a 30% tree retention requirement under this proposed rezoning. If you Google earth, you'll see there's hardly any treed areas left around the university or within the city, except Markham Hill and we know where that's going. I do think this is in the right location, but there's too much impervious surface. It's too large of a project. It's close to Chick Fil A and even though they've redesigned it, there's still lots of traffic jams. The new project right across the street is going to create some traffic concerns with this amount of congestion. I'm concerned about five people per apartment. While that might be allowed in a PZD, it seems to undermine our four unrelated people in the multifamily district. It's too dense and also a slope back there where the parking deck is. The parking deck is going to be five stories high and will be sitting on that slope. Council Member Scroggin: The per person loss of trees would be far better than a situation similar to this, than some of the subdivisions we approve on a regular basis out at the edge of town. We've known since the 50's and 60's, that if you want more trees and you want to care about the environment, you build denser. I'll be voting for this. Council Member Harvey: I was looking at the trees and this is a difficult decision, because it is already zoned the way for it to be developed. We are going to lose a lot of trees, but it is in the middle of town and right at the university. It's a dilemma for me and I don't want to lose the trees. I believe our ordinances allow this and the location is right, so I'll probably continue to support it. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 5 of 25 Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Bunch: What is this mostly zoned now? Jonathan Curth: It's currently zoned I-1, which is a Heavy Commercial and Light Industrial. Council Member Bunch: That has 10% maintaining canopy. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: It's 15% canopy except in areas of HHOD, of which a portion of this property is and increases it by 5% for that area. Council Member Turk: Just because it's I-1 right now, I can't imagine an industry would be moving in that location to put up a big plant or something like that. It's the right location for student housing or apartments. However, they could build taller and have a much smaller footprint. They could also use impervious stones or bricks. There are low impact development features the applicant could use that would make this less impactful to trees and water quality. The five people per beds is very high and very dense. It's going to cause traffic issues, and possibly other social issues with that many folks packed in there. I will not be supporting it for those reasons. Mayor Jordan asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed 6-1. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Turk voting no. Ordinance 6519 as Recorded in the office of the City Clerk Amend §151.01 Definitions, §164.19 Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) and §164.22 Cluster Housing Development: An ordinance to amend § 151.01 Definitions, § 164.19 Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) and §164.22 Cluster Housing Development of the Fayetteville Unified Development Code to amend requirements for Accessory Dwelling Units. At the January 4, 2022 City Council meeting this ordinance was left on the first reading. Council Member Hertzberg moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Council Member Harvey seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Jonathan Curth, Development Services Director gave a brief description of the ordinance. He spoke about public comments. Council Member Scroggin: On the ADU above the garage, does that require a fire barrier? 113 West Mountain Fayetteville.. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 6 of 25 Jonathan Curth stated not typically. He stated typically, a fire barrier would be required if it's separating the ADU from another habitable portion of the house. He stated he would look into some things for Council Member Scroggin. Council Member Bunch spoke about ordinances versus covenants. She spoke about setbacks. She requested to know if ADU's had to comply with any setbacks. Jonathan Curth: That's correct. Council Member Bunch: If I have a single family house on a lot and I want to build the biggest house I can on that lot, is there anything to stop me from cutting down trees now, if it's in RSF-4? Jonathan Curth: The short answer is, no, in most situations. If you were to go above 6,000 square feet of imperviousness, there's an abbreviated tree preservation plan that's required. If you stay in that level two zone between 1,200 and 6,000 there's credit to be taken for the storm water standards for preserving tree canopy on the property. Above and beyond either of those examples, is if a house is being built on the Hillside Hilltop Overly District, they are higher standards for tree preservation. Most of our zoning districts, especially the single family districts, have a lot area coverage maximum on them. Taking the RSF-4 zoning district as example, only 40% of a property zoned RSF-4 can have buildings on the property. If that's built into our zoning code, that's completely exclusive of ADU's, but ADU's would contribute to that number. Council Member Bunch: If someone wants to add on 1,200 square feet onto their existing home and let's say they build a garage underneath the new edition they are adding, as long as it's less than 6,000 square feet, it's still on that level to range for stormwater runoff. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: Correct. If they stay below 1,200 square feet, it would be fully excepted from stormwater standards. Council Member Bunch: If someone has more than one duplex on a piece of property, can they build ADU's on that? Does it have to be the 40% of the lot at that point, or does it have to be the 1,200 square feet? Jonathan Curth: The 1,200 square feet is the maximum allowance for ADU's on a lot. That area of lot that can be built with buildings, varies by zoning district. The more intense the zoning district, the larger that amount is allowed to accommodate the intensity. Council Member Bunch: Someone wants to know if we could require privacy fences around ADU's. If there's already a fence around the backyard, I don't know that you could require an ADU to be fenced off. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: That is correct. Some of the very few design standards we have for Accessory Dwelling Units, do revolve around privacy. If it's a second floor ADU, taking the garage example of building an ADU on top of a garage, any of the primary windows for the ADU or external staircases have to be either facing the house with which the ADU is associated or interior to the 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 7 of 25 property. That's to protect privacy of having a living room window looking right over somebody's backyard. Council Member Bunch spoke about receiving some complaints and concerns about parking. She stated they have an issue with anyone parking on the street. She requested to know if most of our streets allow on -street parking. Jonathan Curth: I don't know if I would say most, but many of our residential streets certainly do. If it's over 26 to 28 feet wide, that is where we allow street parking and it won't interfere with fire code. There are exceptions all over the city. In our historic district, our Fire Marshal is trying to be accommodating for the historic nature of those streets