City Council - Regular Meeting

6 o'clock. Ma'am, I'd like to call the meeting to order. This is Sabella Vista City Council regular meeting for November 24, 2025. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. I alsy and justice for all.

Roll call, please. Council members Hughes, here. Newport, here. Wilms here, Isbel here, Hansel here, and Harp here. Mayor Flynn is here.

Thank you. Before we get started, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the citizens for their positive vote on the recent uh sales tax bond extension passed with over 70% and we really appreciate the citizens showing confidence in us. Uh, next item on the agenda is citizen input. Uh, per the rules, there's a three minute per person time limit to address the council on any topic of that person's choosing. I'll call the uh people in order. First one is J. Mallet at nine Rston Lane. Feel free to correct my pronunciation.

No, you're right. Thank you, sir. Is it my turn? Yes.

Okay. Good evening. My name is Joanne Mallet and I am a three-year resident of Bella Vista. Tonight, I am here to ask the consideration of the city council in addressing the condition of the access road to the Bella Vista Animal Shelter. As you are aware, this road is city-owned and maintained. Yet, it has deteriorated significantly due to heavy truck traffic from a public waste services which accesses the adjacent transfer station. The result has been recurring potholes, washouts, and overground vegetation that make the road both uninviting and at times unsafe for visitors, volunteers, and staff. I'm encouraging the city of Bella Vista to partner with Republic Waste in resurfacing the road with a weatherresistant hard surface and trimming back the roadside vegetation. A well-maintained and safe roadway would provide a cleaner, more welcoming entrance for visitors and potential adopters. It would improve the safety of the shelter staff, volunteers, and delivery vehicles. Excuse me. It would reflect positively on the city's shared investment in animal welfare and public service. I have distributed two sets of copies of pictures. The top set highlight the road after being freshly graded in the best weather conditions and the second set reveal the road after the first rain and the beginning of the deterioration. It is important to note that these pictures were taken within a twoweek period. I thank you for your time and

your consideration in this matter.

Thank you. The next speaker is JD Ballinger. JP Ballinger of 14 Kizwick Drive. Sorry about that. My handwriting is so terrible. I should have been a doctor. Sorry about that. Uh ladies and gentlemen of the uh Belista City Council, I appreciate you guys hearing me uh out this evening. And also I want to start with uh Council Member Harp and Hughes. I appreciate you guys mentioning in the work session about this critical issue that I'm talking about this evening and also uh uh Councilwoman Newport, I appreciate your positive comments about this uh the other evening as well. Um the reason I'm here tonight is talking about the uh Children and Family Advocacy Center of Benton County. Um throughout this uh this year, there's been a couple budget cuts to their uh 2026 budget uh totaling $600,000. uh $300,000 from federal money and 30 $300,000 from state money uh in July and and uh um October respectively. Um recently this month, Benton County Corum Court decided to uh make an appropriation for our 2026 budget to to offset our county portion of that of that shortfall um toing out to $12,000 which is 17%. Uh what I'm proposing to the uh Bell Vista City Council is for you to also uh put in your share of your allocation of what uh the Children Family Advocacy Center uh has for Bella Vista in regards to residents, which is about 5% of their need, which comes out to about $30,000. Um I also have Natalie uh in the audience this evening. She'll be speaking after me uh later on in public comments. should talk more about the organization. I just want to talk to you guys in regards to the actual numerical value of what the ask would be. And I would definitely appreciate you guys uh standing with Benton County. We're also working with Rogers, City Rogers, City

