City Council - Regular Meeting

Counting down.

I'd like to call the meeting to order.

This is a regular meeting of Bella Vista City Council for June 22, 2026. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll call, please.

Council Members Newport. Here. Wilms.

Yes.

Isbell. Here. Heinschel.

Here.

Harp.

Here.

And Hughes. Here.

Thank you. The next item is citizen input. And we have 11 people. So we have the 30 minute time limit. So I'd like to have a motion from council that it's okay to go over the 30 minutes.

So moved. Second.

That was Travis Harp and Larry Wilms. Roll call vote on the motion to allow citizen input over 30 minutes.

Council members Newport? Yes. Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Hancho?

Yes.

Harp?

Yes.

And Hughes? Yes.

Motion carried 6 to 0. Thank you for that. Uh, now we'll have this is an input, uh, per the rules. There's a 3 minute per person time limit to address the council and any topic of that person's choosing. Total time a lot is normal 30 minutes, but as you heard, we just had a motion to go pass that because of the number of speakers. So I'll call your name out when it's your turn. First one is Carol Quinn of 1 Teresa Drive in Bella Vista. It's about civic engagement.

Good evening, Mayor, city council members, fellow citizens. I probably wouldn't even need three minutes, but what I want to talk about is civic engagement. And I want to thank you, Mayor, for all the efforts that you have made. Everywhere I turn around when I'm at a public event, down at the Bella Vista Library or over at the bike park or here or there, you're there and you're always answering questions. I'm sure it's not easy to be constantly interrupted and ask questions, but you've always done it, I think, in a very pleasant and professional manner. And along that same line, I want to talk about what I think government is. And that's promoting transparency, easy access to information, and direct citizen engagement in all city decisions. That's actually not what I think. That's actually what Wendy Hughes has put in her website. And that's why I thought it was so astonishing that she would file this ethics complaint against you, which was published in the Gazette and also the Bellavista paper. And the basis of her complaint, and I'm gonna quote, is the use of taxpayer assets, headshot photographs of you for campaign materials, and Flynn using a city email address to communicate with an advertising agency to promote the city-sponsored Coffee with the Mayor events, which I thought was ridiculous because I thought what you were doing was exactly what Ms. Hughes thinks that should happen in city government, in good governance. So I'm not saying this to defend you or to criticize Ms. Hughes, What I'm saying is I hope that in the future we can avoid this kind of toxicity where we're filing ethics complaints when we can just talk to someone who's two seats away from us and resolve these, I think, very, very minor, if they're even ethics complaints. I mean, I've only been a lawyer for 40 years, but I think that these things are kind of specious. I'm not going to. Of course, I don't have the ability to judge on them, but all I can say is I hope that you continue with your coffees, and if you want to have a little wine happy hour, that would be fine too. So thank you for what you've done for the city.

Thank you. The next speaker is Danica Jensen of 17 Kensington Drive.

Hello, it's Derek. Thank you for having me. I want to bring to this meeting tonight. I'm going to read it so I stay on time. I fully understand and support the city's interest in maintaining attractive neighborhoods and protecting our property values. Regulations should help preserve the character of our community. But in this particular situation, in this rule, I think it's over restrictive. I do have a camper in my backyard. I've had it there for more than five years with no problems. I have a six foot fence that protects the site of the camper. The camper is approximately nine feet tall, meaning that the only few top feet can be seen from the side road. The location is behind my property with no neighbors in the back. It is not visible from the main road, only from the little cul-de-sac that is coming down, and it's only visible in a small section. The regulation becomes very excessive. I've been suggested that I can extend my fence two more feet, which is just more of an expense to hide what? I don't know what I'm really trying to hide or make more visibly appealing, I just think that the regulation should be based on practical impacts rather than absolute standards. And I just encourage the council to consider the language that allows reasonable screening rather than requiring complete invisibility, such as an approach would protect the neighborhood appearance while recognizing the realities faced by the homeowners. My request is not special treatment, whether I ask for a balance review of the ordinance to ensure it reflects common sense and reasonability. Um, and then the way the gentleman is approaching me and he is from the city ordinance, um, uh, that he's not giving me any solutions. So it's a very kind of, um, aggressive approach to me that, uh, you know, the only way is to store it and when it's not been a problem for the last five years. So I don't know where the problem came. I'm assuming it, but it was from a neighbor. Um, and I have filed to see if I could work it out directly with the neighbor. But just trying to find solution. I have reached out to his supervisor to see if maybe he can come to the property and we can work something out. Not certain what I have to do, but I think if we just had clearer language that allowed some protection would be better. So I'm just asking y'all to consider that and to look at it. And let's not be the neighborhood that people don't wanna move to because our regulations are so excessive that they don't wanna be here. So anyway, I've sent you all an email with pictures attached so that you could see them and see what the visibility is so that you can consider that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Mary Alice Estes of 77 McKenzie Drive.

Thank you for the time. Good evening. I'm here with a public safety concern. My husband, Jim, and I have lived off of Scottsdale on McKenzie Drive since 2022. We frequently, like a lot of Bella Vistas, drive down Gordon Hollow to get to the Walmart in Jane. And as you travel down that street, once you cross over Arkansas into Missouri, there's no striping on the road. It's dark. It's windy. It's not well maintained. Now, I know there's only so much you can do, but my request is that someone or collectively, you use your ability to reach out to McDonald County and work collectively to get striping on Gordon Hollow for public safety. We drive that road so often people are coming down the road towards us and they don't realize how much to the Center they are. it's hazardous, especially with all the increased heavy duty construction traffic that now has to access the highlands from that route. off of 71 I have raised this concern personally with the mayor with another Council member, the response from my email was from the mayor, I will look into it and i've heard nothing further so today I came to place my request collectively to all of you. to see what you can do. And even if I only get a response that says we tried but failed, I would prefer to hear that than silence on the issue. Thank you.