and any other parking needs. Council Member Turk: I would like some clarification about the storm water. If the primary unit is 1,000 square feet, so it's exempt. Then the one below it, you add an ADU that is 600 square feet and that would be 1,600 in total. Wouldn't that be a level two at that point, or are you exempt for 1,200 additional impervious service? Jonathan Curth: In this example, specifically, it's exempt because it is using the footprint of the existing house. If I were to answer your question more broadly, the amount of imperviousness is based on above and beyond what you have the date of that ordinance's adoption. If you had 1,200 feet the day the stormwater ordinance was adopted, you would have 1,200 feet of additional imperviousness to add to your property before the city would start looking for those improvements or low impact development standards. Council Member Turk: I've received quite a few emails that are very concerned about undermining the RSF-4 and potentially moving it to an RSF-12. The City Council received two public comments regarding this ordinance. Council Member Scroggin stated when we first looked at this, there was a lot of people that said we are doubling the density everywhere, especially in RSF-4 and that's just not happened. He stated the majority of lots, you can't even really add anything too. He stated there are developers who've looked across the city and for the most part they can't really put in almost any of these anywhere. He stated the idea that RSF-4 is going to somehow magically turn into RSF-12 or RSF- 16 isn't going to happen. He stated if it did start happening, it would be slow because construction is kind of slow. He stated he thinks Council would be willing to revisit this if we started adding too many houses. He stated since he has been on City Council, the prices of houses have almost gone up 50% and we are pricing people out. He stated some are selling their homes and moving somewhere else, which is problematic because we would like people to be able to stay here. He stated anytime we have a one or two bedroom rental, they rent immediately. He stated there is some fear of the three units and he's willing to possibly look at that number, but we have to add more houses. He stated people want to protect the integrity of RSF-4, but you can protect the integrity of RSF-4 or you can help the homeless. He stated you can't do both. He stated if we keep pushing all the development to Goshen, Prairie Grove and Lincoln, we're going to get some major highways through our city. He stated he looked at some of the complaints and the addresses where they were. He stated some of the complaints were from people that their houses are where people 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteviIIe-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 8 of 25 could walk to the U of A. He stated that's exactly where you want to add density, so those people can walk, bike or whatever e-version of getting over there and those are where they belong. He stated this is needed. Council Member Bunch stated having major highways coming through our city is a real big possibility. She stated we have lots of state highways that intersect through Fayetteville. She stated frequently, we don't have a lot of say so on what happens on the state highways. She stated Highway 16 is going to be widened possibly to four lanes, all the way to Elkins, which is a big highway. She stated what if that goes out to Lincoln, Prairie Grove or beyond those places. She requested to know how many ADU's we anticipate we have across the city or how many people have applied for these permits. Jonathan Curth: It's been averaging about 10 to 12 since 2018. Before that, it was between one and three from 2008 onwards. Taking an optimistic number, it's probably 60 in 13 years. Council Member Turk stated we've made some significant changes in 2018 and we've increased to about 10 to 12 per year and that seemed adequate, but now we're wanting to do much more. She stated she doesn't have a problem with the ADU's with duplexes or the cluster housing, but exceeding the height, the number of ADU's going from two to three and then lifting the 50% restriction on the primary dwelling, those could be handled through a Conditional Use Permit. She stated making these changes after only three years of data is too quick. She spoke about preserving Fayetteville neighborhoods. She stated if we get too dense without proper planning and proper constraints, we're going to lose that draw of Fayetteville and she has had people tell her we've already lost it, but she doesn't think we have. She stated she would like to change this to allow, not by right, but through a Conditional Use Permit. Council Member Bunch: Are you saying, any ADU Conditional Permit or above a certain number? Council Member Turk: I am suggesting the changes that we're talking about, where if you wanted to exceed the height restriction, like putting an ADU over a garage, that would go through the Planning Commission with a Conditional Use Permit, rather than it being by right, which is what we're talking about now. The same thing if you wanted to have more than 50% of the main house, so you wanted to build one that 70% larger, that would go through the Planning Commission with a Conditional Use and the same thing with having three units, rather than just two, that's allowed now. Council Member Bunch: Jonathan, if I wanted to build a room over a garage and put a bathroom in it, what's to stop me? I could always do that couldn't I, without calling it an ADU? If my neighbors don't complain, then what is to stop me from doing that? Jonathan Curth: The big distinction to be made there among the characteristics that make an ADU is that they have a separate entrance from the house. You can make an addition above your garage and have the stairwell go from your house to the addition, and it would just be an addition. There would be no distinction. If you had a separate entrance to it, staff would review it as an 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 9 of 25 ADU. There are some items that can currently go to the Planning Commission as a variant. We see those periodically, but there's not currently an allowance for the number of ADU's. Council Member Bunch: If it is zoned RSF-4 and you have an acre lot, what is the maximum you could build on something like that? Jonathan Curth: If it's a single lot of record, you could build one house and currently two ADU's. or as proposed three ADU's. Council Member Bunch: As long as they weren't above 1,200 square feet:' Jonathan Curth: Correct. That square footage limitation is still there. Council Member Bunch: How many permits do you think we get for houses that are 400 square feet or five 500 square feet? Do we get a lot of those? Jonathan Curth: No, we don't. About 500 square feet is about the smallest I've seen built with any frequency at all. Our cluster housing ordinance that used to be called a cottage housing ordinance, the main reason its name was changed was because of that maximum building size was increased. There wasn't a lot of market viability for the much smaller units trying to be sold fee simple, where it could be different for Accessory Dwelling Units on a property in association with a main house. Council Member Turk: Zoning laws were made so people would know what the density is of their neighborhood and could rely and count on that. When we start monkeying with ADU's and allowing a lot more density that undermines the history of what zoning is all about. We should keep that in mind when we are discussing these things. Council Member Scroggin: About how many units of housing are in Fayetteville? Jonathan Curth: In the entire city? Council Member Scroggin: Yes. Jonathan Curth: I don't have a unit count, but the household count is just over 35,000 as of 2019. Council Member Scroggin: Even if it was 20,000 at 10 a year, we're adding .05%. At 35,000 it would probably take 40 years to add 1 %. I don't think 10 is an issue at all. We could increase that quite a bit. I disagree with the reason that zoning started. Zoning started to make sure the tanner and the butcher weren't next to your house. It wasn't really about density and then it became about keeping black people out. It initially started out with good things because people's health went up when the factory wasn't next to them. It hurts people's health now because they can't walk to the things they need to go too, and they have to drive. I'm still willing to talk about the two and three total units. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayettevilIe-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 10 of 25 Council Member Turk: Jonathan, you mentioned there were already avenues through the Planning Commission for variances. The only one you haven't had through there is the three versus the two ADU's. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: That is correct. Council Member Turk: So, there's already an avenue for people to build more than the 50% of their main house. Do you have any idea how many of those have been denied of the variances for ADU's? Jonathan Curth: We have not seen a lot of those requests. This gets in more of the anecdote side of things, but a lot of the people that approach staff are property owners who want to build them on their property. Some public comment expressed concern about large corporations, but the individual property owners are often deterred by public hearings. They're often deterred by discretionary approvals, which are items where they have to come forward with some sort of prepared documents, either by an architect, without knowing they can get it approved has dissuaded many of them. I don't have numbers of how many people I've had those conversations with, but certainly going before the Planning Commission has put off a number of people. Council Member Turk: My concern is the, by right. There should be some kind of public understanding that an ADU is going in, especially if it's 1,200 square feet because that's large. Council Member Harvey stated we need to come back to one of our core tenets we've been working on for a while, which is to create affordable housing. She stated having a house with an apartment or another little space in it would have been really helpful to her when she was looking for a space for her mom who had dementia. She stated a lot of people would like to be able to have their aging family members or disabled family members have a private space, amongst your space. She stated there's a lot of positive check boxes with this for Fayetteville and it also makes it friendlier. She stated if it does become a problem, we can revisit it, but the numbers have been pretty low. She stated allowing people flexibility to live with dignity with their family could be an awesome thing. Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Council Member Scroggin seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Bunch: Regarding the height limit, right now, it couldn't be taller than the original structure. Right? Jonathan Curth: Correct. Council Member Bunch: And we would be changing it to no limit. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: An ADU still cannot exceed two stories. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www,fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 11 of 25 Council Member Bunch: I meant it can't exceed two stories. If my house was one story, I could build an ADU that was two stories? Jonathan Curth: Correct. What's being proposed with this ordinance is for attached ADU's. If you had your hypothetical attached garage, you could build it on top of that. It can be taller than the roofl ine of your house if your house is one story. Council Member Bunch: But I can't build a two story ADU that's not attached? .Jonathan Curth: You can do that. It is allowed. Council Member Bunch: I wouldn't be able to build a giant silo that's five stories tail and 50 feet tiny footprint like the treehouse over on Rolling Hills. I wouldn't be able to build something like that. Jonathan Curth: Correct. Not by right. Mayor Jordan: Jonathan, that was 60 and 13 years? Jonathan Curth: Yes. That's an approximation. I don't think we did a great job of documenting them for the first few years of the ordinance. In 2009 we had three. 2010 we had zero. 2011 we had one. There's a gap of two years of 2012 and 2013 where we are not certain. It goes back up to between one and three until 2018. The last three years we've had nine in 2019, nine in 2020 and 11 last year. 60 is probably a high estimate. Council Member Turk: Council Member Scroggin, I'd like to hear your potential discussion about taking three units off the table. Council Member Scroggin: We haven't even gotten two ADU's yet. Maybe there's a few of them. One detached, one internal or two detached, I'm okay with something of that nature. I think some people are fearful that these are just going to pop up like Covid, which isn't the case. I am okay with sticking at two. There was a brief discussion about a possible amendment. Council Member Hertzberg: I think this would be such a rare occurrence that it wouldn't be a problem, but it might help someone who has a caregiver who needs to stay with an aging parent. There might be some random situation that this could actually be helpful. Council Member Scroggin: If you wanted a caregiver and an aging parent and you live in the house, that would be allowed if we limited it to two detached ADU's. Jonathan, is that your interpretation? Jonathan Curth: Yes. I think one thing Council Member Turk mentioned, was the potential to give the Planning Commission discretionary approval for the third. I'm not sure how that would look with Council Member Hertzberg's suggestion. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 12 of 25 Council Member Scroggin: If we went with my amendment and somebody did need an internal ADU and two detached if there was an actual situation, they could go and ask Planning Commission? Jonathan Curth: Not as currently written. Council Member Turk: Could we amend that to where they could go to the Planning Commission? Is that possible in this process? Jonathan Curth: I understand the intent of what the Council's proposing. I'd like Mr. Williams to comment on whether he has concerns about how that's done at this point. City Attorney Kit Williams: The only concern I have is that I haven't seen an actual amendment to the provisions. Although I think I understand what you all are talking about, but I haven't drafted up any code provisions here that would do what is being requested. Jonathan, do you want to draft up what you think is necessary because you've been the one drafting this ordinance? Do you think you can come up with the language, right now, so the Council knows what they are doing? Jonathan Curth: At the risk of drafting the ordinance on the fly, I think this may be a straightforward one and I'll take a stab at proposing it. As proposed currently before the Council is to change the maximum number of Accessory Dwelling Units per lot from one detached to one attached to two