of Bentonville, and other cities in in Benton County to try to have this offset with with this uh $600,000 uh deficit they have for their budget. They will be having a significant impact to a very vulnerable population, children, and families in Benton County. And with that type of uh uh reduction to their budget, it's going to bring it back to a level that is 20 years u in the making in how what and the progress they've made in our in our community. And again, this is a very vulnerable population is children that have suffered from abuse, neglect, and other type of things and crimes against children. Again, very vulnerable population. And I just ask that the city of Belleusa stand with Benton County and the other cities uh in uh uh for this very vulnerable population. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is uh Mike Armstrong of Northwest Cruz Avenue in Bentonville. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Uh I'm Mike Armstrong. I'm running for family court judge here in Benton County. Uh, and what a lot of people might not know, or something a lot of people might not know, is that Arkansas has the highest divorce rate in the state or in the country, I'm sorry. We rank number one in the country in a list that we really don't want to be a part of. And when people ask me why I'm running for judge, that's a big reason for it. I've practiced law here in Benton County for about 20 years. Actually, early in my career, I worked at the CAC as a child sex abuse prosecutor here in Benton County, and I know all too well the importance of having an experienced judge on the bench, somebody who knows uh what they're doing. Uh I've seen judges make on good days have judges make decisions that just turn an entire family around for the better and send them on the right trajectory. And I've also seen the wrong days where the wrong judge and the wrong decision can make can send people spiraling out of control, can really make things hard for families that are already struggling. And I believe that I'm can make if elected, I can make those better days more frequent. Uh I can I've worked with Benton County families and Northwest Arkansas families for the better part of 20 years who are going through some of the toughest times in their lives. And I think that this county and this community deserve a judge with the experience who can make things better. And that's the kind of county that's kind of judge that this county deserves. So, thank you very much. I'll be around afterwards uh sitting around. If anybody wants to visit or ask me any questions or talk about anything, I'm happy to do so. So, thank you once again.

Thank you. The next speaker is Gordon Brown of four Kirk Patrick Place.

Hey, good evening. Thank you. Uh my subject tonight is uh short-term rentals. I heard that was on the agenda tonight. Um residents, both uh new and existing, didn't intend to move into business districts, and that seems like what's happening to a lot of residences here. Uh my exposure with the short-term uh operator was shortly after I moved here. It was a person I already had a relationship with in another state asked me to be their local operator. You know, when I examined the paperwork, the paperwork was falsified. When I addressed the falsifications, they said, "No, it's just we just go around that. You know, we don't abide by that." So, there's obviously a known undertone of non-compliance that, you know, it's not being enforced here in the city. And of course, I declined to participate in such relationship. Continuing um home construction intended for short-term uh use may need to be limited on size or square footage based on some stories and experiences other residents are having with some of these larger homes that are being built solely for the purpose of a short-term rental. You know, it's basically just going in as a hotel. I know I have um I know we have limits on how many that there can be in the city, but beyond that, regulatory or infraction enforcement seems to be lacking. Effects on residential life life has led other cities to completely ban short-term rentals and inf infractions by operators may need be may need to be recorded and u on a points basis kind of like your driver's license you know that some of these operators may lose their you know permits altogether uh based on others lifestyles being affected I defensively defensively bought a lot that came available right across the street from me to limit any possibility of anything being built over there, especially a short-term rental. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is uh Darren Callahan of 645 West Lancashire Boulevard.

Hello. I would like to discuss the resoning next to my house. Um, I bought that place 12 years ago in a residential area. Um, we purchased our dream home there. Um, with privacy all the way around it in a residential zone, not a commercial zone. Um, I'm not in favor of having a a commercial business put in there. Um, furthermore, the last hearing whenever it was discussed what was going to be put in there, I don't think that that was fair, um, that can tend to sway the opinion of votes. I mean, especially somebody that loves coffee, so to speak. Um, I just have to ask you and every one of you, if you had bought your home with the privacy that you have and everything that you loved about it and somebody wanted to do that to your home, how would you feel? We didn't buy a residential area to have it turned commercial and live next door to businesses. We bought our property on the residential side of the road. That's really about all I got to say. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Natalie Tibs of 2221. Little flock. Yes, sir.

Good evening, Mayor and members of city council. As Justice of the Peace Ballinger mentioned, I represent the Children and Family Advocacy Center and we are facing challenges that we have not seen in our 30 plus years of existence serving our county of children and families in crisis. and um just being presented with an opportunity to meet with each of our municipalities to identify what are some different ways that we can better preserve and sustain these types of critical services. So, our agency partners with each of the law enforcement agencies across our county as well as the prosecuting attorney's office to ensure that proper services that are professional and put the needs of children come first when it comes to child abuse allegations. And those services revolve around advocacy support, the forensic interview process, medical examinations, counseling services. In addition, we have count long-term residential services as well. And so law enforcement utilizes our agency more importantly to ensure that a neutral child-friendly facility is offered so that anytime child abuse is a concern the child and the family can non-offending caregivers have a place to go where there is someone who is specifically trained to talk to them to meet them on their developmental level and that anything that is being done from our agency can be upheld in the courtroom process. We are not investigative in nature but each of our services serve the investigative process. Um we worked with um as Mike mentioned he was a prosecutor who was housed at our facility and ensured that our services maintained evidence-based best practices so that these so that