The next speaker is Sandra Quinn of 58 Kensington Drive.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for letting us speak this evening. I've got two or three things I'd like to talk about, but one of them is the Airbnbs that we have here. I understand that you're thinking about amending the the ordinance from 600 rental properties to 687, and I'm wondering if that is a percentage of the population of Bella Vista, or if it's just an arbitrary number. Frankly, I'm not sure I want an answer right this second, but I'm wondering why we want to go up rather than just kind of stop at where it is, because we live in a neighborhood on Kensington Drive that we have a lot of Airbnbs on our street. And it's a dead end street. And we have an Airbnb right beside us. And we have four or five down the street on Kensington Drive. that dead ends basically to Lake Windsor. And the people that stay there are not interested in keeping the property up. They go outside and throw trash out and don't care what they're doing because they're gonna be gone. There's a septic problem with the septic. When they get five or six cars, parked in the yard on the side of the street. So there's always strangers in the neighborhood. So that's an issue that I'm a little bit concerned with, because people are coming and going all the time. We don't know who they are. It used to be just a nice neighborhood. But when property values went up, people sold their house, made all the money, and think they're going to get it back with Airbnb. So I think that's a lot of the issue. But beyond that, I have another issue. The bikes are great things in Bellevue. They're wonderful. We ride them ourselves. But we don't ride up and down Reardon, and we don't ride up and down Oldham. And that's where some of these people end up, on their bike in these little narrow roads that we have. There's not even enough room for the cars half the time. So I don't know if we have any plans to do anything about that or not, but that is of a concern to me. So I just really kind of just wanted to vent my frustration, if you will, that I hope that we can do something about, especially about the bikes, which I love. I'm so glad. It's a wonderful thing. We made the national news on this thing, but if we can just kind of make sure that they know where they're supposed to go. So thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Gary Elbert of 17 Mary Kirk Lane.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Gary Elbert and my wife and I recently celebrated our one year anniversary as Bella Vista residents. My wife and I were drawn to Bella Vista, small town atmosphere and strong community spirit. This is my second time speaking to the council and unfortunately it is again concerning short-term rentals in Bella Vista. Since I spoke about a year ago, our street has lost yet another home to a short-term rental to bring the total on our lakefront neighboring homes on our short cul-de-sac street to four out of 10 being short-term rentals. I'm strongly opposed to the proposed amendment before the council to increase the number of rentals permits from the current 600 limit. These short-term rental properties, mostly owned by out-of-town investors and not owner-occupied, are not homes. They're businesses operating in the middle of our neighborhoods. Allowing more permits would continue to make available housing for family and retirees more scarce and expensive. Clearly, short-term renters have no ownership or inherent desire to make Bella Vista better for the long term. There is a place for short-term rentals in Bella Vista, but they should be limited to and managed. We're not asking for a short-term rental ban. We're asking for balance. I respectfully ask the council to please instead consider a concentration limit, such as not granting permits to new short-term rental applications that are within 200 feet of an existing permitted STR property. And since I know many of my neighbors are not willing to stand and speak, I'd like to ask if you own and occupy a home in Bella Vista within 200 feet of a short-term rental, would you please stand? This isn't about punishing a responsible host. It's about setting reasonable limits so we remain a community of neighbors, not a collection of weekend rentals, especially along our beautiful Bella Vista lakes. Thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you. The next speaker is Cliff Westfall of 2 Bilston Lane.

Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I'm going to be winging this. Lived there for 29 years, and I've seen a lot of changes. A lot of people know that Bilston is, when you turn on KEOC, Lake Windsor Dam. And then Bromwich is the first left. Well, 29 years ago, we didn't have a lot of traffic, and we didn't have near as many people. But now, with all the population increase, with the Bella Vista we have a lot of people coming to Lake Windsor that's great the problem is is they're not quite a lot of people aren't quite sure how to get even though there's a sign on 340 they're still not sure how to get to Lake Windsor and I feel like we need we have a two-fold problem the first problem is is that people will turn on the Bromwich and they're going to Lake Windsor get mad And then, oh, shoot, I didn't go the right way. And they floor it back up Bromwich. I mean, I've seen 50 miles an hour. You just hear the engines roaring. And then they turned and then they roared down to Windsor. If we could get a sign, some sort of positive signage that says, hey, it's this way. Don't go this way. That would be great. The other problem is, is that we are now... We're getting a bunch of people that, again, are roaring down both of those roads, Bromwich and Cannock. And this would be a prime place to put either a speed bump or a speed table. Now, as a person who is a boat owner and goes down there, no, it's no fun to go over a speed table with a boat. But we've got to slow them down. There are kids in the neighborhood. And something needs to be done to fix the situation. But that's all I'm here for. Thanks. Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you. Next speaker is Suzanne Salts of 15 Mary Kirk Lane.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. I will be speaking on your unfinished business E ordinance amending section sixteen forty three active permit maximum. We have owned property in Bella Vista for about twelve years and living here permanently for the last four. We have never rented our home when we were using it as a vacation property. We let it just sit empty. When we purchased in 2014, there were three long-term rentals on our street. Only one of them was on the lakeside. Since 2024, every single time a lake home is sold, it has been turned into a short-term rental. And as my neighbor Gary has said so eloquently, 40% of the lakefront homes on our block are now short-term lodging. This is not a neighborhood slowly changed by chance. This is a pattern. and it's changing the character of our street. I want to be clear. I'm not saying that Bella Vista homeowners should not be allowed to rent a room or to occasionally rent their home. That's not the problem. The problem is investor-owned short-term rentals. People from outside Bella Vista are buying homes here, sometimes multiple homes, using them as businesses in our neighborhood. Other cities in Northwest Arkansas have recognized this issue and has put in short-term limits. An example is Fayetteville. So in 2025, Fayetteville had a little over 45,000 housing units and they capped short-term rentals at 475. That's about 1%. In Bella Vista in 2025, we had over 14,000 housing units, but our short-term rental cap, which is what it's at now, is 600. That's over 4%. If Bella Vista followed Fayetteville's housing unit standard, our cap would be about 152. That lets you know the difference. And even a citywide cap is not enough if short-term rentals are allowed to cluster on certain streets like it's happening in our neighborhood. No residential street should be allowed to be turned into a lodging district. I understand the state is considering to take away the rights of Arkansas cities to regulate short-term rentals. But if communities across Arkansas stand up against outside investors and stand up for their citizens, our representatives at the Capitol will have to listen. People want neighborhoods where they know their neighbors by name, neighbors where they feel safe having their children play and without extra traffic and influx of transient visitors. I am asking the city council to protect our residents by holding the city-wide cap where it is and adopting real neighborhood density limits, especially for non-owner-occupied investment properties. When we first vacationed Bella Vista, we intended a community event, and I purchased a mug, which I brought here today, and it says, Bella Vista, a place to call home. I ask all of you, please keep Bella Vista a place to call home. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Ben Hunt of 21 Horseboro Lane.