detached and one attached. The amendment would remove that change, so it would stay as one detached and one attached. Then towards the end of Chapter 164.19, under (E) Planning Commission approval, the language can be changed in the first sentence to say, an applicant may request approval from the Planning Commission of a variance from the maximum requirements for size and square feet, heights, materials, and number of ADU's up to three. That would capture it, if the Council's agreeable. Mayor Jordan: We have an amendment to have two detached? City Attorney Kit Williams: They're actually removing the two detached and making that have to be a Conditional Use, because the wording that Jonathan gave said, it's kind of the current wording, whether it's one attached and one detached is all that's allowed and, if you want to get two detached, regardless whether you have one attached or not, you have to go the Planning Commission and get a Conditional Use for that. Jonathan Curth: As a point of clarification, it would be a variance, not a Conditional Use, as written. Mayor Jordan: The way it reads right now, if you've got a small house, then you can build up to two-thirds of what that house is in the backyard. Is that correct? Jonathan Curth: Right now, you're limited to 50% the size of the house. Mayor Jordan: What you're proposing in this first round, was one attached and two detached? 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 13 of 25 Jonathan Curth: Correct. Mayor Jordan: With the proposed amendment, you can have one attached and one detached. Right? City Attorney Kit Williams: That's right. Mayor Jordan: Basically, we would be taking away one detached. Instead of getting two, you would get one. Council Member Scroggin: And making that a variance if they need the two detached. Mayor Jordan: You could get two with a variance. The amendment, right now, before the Council is one attached and one detached. Council Member Scroggin moved to amend the ordinance to one attached and one detached, but if two detached are needed, a variance can be requested from the Planning Commission. Council Member Turk seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-1. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg voting no. Mayor Jordan asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Ordinance 6520 as Recorded in the office of the City Clerk Amend the Rules of Order and Procedure: A resolution to amend the Rules of Order and Procedure of the Fayetteville City Council concerning public comments. At the January 4, 2022 City Council meeting this resolution was tabled for two weeks. Council Member Turk: There are two components to this. The first one is simplifying the public comment session. Instead of having the countdown to three minutes and then an additional two minutes, we would eliminate that, and it would just be one five minute countdown. I've heard from residents that it's very confusing. Some people think they only have three minutes. The second one would be to allow citizens to present during their five minute public comment session with videos, photos or PowerPoint presentation at the meeting. They would have to provide those materials in advance to IT, so that IT could ensure there were no viruses. That would really only be IT's role to make sure there were no viruses contained in the information. Right now, we're a little bit vulnerable because if a citizen comes up and has a PowerPoint on a jump drive and wants to show it to us, we almost always allow that to happen. We want fair and open discussions, but there could be a virus on there. This is a way to do a little bit of advanced planning and make sure the citizens know they can present those photos or media to us, rather than it being subject to our approval, when they come to the podium. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville.. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 14 of 25 Council Member Jones: I would like to know the role that the City Clerk staff would play in this or if they would play a role at all. Council Member Turk: Right now, I don't believe they would play a role, because this is during the public comment session. It's usually in person and that would be the vulnerability where they just have a jump drive. I think the City Clerk and correct me if I'm wrong, if a comment was submitted online, then the City Clerk has control over that information about whether it's appropriate, displayed and attached. I don't know what the virus prevention is with that sort of arrangement that you have now through your Laserfiche. Kara Paxton, City Clerk Treasurer: That is absolutely correct. The reason why that form was created online was to be able to streamline that content, in order for it to go through all the proper channels, without having a gatekeeper to be able to address each and every one of those public comments. With the increase of technology and it being able to go through the process without having to have one person look at each of those individual comments. The Laserfiche technology and our network it's established on is able to take a look at that and identify any potential viruses that may come. That's the way it's been explained to me whenever we initially created that form. Mayor Jordan: What exactly does that mean? If somebody wants to do some sort of presentation at the City Council on a Tuesday night, where does that go and how does that get done? City Attorney Kit Williams: Mayor, it's just going to be like it has been with the applicant. Staff will have to get with IT to make sure there are no viruses on it, or anything like that. Beyond that, the gatekeeper in the city for the City Council meeting presentation is Mayor Jordan. If someone is speaking and they're not on topic and they're violating the Rules of Order and Procedure of the City Council, then on that rare occasion, you stop them. The same thing would happen if they have an audio visual presentation that doesn't have any viruses or anything like that in it, but then, when they start playing the audio and it's not addressing the agenda item or that it's directly attacking someone, disrupting the meeting, you would have the same rights with that as you do with someone standing before you and speaking. As the Mayor and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the City Council, it is your responsibility to be the gatekeeper. If someone violates the City Council Rules of Order and Procedure, it is your responsibility to stop them. Kara Paxton, City Clerk Treasurer: Kit, thank you for that detailed explanation. Like you stated in those Rules of Order and Procedure, that's why I did my best to try to explain during the last meeting. When we are in these settings the Mayor is the Chair and is the one who has to follow the ordinances and all the Rules of Order and Procedure when something is happening in the Council meeting that shouldn't be. I don't that should go through any other departments for denial or approval of content. That should be something that goes directly to the Mayor in order to say right there. All of the public comment is filtered through our office. We do not deny any public content or any type of documents that are provided to us. We filter and facilitate those directly to the Council. That is a separate role when it comes to that, so I appreciate Kit explaining that and providing that information. Thank you to the Council Members for reaching out to me for your comments and questions. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www,fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 15 of 25 Mayor Jordan: All I want to make sure is if a thumb drive is sent in here, that my staff can look at it before we get a virus in our system. Is that going to be taken care or Susan Norton, Chief of Staff: That is correct, Mayor. We will make sure that IT security is first and foremost. We will work internally to deliver the best product during the meeting. Mayor Jordan: That sounds great. I can work with that. Council Member Kinion: Maybe Keith would have insight on how it could be handled well through IT. Keith Macedo, IT Director: We don't have a lot of these. In my history of six years of being here, I can only recall, maybe five or six people coming in from the public and ask us to put a public presentation, whether that is photos, video or a PowerPoint presentation. This is not a very common thing. Council Member Kinion: I am not asking them to come to you to develop it. I'm saying is there a way we can have security in this process, so they don't bring in a file that's infected or something that is inappropriate? Keith Macedo: There's three kinds of ways those presentations would come to us. One, would be somebody walks in with a thumb drive and hands it to us. If that's the case, the first thing we do is scan those. It rarely occurs in the public, but it does happen from people that do present, such as the applicants. This is our current process right now and we have been doing it ever since I've been here. We will scan it and then view it to make sure there's nothing inappropriate in the document and then we'll post it. It works pretty well, especially with the volume being so low. The other way is if somebody submits that online. There are several ways that can happen. If an applicant does email us an attachment, that is scanned by our Microsoft Office 365 email. When somebody sends an attachment, it is automatically scanned. Once it's scanned for malware, then we can look at it quickly. The only thing we look at is to make sure there's nothing inappropriate in it. We've never censored anything and that's not our job as IT. Kara Paxton, City Clerk Treasurer: I want to add onto something that Keith just said. It's very important on the decision you're having, regarding denying something to go before the Council. In my time here at the city, Keith and I have had multiple discussions, where, for several months, I was blocked access from accessing the records that I needed to have access through from Laserfiche to be able to do my job daily. I have discussed that with Susan Norton. This is something I have great concern about, not only being here at the city, which I am the keeper of the records of the agendas. I want to make sure everything is clear and transparent, as it can be. I want to say how uncomfortable I am giving the authority to someone other than the Mayor to deny content. No department should have the ability to deny content, until you get to that meeting. The Mayor is the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the city. I do agree with the Rules of Order and Procedure that once that content gets up here, he can redirect that person and say, this is off topic. Council Member Hertzberg: If we have a file that comes to us and we send it to IT, can IT just send it back to Kara for her to review that? 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 16 of 25 Susan Norton, Chief of Staff. That could happen if there were time. Sometimes these are very last minute things and then meeting is starting. Council Member Bunch: I think I'm going to go with the suggestions of the IT Department and City Attorney on this. I don't think we're doing anything wrong or doesn't allow a person to have access. We are unique in our desire to hear from our citizens. Lots of cities don't do that and frequently we end up with the Mayor having to drag somebody back on to the subject at hand because they've gotten off topic, or they brought some pictures of something they want to show us that doesn't relate to what we're talking about. I feel very comfortable with what's been suggested by the City Attorney. If it turns out to be a problem, we can always adjust it later. Council Member Hertzberg: Keith, If there is time, would you be okay with sending whatever you receive to Kara for her approval? Keith Macedo, IT Director: That'd be fine, but I question the word, approval. It's easy to forward information. Council Member Hertzberg: Maybe approval is the wrong word, but instead review? City Attorney Kit Williams: Keith, you are only to look at viruses and are not a clearinghouse. You are just looking to make sure there's no problem from a virus or ransomware on the video. Anything beyond that, about whether it's appropriate or not, is the Mayor's call. The Mayor is our gatekeeper, not the IT Department. The Mayor can make that call when the video starts. If there's something improper on the video, he will stop it at that point in time, just like he would stop a speaker. It is not a department that's going to review these to see what's appropriate for you to hear. That is not correct. It is a technical thing that we want IT to do to make sure it's not going to be something that will damage our system. The Mayor is the gatekeeper here, no one else. Keith Macedo: A lot of this is not malware or anything. A lot of what we do is making sure the audio works and making sure the video works. We really try in IT to showcase whatever the public wants to present to the public in the best way possible. It's not necessarily something we're doing that's just cybersecurity. We are trying to present that information in the best possible way that they intended. We don't necessarily have a standard and we don't think we need a standard for what people submit. City Attorney Kit Williams: That's exactly right and exactly what they should be doing. They will leave any discretion about whether it's appropriate or not up to the Mayor. Council Member Harvey: Everything that gets submitted from a person who wants to have some visual aid, it's going through IT because we're checking to make sure technically it's not going to take down our city system with a virus, but the integrity of the content eventually becomes part of the public record. Correct? Then it eventually goes back to the City Clerk and it gets documented, but in the meeting if it's inappropriate or not on topic, then it can be stopped. Is that all correct? City Attorney Kit Williams: Since this is something that's presented live to the City Council, it does not need to go to the Clerk's office for anything, unless she wants to put it in her agenda. She 113 West Mountain Fayetteville.. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www,fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 17 of 25 controls what goes into the agenda and she can do that if she wants too. Basically, IT just makes sure it's not dangerous, and is presented as well as it can be, and then it is presented live to the Mayor, City Council and the public, all hearing it. If there's any problems with it not being relevant or being personally abusive that our rules don't allow, then the Mayor at that point, being the gatekeeper, can stop it. That's the first time that any decision will be made about whatever is being presented, about whether or not it violates the Rules of Order and Procedure. That's what we've done with these audio visual aids that have been presented by applicants for years now. We don't actually have to have the second sentence in there that says IT will do that, because IT is already doing it. If you would feel more comfortable to remove that sentence so it's just done like it's always been done in the past, no change, except now we're letting citizens do it during their public address, then you could do that. It really wouldn't change what's going to happen because we are trying to follow the procedure we've been using for years. Council Member Harvey: Thanks for the clarification. Council Member Turk: My goal for submitting these changes to the Rules of Order and Procedure were to make it simpler, so the public would know in advance that they could have visual images. I did not anticipate this being so complicated. I hope this improves our process and has clarified our process a little bit. Mayor Jordan: Council, these are your Rules of Order and Procedure. Whatever you all want me to do is how I will run the meeting. There was a brief conversation about the voting record. Council Member Turk moved to approve the resolution. Council Member Harvey seconded the motion. Upon roll call the resolution passed 5-2. Council Members Bunch, Turk, Harvey and Kinion voting yes. Mayor Jordan voting yes. Council Members Scroggin and Jones voting no. Council Member Hertzberg abstained. Resolution 22-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk New Business: Amend Fayetteville Code of Ordinances: Short -Term Rental Density Limits: An ordinance to amend § 118.01 Applicability of Chapter 1 l 8 Business Registry and Licenses, Chapter 151 Definitions, and Chapter 161 Zoning Regulations of the Unified Development Code to permit Short -Term Rentals in additional zoning districts and to increase the allowable number of Short - Term Rentals in attached residential units where adequate fire protection is present. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Jonathan Curth, Development Services Director gave a brief description of the ordinance. He stated staff is recommending approval. He spoke briefly about the public comments that were received. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 18 of 25 Council Member Turk stated she would be recusing. The City Council received one public comment regarding this ordinance. Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Turk recused. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Turk recused. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Mayor Jordan asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed 6-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Turk recused. Ordinance 6521 as Recorded in the office of the City Clerk Emergency Shelters for Homeless Persons: A resolution to approve a budget adjustment of $21,442.00 to partially fund emergency shelters for homeless persons provided by 7Hills Homeless Center, Genesis Church, Central United Methodist Church and Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care when the Salvation Army Shelter and other shelters are fully occupied during dangerously cold nights. Council Member Jones: This resolution is a winter weather emergency shelter collaborative, which is the 7Hills Homeless Shelter, Genesis Church, New Beginnings, Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care, Salvation Army, Central United Methodist Church and the United Way. They have made tentative plans to assist the homeless residents of Fayetteville when it is too cold for them to safely sleep outside. The temperature will be 15-degree windchill or colder and we know that can endanger persons who only have tents for housing. The collaborative has analyzed this situation and determined its budget to provide safe and warm places to sleep during those cold nights needing $21,442 in funding from the City of Fayetteville for their emergency nighttime shelter program. Steven Mills, Applicant, 7Hills Homeless Center: This is a great opportunity that several of the organizations that are working to end homelessness and provide for those that are suffering from homelessness. There is a gap, especially when it's extremely cold outside in overnight shelter in our community. Several organizations are coming together to build a plan, rotate staffing and ensure that these individuals in our community who are most vulnerable are provided care during 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 19 of 25 that time. The collaboratives case for support has been made available. In the past, this has been a goal of ours and it is something we have built up too. The emergency weather planning for next year begins directly after warmer weather shows up this year. I guarantee this will not be an emergency concern going forward. City Attorney Kit Williams: Mayor, I would like to note for the record that we do have a written contract now that has been signed by Steven Mills. This is a contract for services, outlining what they have said needs to be done. It is now ready for the City Council to approve the contract and authorize Mayor Jordan to sign it. Mayor Jordan: Copies of the contract have been sent to the Council. Council Member Harvey: Are we just receiving the contract, or did we already receive it? City Attorney Kit Williams: We did receive it. With the holiday and everything in between, I first had to draft it and then we got it out to them, but we did get it to Steven Mills. He has signed it. I sent it out to Council this afternoon. I think Kara Paxton also put it in additional information in your agenda packet, so you can see the signed contract there also. Council Member Harvey: What's the duration from the $21,000 or it is just with the degree of weather we are looking for the additional services? Is there a time period or is it based on the temperature? City Attorney Kit Williams: The time period is basically for this year. Every time you do a budget, it is only for the year you are in. They won't necessarily have to spend all the money, depending on what the weather is like. If they don't spend it all in this part of the year, in this winter, then there will be some money they could reserve and spend this year, but in the November and December area when there are also other cold times. This contract is for a year, but it won't necessarily all be spent now. Council Member Harvey: We have already had some really cold nights. I'm sad we haven't already put this into place. Are we going to end up doing an Emergency Clause on this? City Attorney Kit Williams: No, this is simply a resolution. It is immediately effective upon your passage and the Mayor signing it. Council Member Hertzberg: Council Member Jones, do you know if this is going to be mostly for staffing or supplies? Council Member Jones: We were provided an outline of what this going to be used for. If I understand correctly, it is going to be used for volunteers. They have done a good job of providing other forms of resources, but I do believe this is going to be utilized for staffing. City Attorney Kit Williams: We incorporated as part of the contract the statement from the group that was asking for the money. It includes $4,305 for staffing, $7,050 for security, $1,000 for utility 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 20 of 25 reimbursement, $4,500 for cots, $500 for cleaning supplies., $3,000 for client outreach, and $1,083 for miscellaneous. Council Member Harvey: Council Member Jones, thank you for working with the collaborative to bring this forward. I am glad to hear there will be some moving forward planning for the next year. As we have learned through this, there is a procedure that we want to go through with nonprofits of applying for the funds. There's a need for that and we want to take care of that need. I appreciate your energy and efforts. Council Member Harvey moved to approve the resolution. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the resolution 7-0. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Hertzberg, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Resolution 23-22 as recorded in the office of the City Clerk Face Masks in Public Service Areas: An ordinance to require persons to wear face masks in public service areas in city owned buildings and places of public accommodation subject to reasonable exemptions. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Turk: The headline this afternoon was that Arkansas had the highest number of hospitalizations ever. This Omicron variant is overwhelming our hospital system and is exceeding some of the thresholds the Board of Health put in place. This variant is running rampant. Today, 4,000 more people were infected and 15 more deaths. Anything we can do to encourage people to require them to wear a mask and to lessen or slow the transmission, so we don't continue to overwhelm our hospitalization system, is a good step forward. I'm tired of wearing the masks. I know everybody else is. We are so tired of Covid, but these steps are necessary, so we don't burn our healthcare workers out. They're already burned out, but at least our healthcare system hasn't collapsed. It's really important that the city send a strong message to our citizens where we stand on this issue, and that we support our colleagues at the U of A and the public schools. This way we will have somewhat of a consistent policy. If the Omicron variant is still running rampant on March 1, 2022, we have the ability to extend this, but if it lessens substantially, this will automatically expire. I hope we follow the same pattern as New York City, where we have a rapid decline and also South Africa. Council Member Hertzberg: Mayor, I know last week you said that you had a concern about the enforceability of this ordinance, which is a concern for me as well. If we are saying that this is only going to be practically enforceable within city buildings, it would be more beneficial for us to have a city building policy, rather than an entire city ordinance. I don't think it's going to be beneficial and I don't think people are going to follow it. We are risking a possible lawsuit for selective enforcement. We've seen how this has played out before within the city buildings, so I am not in favor of this. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 21 of 25 Mayor Jordan: What you're saying is that you're okay with the buildings, but you have some issues with it being city wide? Council Member Hertzberg: I'm fine if we have a policy within city buildings, which is reasonable and it's enforceable. I don't think we have enough enforceability within the city ordinance to say, everybody has to wear masks. There's no way we can enforce it. Mayor Jordan: That is a relatively accurate statement. Would you agree there is no enforcement in the ordinance? Is that correct? Council Member Turk: That's correct. There is no enforcement provision in the ordinance. Mayor Jordan: We can enforce it in city buildings. Correct? Mike Reynolds: Chief of Police: That's correct. I'd have to agree with Council Member Hertzberg. Thank you to Council Member Turk for not having an enforcement component in this. You've heard me outline throughout the past year the difficulties with the Police Department. A good law is a law that gets about 75% to 80% compliance or better because people want to do the right thing and we are not seeing that with this masking mandate and masking ordinance. It's too widespread for the Police Department to enforce city wide. We absolutely have the capability and capacity to enforce a policy you enact in city owned and city maintained buildings. Council Member Hertzberg: It really matters where we have these types of policies. I work in a hospital and I wear a mask all day. It's easily enforced in the hospital, schools and city buildings, but it is not practically enforceable within an entire city. Council Member Scroggin: Based on a conversation we had at Agenda Session, I thought this was only about city owned buildings. Is that not how it's written up? Is it everything? City Attorney Kit Williams: It was written up according to what Council Member Turk wanted. It is very similar to the second mask mandate; except we removed the punishment provision within that. We also removed the Emergency Clause because this is not a permanent ordinance. To have to wait for 31 days that means you have a general and permanent ordinance. This one has a very short time period that is going to be in effect, therefore, you don't need an Emergency Clause. It will go into effect immediately. Council Member Scroggin: Hopefully we can adjust it tonight. We need it at the buildings. I feel like this almost should be like a resolution and an ordinance. An ordinance for city owned buildings and a resolution encouraging outside of it. I don't like having things that aren't enforced. It's just kind of bad law. Everybody should wear a mask, everybody should get vaccinated, but they're not and it doesn't mean this law will have any effect on it. Hopefully we can make these changes and get this passed tonight. Council Member Turk: This law is important to be inclusive of businesses because many businesses would like to require a mask, but they feel vulnerable if we don't have a mask mandate policy. This assist them in getting compliance from their customers. I would say the same thing is 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteviIIe-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 22 of 25 true at large venues. Without the city having a mask mandate, some of them feel they may not be able to effectively enforce it within their own business or area. We should look at it from that point of view as well. Since there's no enforcement provision or punishment, I don't see the harm in making it city wide. Council Member Scroggin: How many people have we arrested for not wearing a mask? Nlil:e Reynolds, Chief of Police: We have not arrested anyone for not wearing a mask to this date. Council Member Scroggin: How many people per month do we arrest for trespassing? Mike Reynolds: Without those statistics in front of me, I would say less than 10 in a year. Council Member Scroggin: Okay, but we do. If a business says a person needs to go, we show up and escort them out or arrest them or whatever is needed. Correct? Mike Reynolds: Yes, that's correct. The most common thing we see is shoplifting. We will respond to one of the local merchants. If we choose to write them a citation, typically what they do at that point is they have us warn them of criminal trespass and that information goes on a log. If that individual returns to the store, they contact us, and we respond to locate the individual to arrest them for criminal trespass. The Mayor controls the city buildings. If someone came into a city building and wasn't abiding by policy, he could ask them to leave or his designee could ask them to leave. If they refuse to leave, we would warn them of criminal trespass. If they refused to leave at that point, we would issue them a citation or arrest them. That situation played out months ago here in Council Chambers. Council Member Scroggin: I hope we can modify this to be only city owned buildings, but then reaffirm our commitment to support businesses that decide to make their own rules. I get emails on both sides and usually it doesn't matter which side they are on; their arguments are