these uh services could be presented in that courtroom. And so just at this point we we created a a data sheet of where are all of the children and families coming from and from each of the cities and dividing that into a percentage and as justice of the peace ballinger mentioned 5% of that population is coming from the city of Bentonville and but overall our agency is serving between children and their non-offending family members around 3,000 children and families every single year. Um we are grateful for the opportunity to express what it is that our agency does and to look at additional opportunities to sustain these services. So, thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you. The next speaker is Matt Sanders of Seven Nantich Circle. Hello, council members. Mr. Mayor, um you might remember me from last month. that came in and talked about a short-term rental problem where we had 50 people that had a party at our house next door. Um, and it went well into the the night and we didn't get very far. Uh, that was October 11th. 3 weeks later on 8th November, we had another wild party that was thrown next door at the short-term rental. This time, instead of 50 adults, it was 50 underage children. What we're here today is asking uh Chief Graves and the council for some support on the STR. What we'd like is to enforce the codes that are already in existence. That's simple. Two is to hold a zero tolerance policy for these short-term rentals. So whether it's them not maintaining their yard, having trash out, uh yada yada yada, having these huge parties, we need to have the follow

through with the zero tolerance policy to cite the partygoers. And the reason being is because the city, y'all, the council members can't do anything against the STR until there's two citations written. So that puts an onus on the police department citing those partygoers. The second thing I want to talk about is just trying to get clarification. We bought a very nice home um that has about $150,000 worth of uh structural damage. Um the engineer report came back and it substantiated all of our issues that we talked about in January. Um furthermore, they brought up other things, too. So, uh but where was I going with that? Oh, I'm trying to do research on like who inspected our house and um what the codes are. And I just want to give you a 3-w weekek synapse of the spiral that the city is making us go through. On October 30th, I reached out to find out who inspected our HVAC and does the city have Hback HVAC inspections. Is there a list? Uh, Representative HARP helped me in getting that um, information. And the request from Roger Greer, the chief building official, was to um, put in a foyer. And so now we have more foyas that we have to put in because we have more issues that we have to get discover. And now um as of today uh we're being told that uh it's been determined that no records are responsive to your requests and foyers are intended for the request for records and other documents kept in custody. So the process that they just told representative Harp and I to do three weeks ago has now we're getting another barrier to entry of information. Um that is all I have for today. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Tim McDonald of 104 Ruth Lane.

Good evening, mayor, council members. Thank you all very much for giving us the chance to come and speak. Um, I'm Tim McDonald. I'm running for circuit judge as well. And I'm going to start by kind of talking to you all about what the circuit judge races look like and then narrowing down uh into what my specific race looks like. So, first, I'm not running against Mr. Armstrong. I know Mr. Armstrong very well. Uh we've practiced together quite a bit in the past. I'm running for circuit judge division 8. Uh if you all are aware, division 8 is a brand new division that's being created to help address the increase in criminal cases in Benton County. This has been in the works over a few years. The county is putting a significant amount of money into building a new courtroom out by the juvenile justice center. As part of that process, they're adding a new circuit judge position as well as new prosecutors and public defenders. There's actually going to be a total of three contested circuit judges on the ballot in March. I think it's very important that you all as the leaders in Bella Vista are aware of what those positions are and when possible take a position on them. You're going to see a change in the judiciary of Bitten County that has never happened before. Out of a total of seven sitting uh just judges right now, three of them will be retiring and then they're adding a whole new division, division eight. So half of the judges are going to be turning over and it's important that we have people that are experienced take those places. That is what brings me to my candidacy and why I think I'm the right person for division 8. So I've spent my entire life in public service as a prosecutor in St. Louis city in Washington DC some places that have some really terrible crimes but most recently here in Benton County where I was a tri the crimes against children prosecutor for the past three years. Um, I did that work and then I left there specifically so that I could run for this job as the criminal judge because you couldn't go straight from the prosecutor's office into being a criminal judge because you would be conflicted out of everything. And so I've tried to set myself up in a position where I've got now some civil background as well because that's the other thing division 8 might handle. And so besides being a prosecutor for the past decade, I've also been in the army for the past 12 years as a judge