Harborough, ma'am.

Harborough, very good. Good evening. Mr. Mayor council members and fellow residents. My name is Ben hunt and I'm running for mayor. Not for ego. I got rid of that poison idol years ago. I actually consider myself the least important person in this room. So I'm not here for attention. I'm here because I believe Bella Vista deserves leadership that is focused on 1 thing above all else. And that is prioritizing our residents. Like all of you, I see challenges facing our city, the growth, the infrastructure, permitting, the STRs, whether we're planning ahead or we're not. The question is no longer whether we understand our city's problems, it's who can actually lead us to the solutions.

For more than 20 years, I have owned and operated a commercial construction business.

My entire career has been built around solving problems, building relationships, creating accountability, and delivering results.

Currently, I am serving as an heir to Work First Garden,

FOR THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH THAT ROLE, A FIRST ARTIST IS A PERSON WHEN THINGS AREN'T WORKING, WHEN COMMUNICATION HAS GROGEN DOWN, WHEN TEAMS ARE DIVIDED, WHEN ACCOUNTABILITY IS MISSING AND WHEN PEOPLE NEED SOMEONE WHO WILL STEP FORWARD, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND TAKE ACTION.

NOT BECAUSE IT'S EASY, BECAUSE IT'S NECESSARY.

THAT'S THE TYPE OF LEADERSHIP I WOULD BRING TO BELLA VISTA. BELLA VISTA NEEDS MORE PROBLEM SOLVING, MORE TEAM WORK.

And that starts with culture. Culture determines how our city staff members serve our residents.

Culture determines how departments work together. Culture determines whether problems get solved or passed along. I will build a culture of accountability, professionalism, communication, and elite customer service. A culture where every teammate understands the mission, and that mission is serving you, the residents. One of the most important responsibilities of mayor is often overlooked. Who is the chief negotiator for the city of Bella Vista? It is absolutely the mayor. The mayor negotiates with developers, regional partners, state leaders, organizations that impact our future. What you can expect from me is every one of those negotiations will begin and end with the same question. What is best for the residents of Bella Vista? Because I will not be negotiating for them, I will be negotiating for you. I will be your advocate. I'll be your voice, and I'll be fiercely loyal to the people who call all this to home. I have a backbone to stay firm, the discipline to hold people accountable, and a commitment to better residents first, every time. I'm committed to that mission. I will change the culture. I will bring accountability, which starts with myself. I will strengthen relationships, and I most importantly, I will make sure residents don't get words. I'll give them results. That's how I'm wired. Every decision I make will be guided by one principle, and that is prioritizing you, our residents. Thank you. God bless the residents of Bella Vista, and God bless the United States of America.

Thank you. The next speaker is Matt Sanders of Seven Nantwich Drive.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Councilmen and women. I want to start off with our reading today from Micah 6-8. He showed you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love personally, and walk humbly. Today I am coming to ask for permit number 63528 to be reinstated. As we know, I first spoke out at the city council meeting January 27, 2025 about our new home construction after we identified a city building inspector who was erroneously issuing certificates of occupancy on new construction build for preferential out of town builders. We unfortunately bought 1 of those houses that has over a 150,000 dollars worth of needed repairs just to bring our house to code. That was a year and a half ago flash forward to now, and we are actually almost at the dwelling house, the dwelling cost of our house at the insured amount. So, 466,000 dollars. We have a lot of things that we have to fix on our house and the 1st step with that is to go get a permit. And we've only lived in Bella Vista for 2 years, but I can tell you that when we did it in Anchorage, I would show up to the town hall just like we did here. I would say what my scope of work was the worker would then give me a permit application. I would then fill out the permit application, pay for the permit. The permit would be issued. That process worked here in Bella Vista. However, permit number 63528 was voided. And it was voided by Inspector James and Roger Greer. And it states, quote, voided for filing a false permit application and false permit. Where was the communication to let me know what you think was false? It wasn't there. They just voided it. They then arrested me, and now I face three years in jail and over $6,000 in fine because I want to work on my house, and you voided a permit. So the question becomes is I came to the mayor, and I asked him. I said, Mr. Mayor, what was deemed false? And he says, we're not going to talk to you. I went to my Ward 1 representatives, and I said, hey, what was false because I need to work on my house? And I was met with silence. No transparency, and both of y'all are running on transparency. So, what I'm asking for is that permit to be reinstated because there was nothing false about the permit application. I also don't issue the permit. The city issues the permit. So there's nothing false about the permit either. Um, I have things that I need to work on the house, obviously. And now I'm threatened that every time I go fill out a permit, so I can work on my house, I'm going to get arrested and then face multiple years. And that's crazy. Please help.