so bad I vote against it. Enforceability is important. It makes us look kind of silly to have laws on the book that we don't enforce. Council Member Turk: We reconfigured or reconvened the Board of Health a couple of years ago. Their recommendation is mask mandates and we've exceeded greatly those thresholds they identified in terms of hospitalizations and percentage positive. If we don't follow their recommendations, that's our choice, but we basically have ignored the expert's opinion on this issue. I think that was why we wanted to have a Board of Health, so we can have an outside group of experts advise us on this pandemic. Council Member Harvey: From a worker's perspective, they are having to go to work and interact with the public. They need that job for their paycheck. Having the city step up and say we want to protect workers who are having to interact with the public is the right thing to do. I understand the business can choose to do that for their employees, but as a city it's a responsible thing to do in a worldwide pandemic and reinstate the mask mandate. At the end of the day, people can decide where they want to shop and eat. It's just responsible as a city to stand up for workers who have no choice in interacting with the public. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 23 of 25 Council Member Jones: What is the Board of Health's recommendation? Council Member Turk: They have recommended mask mandates for quite some time. However, we didn't exceed those thresholds and parameters that were set by them, until the last three weeks. They've always thought masking was very prudent and needed, but we had kind of a dip after the Delta and so we had gone below those thresholds. Council Member Jones: Numbers have now increased. Correct? Council Member Turk: They're off the charts. Numbers have very much increased. Some experts say the severity of Omicron is much less, but the sheer volume of extra people that are getting it compared to other variants is very high. Council Member Jones: Because of that, we should do whatever we can from the city. If the City of Fayetteville is more proactive, then that would encourage business owners to do the same. I've heard similar comments as it relates to wishing that business owners could have mask. This is an opportunity for us to do whatever we can to ensure the health and safety for everyone. Even though it's not enforceable, it's showing we are responsible, and that we care about the wellbeing of our citizens. Council Member Bunch: I've traveled overseas in the past year and been to places where wearing a mask was not a problem. People would not be allowed in businesses if they didn't have their mask. I hate that we don't have anything that's enforceable, but I agree with the perspective of giving this tool to our businesses to ask for it if they want too. It sends a message we are allowing them to use this tool and we're going to back them up to the full ability we can. It sends a message to our community that we care about their health and want to keep them safe. I'm in support of this. Council Member Jones: This issue has been made political for way too long and it is time for us to follow the guidance of the Board of Health. We have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep everyone safe. We don't know what this is going to look like tomorrow. There could be another wave or another type. I believe in being proactive and being responsible. I'm in full support of this. Council Member Harvey: We learned a lot about the economic impact. We're not asking any businesses to close and we are not asking people to not shop. We're saying, when you do, if the business has a mask sign posted, please comply. The economy needs healthy workers and healthy people shopping. This is the right tool to keep the economy rolling. Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the second reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-1. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg voting no. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 24 of 25 Council Member Harvey moved to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading. Council Member Jones seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion passed 6-1. Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg voting no. City Attorney Kit Williams read the ordinance. Council Member Hertzberg: We think we have the power to change public opinion on this issue and I don't think that we do. Everybody has made up their mind on this. I don't think this should be about whether mask work or not. This is about good policy or not. This is not a good policy. We need to have something that is enforceable and doesn't make us look like we can put out a law that nobody abides by. Council Member Kinion: I understand the argument that it's not enforceable, but it comes down to what you value as right. People have absolutely made up their minds on this. They know logistically people aren't wearing them and so they don't have to wear them. The reason I am supporting this is to show I care about the health of the community. Vaccines work. People who are not vaccinated are the highest risk of passing it on to someone else. My personal values say we should be wearing mask. I am aware of the legal implications. Council Member Scroggin: I will vote for this mainly because of the buildings. I think outside is silly. I noticed that more people were wearing their mask after December 23rd than before. People are making their own decisions on this. Council Member Harvey: Thank you to Council Member Turk for getting this together and Kit as well. It allows flexibility for people to make their decision. Mayor Jordan: I am a voting member on the Board of Health. We discussed this issue at the last Board of Health meeting. The Board of Health recommends that everybody should be vaccinated, and everybody should wear a mask. That was their recommendation, and it was a unanimous vote. As far as enforcement goes, it's very difficult to ride herd on 94,000 people with the number of Police Officers I have. I believe we do need to make statement. I go back to a time when we were looking at a smoking ordinance years ago when I was on the City Council. I didn't know how I was going to vote on that, but I had to ask myself if everybody in the world smoked or didn't smoke, would we have a healthier place. I asked myself the same question about the mask. If everybody wore a mask, it would it be safer. If everybody was vaccinated, it would be safer. We may not be able to enforce this city wide, but I can enforce it in these buildings, and I will. I am the manager of these buildings. If you come in city buildings, you have to have a mask on. If not, I will call the Police Department and you will be removed for public trespass. Thank you to Council Member Turk. Mayor Jordan asked shall the ordinance pass. Upon roll call the ordinance passed 6-1 Council Members Scroggin, Bunch, Turk, Harvey, Jones and Kinion voting yes. Council Member Hertzberg voting no. Ordinance 6522 as Recorded in the office of the City Clerk 113 West Mountain Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov City Council Meeting Minutes January 18, 2022 Page 25 of 25 Announcements: None City Council Agenda Session Presentations: Agenda Session Presentation - American Rescue Plan Act Update, Susan Norton and Paul Becker. City Council Tour: K Kara Paxton, City Clerk Treasu-er; `iTEVILLE / j, G ,ON11 O, 113 West Mountain Fayetteville. AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 www.fayetteville-ar.gov