advocate. And as a judge advocate, I've done both criminal prosecution work. I've defended soldiers when necessary and I've served as a judge in what we call article 32 preliminary hearing. Uh and finally, I'm just going to leave you all with this and why it's important, I think, for Bella Vista in particular to take um a stake in these races and at least educate yourselves, hopefully all your constituents as much as possible. As the crimes against children prosecutor in Bitten County, you handle every type of case involving children and a lot of those cases came from Bella Vista. And I can just tell you as a sort of a an additional support for what Natalie's talking about with the CFAC, I can think of three cases offhand that I worked with Ed Williams and Byron Style that were some of the hardest cases that I dealt with. And every one of those cases involved a young child, now a young person that went to the CFAC and was initially interviewed there and they had support afterwards. So what happens in these these criminal divisions and what happens at the CFAC affect all of you whether or not you know it. And it's important, I think, that we have the right people that are helping out in those situations. So, thank you all very much for your time tonight.

Thank you. It's now time for a council member reply if anyone would like to. Uh, Travis.

Yeah. Thanks everyone for coming to address the council. Uh, just of the peace, Jess Bowlinger and Mrs. Natalie Tibs. I want you to know that I stand with you and you have my unwavering support. 100% I'm behind you on this. So, I will do anything that I can. I only get one vote, but you certainly have uh my support for that. Uh, with the short-term rentals issue, I would say that the things that Mr. Sanders says he's experiencing doesn't accurately portray the majority of short-term rentals in Mil Vista. I think the majority of the short-term rentals in Milista, you don't hear about because they don't cause issues and they don't have problems. I don't see it as a business in a residential neighborhood. I see it as a if you if you consider that a business, I think you have to consider renting your house out to a long-term person as a business. That's how I see it. I understand, you know, the city split 50/50 on that or close to it. Um so anyways, I if there's legislative changes that we can make to to give the police or the enforcement more teeth, then I'm willing to do it. But I I feel like the legislation's in place to um prevent that from happening. So that's all I have. Uh Wendy,

thank you Joseph and Natalie for coming tonight. Like Mr. Harp, total support on this. Our children are the most valuable resource of our community and making sure they're taken care of, especially the ones who have been impacted just matters the most. Hopefully other cities can band together and we can all make this 2026 work out and then our government can kind of get their act together and get 2027 figured out themselves. Miss Mallet, I think she might have left. Um, regarding the animal shelter and paving, I totally see what you're saying and those are some conversations maybe the street department can have with the mayor and see if in the future agenda that we can do get that taken care of. Regarding STRs, I don't believe we'll be making any big changes in legislation on our end. There's currently an active case with Arkansas Supreme Court that we're kind of waiting to see what they're doing. We can before we do anything different in our end. But if you're not, this is for everybody. If you're not and you're having problems, this is a problem with the neighbor next door or an STR. If you're having issues, call it in. Call it in right then. Um, and keep calling it in. If it's an issue that keeps happening, keep calling it in and we can see if we can make sure our the enforcement is taken care of so you're not having and peaceful nights at your home that you should be able to enjoy. And that's all I have.

Uh Shay Newport. Yep. I just want to thank Joseph, Natalie, uh Mike, and Tim for speaking on behalf of the CFAC. Um I also thanks for coming out. Thanks for informing us about the uh upcoming judge races and those importance as well. Um, and then lastly, I just want to say that um, I plan on introducing a resolution next month uh, so that the council can unite and send a joint letter to all of our elected officials, both state and federal, encouraging them to reinstate funding as well. And you do have my support um, for Bella Vista, helping restore our portion of the funding.

Anna is Bill. Um, on the short-term rental piece, I hear the complaints and I understand them and I I I I feel for you. We do need to have more teeth in. So, please continue to call those in. And I would call in our law enforcement and our code officers that are called to please get out and address those. Cite the folks that are not following the rules because they give everyone else a bad name. And if it comes to us and we need to take action, we will. We want to support those that are acting respectfully in their short-term rentals and that are being respectful toward their neighbors, but those that are not, we need to address that. Thank you. Okay. Uh thank you for the reply. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke today on the various issues. And the next item on the agenda is the financial report. We just got the financial report out today uh for the period ending September 30. It was very encouraging. Uh the total operating revenues were up 11.9% from the earlier year and they were $1.3 million more than budget. So that was very positive. City sales tax was up 13.8%. So, it continues to be a star and county sales tax was up 3.4%. On the expenditure side, uh we are running $1.1 million below budget. So, uh that was encouraging. Uh if we're over on revenues and under on expenses, uh between the two of them, we're about two $2.4 million ahead. We do have three pay periods in October and December usually uh can be a little tough on the expense side, but I'm very encouraged by our position at this time. So,