Thank you. The next speaker is Maribel Childress of 26 Norwood Drive.

Hi, Mayor and City Council. In addition to being a proud Bella Vista resident, I am a principal of Cooper Elementary School, and that is who I'm representing tonight. Oftentimes, people ask me what makes Cooper so special, and I love to tell them that one of those things is the great partnerships we have from the the Bella Vista city government. And so I want to brag on some of those partnerships tonight. We are a school of innovation, and as part of that, we have different academies, career exploration academies that our fourth graders can explore. And this year, our business and entrepreneurship academy, as one of their projects, we wanted to partner with the city of Bella Vista to find out more about what it takes to become a business owner and entrepreneur in Bella Vista. And so I reached out to Taylor Robertson, the planning and development director. And with only two weeks notice, she was incredible. Her office was under construction at the time. She had lots of projects going on. And she and her team gave us two hours during their lunch break. to pour into our kids and support their learning. The staff put together a presentation on the city government side of zoning development review and licensing. Students got to practice business planning, zoning site planning, and land use planning. She invited contacts from the Bella Business Association to participate. I hate saying names because I'm probably going to leave somebody important out, but I do want to specifically thank Taylor and Christopher Hyatt, Jessica Grady, Connor LaRue, Becky Parmalee, who represented nonprofits, and Colleen Murphy, who represented a for-profit business in Bella Vista. They talked about what is a business. If you could open any business in Bella Vista, what would it be? What does the city planning department do? How do we decide where things go, like homes and stores and parks? They taught the students about zoning maps and safety rules, about fire and traffic and parking and business codes. talked about what if you need to build, actually build your business. And the last step was they taught them how to get a business license to open up their business. And also when Becky and Colleen talked about their nonprofit and for-profit businesses, They talked about what their business is, what they do, why they started it, one challenge and one fun part of being a business owner. And the highest compliment of all was afterwards when Taylor reached out to me and asked if she could keep the students' business plans to post in her office. And they were amazing. She shared copies with me. I could tell how much they learned and the detail they put in their plans, like, saving just the right amount of handicapped parking spots to put in front of the businesses they created. So just wanted to give a shout-out to Taylor and the Planning and Development Department tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Eric Welles of 50 in Bella Vista.

Good evening all. I'm here to urge this council to pause before expanding short-term rentals in Bella Vista. I say this not just as a frustrated neighbor, but as someone who has watched this story play out in real time before. My family moved here from a small town in Montana. When we arrived there, it was a real community. I cared enough about that community to serve on a short-term rental committee, putting forward recommendations to the council to try and get ahead of the problem. Over time, short-term rentals multiplied anyways, long-term residents left, and houses sat empty most of the year. Rotating strangers replaced real neighbors, and the soul of that town quietly disappeared. We moved to Bella Vista in part to escape that, and yet here I am. Directly across from my house, it's an Airbnb that has hosted no fewer than six parties over the last year. Last week, I called the police after 20 to 25 guests across 12 to 14 vehicles were parked illegally across two streets, including two trucks on my front lawn. I let the chaos and noise go for hours. At 1 a.m., I watched three guests walk from that Airbnb across the street to those trucks parked on my lawn, undo their zippers, urinate on my lawn, and then snort what appeared to be illegal substances directly outside of my daughter's bedroom window. The second time, this is the second time I have called the police on this property. Had I called every time, it would have been six. I know code enforcement exists, but when the profit from one weekend booking outweighs the cost of a citation, nothing changes. I urge this council to increase fines, raise licensing and permitting fees, make operating a short-term rental here a serious commitment, not a business that profits from our streets while our families pay the price. Thank you.

Thank you. It's now time for Councilmember reply. Wendy.

Sorry, my mic is weird. I don't have a buffer on it. Mary Alice, thank you for bringing up the concern regarding Scottsdale and the Gordon Hollow Drive. Our street superintendent is here tonight, and so maybe I could connect or send us an email. I'd love to get you guys connected and see if there's anything we can do with McDonald County on their side of it. Regarding Cliff and the sign for Lake Windsor. I'm not sure where you are, Cliff. Yes, there you are. I don't know if you've reached out to the POA yet, and if that's something on their end, since it's a lake feature of the POA, but that might be an avenue to go down. We can talk later about that, though, and see if it's something to help get coordinated as well. I just want to thank everyone for coming, expressing your opinions and your thoughts. I appreciate you. We all know how hard it is to get up here and speak, and I think we all can just thank you guys for taking your time to come tonight.

Craig.

Okay, let me find my place very quickly. It's on here somewhere. Oh, the Gordon Hollow. Yeah, and I didn't catch the lady's name. I apologize.

Estes, Miss Estes.

I live out Scottsdale also, and I've been in close conversations with Karen. Karen and I talked about the trail, about getting that cleared away. I worked with Karen on getting the low water bridge, the big potholes before and after. So I know Karen has a great relationship with the with the street department in McDonald County. I'll talk to her probably after tonight, and I'm sure we can get something figured out. I don't know what the striping is. I can't speak on behalf of another state, county, et cetera, but we might be able to figure something out as far as that goes. I think that was the only... As far as the speeding and all that stuff, I understand bike safety, the narrow roads, all that stuff. Those are huge concerns that I share as well. And to that end, I think that's the only thing I had comments on. I'll save my other comments whenever we get onto the agenda as far as the STR stuff goes. I don't want to bog everybody down right now on the front end. I'm sure we'll have quite the discussion here in probably 10, 15 minutes. Anyway, thank you.

