Pine Bluff planners favor resuming blight-razing efforts in parts of city

Jimmy Dill (right), a Pine Bluff attorney who is chairman of the board that oversees activities of the Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency, listens as Alderman Bruce Lockett (left) asks a question. Also pictured is Alderman Donald Hatchett.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Dale Ellis)
Jimmy Dill (right), a Pine Bluff attorney who is chairman of the board that oversees activities of the Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency, listens as Alderman Bruce Lockett (left) asks a question. Also pictured is Alderman Donald Hatchett. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Dale Ellis)

PINE BLUFF -- After a nearly seven-month standoff, the Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency moved closer Tuesday to resuming blight removal operations in parts of the city.

The Pine Bluff Development and Planning Committee unanimously voted to send a resolution to the full Pine Bluff City Council, authorizing Mayor Shirley Washington to negotiate an agreement with the Urban Renewal Agency.

The endorsement came after an opinion by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office.

In the opinion, dated Nov. 25, Rutledge responded to the question, "Can an urban renewal agency raze a structure which has been condemned by the city without first acquiring the property?"

Her response was, "the answer to your question likely turns on whether the urban renewal agency is somehow acting in concert with the city, as through some type of cooperative agreement."

Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, requested the opinion on behalf of the Urban Renewal Agency. Opinions from the attorney general's office are not binding.

Urban Renewal Agency Director Maurice Taggart told the Pine Bluff Development and Planning Committee that the opinion from the attorney general was the clarification the city has been waiting.

"A clear reading of the opinion suggests, or warrants, that there be some form of a cooperative arrangement between the city and the urban renewal agency that will substantiate or facilitate the urban renewal agency razing condemned properties, in this case, specifically in the urban renewal areas."

The city has three urban renewal areas.

A draft resolution provided to the committee calls for the mayor to negotiate an agreement with the Urban Renewal Agency and that all abatement efforts by the agency would take place only inside designated urban renewal areas in accordance with rules and regulations of the city's Code Enforcement Department.

"So, basically what we're saying is you all can raze the structures but code enforcement still does the tagging and it comes to the City Council for approval?" asked City Council member Joni Alexander, who is also chairwoman of the Development and Planning Committee.

Taggart replied that the City Council would retain the final say in what structures would be condemned and razed.

Council member Ivan Whitfield, one of three non-committee members in attendance, objected to the time frame, saying he felt like the city was under pressure to pass the resolution without fully vetting it.

"This is a rush because there are so many things that are being laid out," Whitfield said. "We don't know who is going to put the lien on what," Whitfield said. "We are rushing this to the council and saying here it is for a stamp of approval without fully doing our homework."

In the past, Whitfield, who is challenging Washington for the Democratic nomination for mayor, has opposed allowing the Urban Renewal Agency to perform blight removal work, saying that the job should go to independent demolition contractors instead.

Council Member Steven Mays is also running for the Democratic nomination.

Jimmy Dill, a local attorney who is chairman of the committee that oversees the Urban Renewal Agency, said the resolution and any resulting agreement will simply formalize an arrangement that had been in practice.

"We've been working in concert with the city," Dill said. "Every house that we've torn down has been a house that you've condemned. We haven't condemned any."

Blight removal efforts by the Urban Renewal Agency have been stalled since a May 20 opinion issued by City Attorney Althea Hadden-Scott saying that confusion had been created over the division of demolition duties between the Code Enforcement Department and the Urban Renewal Agency. The opinion also said the Urban Renewal Agency had failed to follow the law when it came to razing dilapidated structures.

Before that, the agency used a list of condemned properties provided by the city's Code Enforcement Department to tear down structures and place liens on properties in an effort to collect the costs, the same process used by the Code Enforcement Department.

The city's Code Enforcement Department is responsible for inspecting properties and making condemnation recommendations to the City Council. The department is also responsible for blight removal throughout the city, a process that it does through a bid process with private demolition contractors.

Early this year, to expedite blight removal efforts in the city's urban renewal zones, the Urban Renewal Agency acquired a truck, roll-off dumpsters and other heavy equipment at a cost of $385,000 to tear down condemned properties in those three zones.

The agency also hired two employees to operate the truck and equipment, paying each one $41,000 a year. However, those employees have since left the agency after being idled by the impasse and have secured other employment.

Hadden-Scott's May 20 opinion noted that state law grants the authority to raze and remove structures, place liens against real property and collect on those liens from the county tax collector. The opinion also said the Code Enforcement Department, a department governed by the city, is legally allowed to perform those functions on behalf of the city, but that the Urban Renewal Agency, as an autonomous body, could not act in the same capacity, but would have to legally acquire any property it intended to raze.

Upon receiving the opinion, Taggart ordered the Urban Renewal Agency to suspend nuisance abatement activities until the matter could be resolved.

"This has been a long time coming," Taggart said after Tuesday's meeting. "I think this gives us some guidance going forward on how to make sure we get back to doing the people's business, and that's removing blight in the city's urban renewal areas."

Taggart said he anticipates the agency's blight removal efforts to resume in January. The City Council will meet next on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber at the Civic Center.

State Desk on 12/11/2019

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