the next item is uh 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. Second. That was Larry Wilms and Shane Newport. A roll call vote. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Isbel, yes. Hansel, yes. And HARP, yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. First item on the agenda is the consent agenda which with two sets of minutes accepting $17,600 from Walton Foundation and uh approving a CI engineering contract which is around 52,000. Uh is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Seconded. That was Wendy Hughes and Shay Newport. Roll call vote on the consent agenda. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Isbel, yes. Honcho, yes. And Harp, yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. Next item is unfinished business is an ordinance establishing a business license requirement for qualifying businesses operating within the city providing for classes and exemptions requiring annual renewal establishing fees providing penalties for violations and for other purposes. And this is on third reading. Is there any discussion? Larry Wils belie that it doesn't benefit the businesses. It only helps the city perhaps regulate them. But the regulation really is on a case by case basis. The examples that we I'm sorry, the examples that we've heard are are situations where the business owner failed to consult uh the planning department or the building department before expanding or moving their location to another site uh in terms of determining a suitability for zoning and land use. So, it was a a a failure on the part of the business owner. Uh I do not see uh anything in the ordinance that will benefit uh the businesses in terms of avoiding that from happening again. Uh quite frankly u simply by knowing where the business is located and what they're doing there is not going to prevent them from doing the same foolish things again. It's like a property owner who says, "Well, I want to put a shed out in the back my backyard and doesn't consult the ACC or the city of Bella Vista about the zoning and building permit requirements." So, it's a it's one of those uninformed owners and it can happen to a property owner in a

residence. It can happen to a business owner. The licensing to me is not going to solve that problem nor benefit the businesses doing so other than making them pay a fee uh to become listed in the city registry. The city registry is really not a document that's available for the public to review. uh if you go online and want to find out about city businesses, you go to the business associations and not on the city. So I I see it as being zero benefit and I will be voting no

thank you mayor. I'm happy to sponsor some legislation that uses the current certificate of occupancy to enforce the the business owner to notify the city of when they are moving. Um I I think we already have something in place that can accomplish what the fire department told me they needed. I don't believe that we need a business license at this point. I think that if we get to the point of where, you know, we're actually competitive with the amount of businesses that we have in the city, we we could revisit this and it would have my support. But for now, I don't support this. Anybody else? Okay. Uh, is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Second. That was Larry Wilms and Craig Honchel. A roll call vote. Council members Hughes. Yes. Newport? Yes. Wilms? No. Isbel? Yes. Honcho? Yes. Harp? No. Uh motion carried four to two. Next one. Mayor, if the if the record could reflect just to make sure we're in the minutes compliant with state law, twothirds of the council having concurred, the ordinance has been adopted.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Four to two is 2/3, right? Thank you. concurrent. Uh, next one is an ordinance amending the Bella Vista zoning ordinance and map to reszone property described in reszoning petition number 2025-59940 car county parcel number 16-43269-0000 from re residential state district to C2 local commercial and this is on second reading. Is there any discussion? Travis,

uh, I have a motion to amend this to read as C2. I'm sorry, C1 from C2 to C1. Mayor, all motions to amend have to be in writing. But however, I have written that down previously and so it's very simple just to amend all references currently in the proposal that are say C2 be amended to C1. Okay. So the motion would be in order if there's a second. Yeah. Is there a second? No. Seconded. Uh second by Shay Newport. Uh discussion. Did you want to say something, Larry?

I do. Um, I guess while the the city council is in authority to make revisions or adjustments to recommendations on zoning from the planning and and uh zoning department and and and commission uh because of the sensitivity of the location, the sensitivity of changing the zoning between two existing residential parcels, single family at that uh to a commercial. Uh I would feel much better if we were to send this back to the planning and zoning department and have them review uh an amendment uh from C2 to C1 as a proposal for the site. Um I think that would be uh we're not the planners uh and while we are have the authority to do this uh I feel uncomfortable in it and feel that we should route it back to the planning department and have them render a review of the C1 alternative and bring it forward to us to consider in a more formal fashion. So I'll be voting no on this. Oh,

thank you, John. I'm supportive of Larry's recommendation. I think that having a better review from the plane department, having the opportunity to review as a C1 and having plane commissions vote on it would be more appropriate. Craig Hansel.