Larry Wilms. Miss Estes, I did talk to the commissioner at McDonald County Highway, and their policy is not to stripe their center lines anywhere on county roads. Now, that's a different standard, perhaps, than in Arkansas. You may recall that way back about 2012 area, the city of Bella Vista received queries and asks from the citizens to make a better connection between Scottsdale and the state line for access because it was really, really a back, narrow road, gravel, one and a half lanes. So the city, that was one of their early projects. They paid for the construction of that road. McDonnell County, I believe, was the primary contractor. It was paved and paid for by the city, and the city striped the entire section. But because McDonnell County's policy is that they don't stripe center lines on any of their town roads, the paint wore off, and Bella Vista continues to repaint theirs. but McDonald County doesn't. The commissioners did say, I'll look into it, but he said our policy is not to do centerline striping. So just for your information.

Travis.

Yeah, thanks for taking time out of your nights and joining us and staying engaged on issues that are important to you. I would like to encourage everyone, again, I've said in the past, but I'll remind you all, if you have a problem with guests at properties that you're adjacent to or nearby, please notify the police so that they could have record of that. So it sounds like that happened with this most recent case I was made aware of. So thank you for that. And then I'll just say that I think one of the ways to decrease the demand for str permits is to allow uh somebody to sell a short-term rental that's operating and allow the transfer of that permit with them so that's something that i've talked about with the council and i feel like i didn't have support in in the past but maybe we can revisit that conversation okay uh i'd like to thank everybody for speaking i thought it was interesting that there was so many different topics

Usually when we have a lot of speakers, it's all on one topic. It's a little bit of a microcosm of how challenging these political jobs can be. I did want to mention one thing. I do appreciate everybody coming to speak. We've had some FOIA requests that are problematic from time to time. And we have one right now that someone submitted about STRs and I just ask that people give a little more thought before they submit things. They ask for every email on STRs since we started. So that's 50,000 pages. And one or two employees have to look through those 50,000 pages. You know, it's quite common for people to make requests that are, you know, the Freedom of Information Act law is very liberal and everybody likes open government. We're not trying to hide anything. But you're putting a burden on busy employees that in some cases are spectacular. And I think sometimes people don't realize it. So try and tailor your request a little more and it'd be helpful. Thank you. Next item is reports. And the first report certificate of recognition I will read this and then we'll have the people come up and I'll present it and have a photo this has to do with the Master Gardeners actually of Benton I'll explain a little about it first Master Gardeners of Benton County and Larry Williams brought this to my attention they got an award for fixing up the garden that's at Mercy Hospital. And it was a tremendous amount of work. And the state Master Gardeners gave them an award as the outstanding project of the year in the whole state. So even though it was Benton County, the garden is in Bella Vista and the folks working on it are. So I'm gonna read the... the certificate of recognition once. There's three folks, Debbie Bodner, Dori Hamake, and Judy Stokes. And it says certificate of recognition presented to Debbie Bodner in recognition of your work with the Benton County Master Gardeners on the revitalization of the Bella Vista Community Garden located at Mercy, Bella Vista, resulting in not only a vibrant garden, earning the state's Master Gardener Project of the Year, but a productive food source, growing nearly 2,000 pounds of produce for the NWA region via the Mercy Food Pantry, presented this 22nd day of June, 2026. Personally, I was quite impressed by the 2,000 pounds. That is amazing. So if you'd like to come forward, The next item on the agenda is the monthly financial report. So we have the report through April 30, 2026. And we continue to have good results. On the revenue side, our total operating revenues compared to last year are up 7.2%. And the surplus over the budget is $694,000. That's after just four months. So we feel good about that. City sales tax is up 9.5%. And the county sales tax did turn positive for us. It was negative as of last month. It's up 5.1%. So that's encouraging that we may start getting more help on the county side. On the operating expenses, they were below budget by $943,000 for the first four months. So we're really encouraged by our results so far. We continue to have a safe reserve and so pretty happy with the results. I also should mention, I neglected to mention at the beginning, our city attorney, Jason Kelly, couldn't make it for medical reasons. He's going to be fine. But he went 12 and a half years without missing a regular meeting. And I think that he's been really a positive asset for us and Sometimes I think people don't realize how much he's really come through for us time and time again. I thought I'd mention that. At this point, I'd like to entertain a motion to suspend the rules of order and procedure to allow all ordinances on the agenda to be read by title only.

So moved.

Larry Wilms and second by Wendy Hughes. Roll call vote. on the motion to suspend the rules.

Council Members Newport? Yes. Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Heimschel? Yes. Herp?

Yes.

And Hughes? Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. On the consent agenda is the approval of the minutes of the May 26, 2026 meeting.

Move to approve. Second.

That was Larry Wilms and Anna Isbell. A roll call vote on the motion to approve the minutes.

Council Members Newport? Yes. Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Hunchell?

Yes.

Herp?

Yes.

And Hughes? Yes.

Motion carried 6-0. Thank you for that. Next 1 is under unfinished business and the ordinance amending section 16 dash 43 active permit maximum of the code of ordinances, the city Bella Vista to increase the maximum number of short term rental permits from 600 to 687. And for other purposes, and this is on 2nd, reading their discussion, Craig.

Well, the only thing I will say, I do have a few things to say, but one thing I would encourage everybody that got up and spoke tonight, I really hope that you guys reach out to your legislators at Senate level, because this is going to be something that's going to impact you at the state level that we won't have any control if things go how they're predicted next spring. When the STR bill comes back around, I just encourage everybody to keep track of this and relay and get your opinions across to your legislators early. Don't wait until they're getting 500 phone calls a day. Have these conversations now. As far as increasing the maximum, I touched on it at the work session. You know, and I hate that Jason's not here tonight. I didn't have a conversation with him after the fact, but I'm not comfortable with any seated council member and or anybody sharing the dais up here, you know, voting to increase. I think it is, I don't think it sits, it doesn't sit well with me to increase and then have an opportunity to go out and get permits yourself when it just doesn't hit right with me. I could be totally wrong. I'm no lawyer. But that's the only thing. I would encourage everybody to get in contact with your senators, et cetera, if this is an issue that you're concerned about. Get started now. Thanks.

Shea Newport.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to add clarity to what Council Member Honchal was sharing, just for those who might not be familiar, but the state is considering removing the city's ability to regulate STRs whatsoever. And so I just want to make sure that that was clear. So if you don't reach out to your state reps and your senators expressing how you do want your city to have the ability to regulate and set a cap or set any kind of ordinances around that, if that's important to you, I would definitely reach out. if that law goes through, then all of our ordinances will be defunct. So I just wanted to add that. And then additionally, we've had some conversations around density and changing that. And so I do think I would anticipate an amendment coming forward that would help with the density issue and having so many within a certain area. It's certainly something I support. So just wanted to appreciate all the folks who spoke to that. I think it's a really reasonable request. Thank you.

Wendy I just had a really quick question and Taylor can I ask you a question regarding the number of permits that are active The site hasn't been updated since the 12th, I didn't know where we were at on that Friday's report said 592 but that is currently issued so we've Theoretically hit the cap.

There's eight that are pending payment. Okay, so they've been reviewed by staff and sent to Link to pay and once that once those are paid the permit will be issued. So there is a waitlist right now. All right.

Thank you Anyone else It's important for all of you to contact your state legislators We have two of them in the house that represents Bella Vista. We have a Senator that's also from the area The thing to keep and be aware of is that some of them own properties reportedly in Bella Vista. So they have a personal vested interest in perhaps erasing controls. I can't say that for a fact. It might be an opinion. It might be an observation. So elected officials at the state level respond much better and more effectively from words from you the electorate. The council members, they kind of take our comments with a grain of sand. We were very active with the session two years ago with both the House and the Senate committees that regulated this question. It was difficult. So we need you to speak up and continue to call them, contact them about your reservations and concerns that we need to retain local control and that we need to be allowed to permit. They offered to have a permit system at no cost, and that was the only regulation that they offered. It would be well for you to monitor that as we get into the season early next year. It's a fast and furious pace that they move. I'm sure someone on the council will be aware of what the legislative numbers are in the House for the bill and in the Senate, and you can call, write, speak to your senator and representative

not to support that bill so thank you okay as far as what's in front of us do people want to go to third reading or just wait for july and third reading yeah we'll we'll go ahead and wait till july then Okay. New business. First ordinance is approving the final plat FPL 2026-64569 and accepting public rights of way and easement dedications therein and staff requests that we move the third and final on this. Is there any more discussion?

I guess other than to learn that with this This plat was a, what was it, a modified plat, partial plat, less than six lots anyway, originally. And it was approved by staff, which we have provisions for in our code. The reality is, is that the first group, because it was a staff approval, unfortunately had lesser standards of performance than a standard subdivision plat. And so it brought to our attention a need to modify that part of our code so that any subdivision is required to meet the same performance standards. In other words, if there's a widening of the street that's needed, whether you're a little one or a big one, you're gonna all have to do it. If they have to put in water services or other things, They all have to do it. So they're all treated the same in terms of performance. I have no objection to the staff processing those administratively. It makes a lot of sense, quite frankly.

Wendy?

Since Jason explained to us during the work session that to deny this would be arbitrary and capricious because it meets all the requirements, I am suggesting to amend the rules and go to third and final. Second.

That was Wendy Hughes and Anna Isbell. Motion to suspend the rules and go to third and final reading. A roll call vote.

Council Members Newport. Yes. Wilms.

Yes.

Isbell. Yes. Hanchel.

Yes.

Harp.

Yes.

And Hughes. Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. I'll read it for a third and final time. An ordinance approving Final Plan FPL 2026-64569 and accepting public rights of way and easement dedications therein. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second.

Second.

It was Travis Harp and Wendy Hughes. Roll call vote on the motion to approve.

Council Members Newport? Yes. Wilms?

Yes.

Isbell? Yes. Conchal?

Yes.

Herp?

Yes.

And Hughes? Yes.

Motion carried 6-0. Next one is an ordinance requiring orientation and continuing education for elected officials of the City of Bella Vista, Arkansas, establishing minimum training requirements, providing for reporting of compliance and for other purposes. This is on first reading. Craig?

The question I had, I spoke briefly with Wanda. Now, when we go to the Arkansas Municipal League annually, something similar to this is offered through the Municipal League that the city already pays for by attending, correct? Or how does that work?

Twice a year, the Arkansas Municipal League holds a conference convention. That's January and June. We just got back. And that is also, if you're registered and the city pays it, then if you can't attend, you have access to all of those courses on the Hub, which is their educational app.

Do we have access to the hub?

Yes, we've had access since it started about two years ago. Any day of the week?

What? 365? Yeah, it's an app and you just... Because the only reason I was asking, because I really, I'm not opposed to educating, you know, anybody furthering their education. But like I said at the work session, you know, Robert's Rules, read this. ten, fifteen years ago, um, I think we could all just watch planning commission meetings anytime. Um, you know, I just, I see this as just an expense for the sake of having an expense or having something to hang your hat on when you're running for office or whatever. Um, I really don't see the benefit to it since we already have a, it's, it's already available. We have access. So I don't, I don't see any of the, the need or or anything else really to like pile on so anyway that's my two cents uh travis thanks mayor i kind of

I'd like to echo some of what Honchell articulated. This is already provided. We already have the option here. I know everyone that I was elected with, we all attended the onboarding training. I don't think that this has any nefarious intent. I think the intent behind this is good, but really what this would do is just be able to publicly shame somebody who wasn't able to attend. And the only problem I have with this is because Section 8A and Section 8B, the requirements are mandatory duties of office. And then Section 8B says nothing in this ordinance shall prevent an elected official from assuming or holding office. And these two can't logically coexist together. So in my opinion, I'm not supportive of this. Wendy?

I think there's a marked difference between having things that are available for you and then actually doing them. And I can't think of an industry or a world or a lot of careers or jobs that we do that you don't have to have some sort of extra training, annual refreshers, be it in the medical world, education, engineering, law, corporate America. There are set standards that you have to every year just refresh because it's best practice. I think, as a minimum standard, that should be standing for all student officials across the board. I think that we all learn things. And again, you can attend the conference. It's readily available. And when you attend the conference, even if you can't attend but you register, you still have access to all the lessons for free that were provided. They're fantastic. I utilize them. I attend the conferences. The ones I haven't attended, I've gone back and rewatched the other ones. because I want to learn more. Again, it's 30 minutes a month. It's six hours a year. This is not overly strenuous. This is an easy ask and thing we probably should do just for the public to know that we are taking this seriously. It's not just being here for two hours a month and then clocking out.

Larry? Oh, Anna.

I can see both sides. I do think that, as Wendy Hughes stated, yes, in any career that we have, we always have ongoing training. So I don't think this is anything that's any different than any other position I've held. I do think that we do have a higher standard, though, as an elected official. And the expectation is that we do put in a little bit of that extra time and effort. And I don't think it is too much to ask to have this. I don't believe it'll be used as a shaming tool, because I actually believe that everyone up here is going to take their job seriously and is going to complete those hours. So I still support this idea.

Greg?

Well, I mean, the shaming's already kind of begun different ways. My point is that everything starts here. Robert rules, that's everything you're going to learn is in that book and it's expanded on from that book. I just think that, you know, if you want to say that we're all required to watch every planning commission every month. I'm fine with that because that keeps you engaged with the community directly. you know what's going on with the community, and that keeps you engaged with how the planning, the zoning ordinances and everything else that we as a city, because every city is different, having my background from Fayetteville, we've never had a PZD here. I mean, we could talk language that nobody in this up here even knows what it is. That's what I mean is that I just think that if we, I just, making it a required something just for the sake of hitting a mark and furthering education, all that stuff, that's fine. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not even opposed to this, but it just, I don't see the point of how it's gonna be of a benefit. because you're going to learn things that you're never going to apply in this setting that you're going to be learning. You're going to be learning techniques or whatever that you're never going to utilize here because our city, our community is wholly different than what other communities are. Wendy.

So you get to kind of pick what you want to learn about. And so one thing would be required is annual FOIA training, which is one hour, which is Arkansas specific because we have the strongest FOIA laws in the state, but they do change. They have changed and I'd rather personally not Intentionally do something wrong. And so if I'm required to learn about every year, it's a safeguard for knowing myself But for us as a council this is a city, but if you want to only zone in the other five hours on planning and zoning have at it if somebody wants to learn more about budgeting and financing if somebody's on a Committee in the city. I think there's a finance committee that person wanted to learn more about that in Arkansas finance and laws and Please do that. If you want to learn about ethics and conflicts of interest, if you want to learn about economic development, these are all things you can pick and choose pretty much anything that involves cities and government in Arkansas and use it. And I think Robert Frizzle's order is great. If we want to add on there, is there a possible thing you could read every year that takes you six hours? Have at it. But I think that you're making a mountain of a molehill, to be completely honest.

Travis. My son's principal's in here, so she'll be happy to know that I tell my children and I tell my subordinates and my peers alike that learning is a requirement until retirement and then it's optional. My biggest problem with this is that you can't logically have something that says, this is mandatory part of your job. And then in the next section say, this is not mandatory part of your job. And therefore I have a hard time supporting this. Again, I do believe the intent behind it is well stated.

I think for the benefit of the audience, one of the technicalities of being elected and for your term, you're in four years. So if you don't do the continuing ed, the point Travis is making, Can't kick you out if you don't do the continuing ed. So it's really not quite mandatory. I had a couple wordsmithing things. This is only first reading. But in Section 2, applicability, it doesn't actually mention the city clerk. but the third description. The city clerk's included by the third item. I guess since we've mentioned the mayor and city council, I've mentioned the city clerk.

I think that might be ambiguous in case there's ever a city attorney that's an elected official. To keep it kind of a little fluid on that just so it wouldn't have to be changed and then if that, I think.

And on section 3A, I thought we need to make clear when you're talking about elected, it's the eight hours is the first time you're elected because people are, you know, yeah. Anyway, those are just little things, but we can go ahead and go to second reading and look at it that way. I can't resist pointing out that no one up here in city council has done even the first level or achieved even the first level, whereas I was a certified municipal official in 2018. and got continuing ed credits in 2020, 2023, 2024. And then when they changed to the ACE system, I got ACE level one, 25 credits, ACE level two, 75 credits in 2025. Now in the defense of the city council, a lot of you are pretty new and it takes a while.

I am level two though, so thanks.

Larry? I guess one observation is that most people in Arkansas, in Bella Vista at least, are from another state, somewhere along the line, either recently or a long time ago. I've been here 20 years. I've worked in the municipal field my whole career in one capacity or another. Not elected, but appointed for different boards and commissions and things. What's interesting is Arkansas has some unique laws. because we're a property rights state. So the focus of those laws and how they're written and what we can do are different here than they are in Missouri and our neighboring states. Not every state is a property rights state. So our rules here are twisted a little bit different. And so how we might want to do something, we can't, perhaps because of that. The other reality is that Bella Vista is the only city in the state of Arkansas and maybe one of only several in the United States that was formed after a developer came in and developed the whole city, built and sold all the lots and created all of the regulations that are recorded as deed restrictions. And so that ties our hands a whole lot in doing some things. But we've had workarounds and other things that have been effective. We've made a good partnership with the POA on the trail system and other activities. And with the developer on certain things, we've had to actually file papers in the courthouse to make them agree to things that they said they would agree to. But it's a different role in Arkansas, a different role in Bella Vista from Arkansas. So, thank you. Education is good.

Okay, so I guess we'll go to 2nd reading on that and. Guys can discuss it some more next 1's a resolution authorizing the city to initiate legal proceedings against Bella Vista village property owners association, Inc. To facilitate combination and possession of real property for purposes of completing the public safety radio tower project. further authorizing settlement in the total amount of $67,000 Chief did you want to speak briefly on this?

And this is with bond money As we discussed last week this is part of the 2025 bond that was some of the money was a lot for police products one was a radio tower project and So this is just acquiring the property we need for the third tower because we don't own that property. The POA owns it. POA can't sell to us outright just because of the rules. So we have to go to court. It's illegal. It's a non-hostile condemnation, I should say. So we just have to go through the legal proceedings to get the property. They're amicable to that. They've agreed on a price after a survey has been done. So it's just a formality at this point.

Yeah, so it's a friendly condemnation with the POA. Yes. Yeah.

Motion to approve. Second.

That was Wendy Hughes and Larry Wilms. Roll call vote on the motion to approve.

Council members Newport. Yes. Wilms.

Yes.

Isbell. Yes. Hanchel.

Yes.

Harp.

Yes.

And Hughes. Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. Next one's a resolution authorizing the mayor and city clerk to enter into a contract with Superior Automotive Group Asylum Springs pursuant to a state procurement contract for the purchase of five Dodge Durango AWD pursuit vehicles with equipment up fits and two 2026 Chevrolet Silverado pickups with equipment up fits in a total amount not to exceed $394,601.21.

So again, this was approved through that same bond. This is a portion of the money for two years' worth of police vehicles. This is the first year. We had $1.2 million allotted for that, and so this is slightly under half of that, and we'll do the rest in 2027. But this was round out the fleet of replacement vehicles we need for this year due to mileage wear and tear. And it's just a standard rotation of vehicles that we do throughout the department every year. Vote to approve. Yes.

Hey, Chief, why did the price change from last week is 386, now it's 394?

It went up a little bit when we went back and looked at the price sheet. So you have a vehicle price sheet and then an upfit sheet for the equipment, specific police equipment for each vehicle. Uh, when when, uh, the, the superior automotive sent us the outfit sheet, something in their system didn't enlisted all the equipment and individually priced it. But it didn't when it, uh, when it added it up at the bottom, it didn't add up some of the communication equipment on two of the trucks. We found that error. We went back. It was a clerical error based on the computer. It wasn't anything different. We're not getting anything less or anything more. It's just they weren't charging us. It was roughly about $4,000 on one truck and about, I think, $5,000 on the other, and so that's why it went up slightly.

So moved to approve. Motion by Larry Wilms.

Second.

And second by Anna Isbell. Roll call vote on the motion to approve council members Newport.

Yes, Wilms. Yes, Isabel. Yes, honcho Harp yes and hughes.

Yes Thank you motion carried six to zero next one's a resolution amending the 2026 city budget to appropriate $120,000 in development impact fee revenue related to public safety building additions

So we talked about this last week as well this has to do with the requirement through a city ordinance a sidewalk needs to be built a public access sidewalk when certain structures are built in Bella Vista now and so when the police department was built here several years back that requirement was in place for some reason it wasn't done it wasn't brought to our attention and it slipped through the cracks and so as we went to develop some property in the back of the streets department that the Police department has a building on and we started developing there. It was brought to our attention that that sort of triggered this once again, because it brought to our attention that we didn't do that in the 1st place. And so we need to to to maintain or to be within city ordinance. We need to build a sidewalk from the South side of the property along. along Force Hills Boulevard all the way to the north side along Streets Department, butting up against the property now that the VA owns and they're going to build a building there. They'll also run a sidewalk, which will then take it up to Rogers Road. And so this is just going back and fixing an error that we didn't do and we should have done it a couple years back. And we are going to use impact fees for this.

Motion to approve.

Second. That was Wendy Hughes and Larry Wilms on motion to approve. Roll call vote.

Council Members Newport. Yes. Wilms.

Yes.

Isbell. Yes. Hunchell.

Yes.

Harp.

Yes.

And Hughes. Yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you, Chief.

Larry Wilms. It kind of makes me cry. We refunded money from that bond issue that built this building. We had money left over. It could have been covered. So it was obviously an honest mistake. And money that didn't come out of our budget, actually, because we could allocate this. So I feel bad that we had to do that.

I'm not so sure about that. I thought we spent every penny on this building.

And I spent everything I had. I had $18.8 million for this building. We spent about every penny of it. Now, if there was money left over, Citywide for the whole bond.

I'm not sure because we refunded I don't know several million dollars.

I'm not sure I don't think so Okay announcements the next City Council work session is 6 p.m. Monday July 20 at Bella Vista District Court next City Council regular meeting 6 p.m. Monday July 27 at Bella Vista District Court Planning Commission work session 4.30 p.m. Thursday, July 2, Bella Vista District Court. Planning Commission regular meeting 4.30 p.m. or immediately following the BCA Monday, July 13 at Bella Vista District Court. Board of Construction appeals 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 14 if necessary at Fire Station No. 1 Conference Room 103 Town Center. Thank you very much for your participation. We are adjourned.