Okay. Um, I'm basically just going to repeat what we talked about in the work session. Um, I've talked to Mr. Callahan at length. Um, you know, it to me it's just semantics. Tangent to adjacent to. Uh, I think that Lakeshshire offers a distinguishable boundary between commercial and residential. Um, you know, and I and I hate saying no, but sometimes you just have to say no. Um, you know, This is the type situation that got me involved with politics. I built the biggest house I ever had and uh a developer came in behind me, a street behind me and wanted to build a giant monstrosity of apartments. Um and that didn't sit well with me. So this really hits close to home for me. Um you know this will be the domino that falls that creates the trend throughout. Um you know when they purchased their home 12 years ago um you know it was set in stone residential uh estate. Um I'm sure they never even considered having some kind of commercial anything to them. And the problem I have with commercial is that we don't know what it is and we can't talk about that and I understand that. And so we can we we really can't get into the semantics of all that stuff or the details of that. But uh to me all the years that I spent in planning, this is spot zoning is is what it comes down to. There's legal avenues for the zoning that's already in place that the applicant could pursue. I'm not going to espouse the benefits of STRs, but that is a legal pursuit that

everybody in the state can take. Um, I just don't see it fitting well within the neighborhood. And I have to live with the choice of who gets penalized is is kind of how I frame it in my mind. I I would hate to take away uh 12 years worth of work and care of their property and because I I I would say with almost certainty that if they put their house up for sale with any kind of commercial development next door to them, the first question that's going to get asked in that driveway, do you want to live next door to that? So, that's my struggle. Um, I applaud the initiative or the the desire to uh create a retail space. Um, and before I get pigeonhold for being anti- business, um, that's not the case at all. But like I said, I don't think this is technically in a commercial area. It's still in a residential area. And I think that uh there's other avenues that could be pursued. So I'll be voting though.

Thank you, Travis. Yeah, I'd just like to reiterate something we talked about in the work session as well. We heard from the planning director and she assured us that the C1 was more in line with what the city's 2040 plan had in store. So I just wanted to reiterate that. I think we have a motion and a second on the amendment to refer C2 to instead of reszoning to C2 to go to C1. Yeah, that's the current motion. Okay, we'll have a roll call vote on that motion to amend. Council members Hughes.

So, just for clarification one more time, I'm so sorry. This is purely on the motion to amend, not to approve. Okay, perfect. Yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, no. Isbel, yes. Honel, no. Harp, yes. A motion to amend carried uh 4 to two. So, the ordinance is amended. The proposed mayor's proposed ordinance at this point, you're now on you're continuing to be on second reading. uh with the proposed ordinance as you have just amended it. So you could continue debate on that or further motions.

Wendy question. Um Mr. Williams, did you want a motion to move this back to the planning commission? Do you want a motion to move this back to the planning commission? Refer it back to planning commission to evaluate C1 as an alternative. Uh, I think we are in agreement that that might be an acceptable possibility, but it would be up to planning to review it. Would you like to make a motion to do that?

Um, I need to have something here as a proposal. you you need to it what you can do is you can move to refer this item to the planning commission for further study um regarding the potential C1 zoning and and then that would clear it off of your docket for now and then it would be in the planning commission's hands to bring something back to you in the future at an unknown time. I I would move to uh refer this back to planning for further review. The planning commission, it's clearance planning commission referring to the planning commission

uh with a consideration for the C2 zone C1 zoning uh and then bring back a recommendation to the council subsequently. Second. Mayor Saw allows you to do that. That'd be a proper motion. Yeah, that's a motion by uh Larry Wilm, second by Wendy Hughes. Any more discussion? Travis? Yeah. Could somebody explain to me the process of that? Does he have to reapply to get in front of the planning commission? Does he have to uh pay another fee?

No, no, no, no, no, no. This this whole thing just goes back gets put on the planning commission agenda and they are going to have further deliberation. There won't necessarily be another public hearing. There won't be applications. There won't be costs associated to the developer or to the applicant I should say uh in any way. There is an uncertain timetable. That's the only thing that there is unknown is the timetable. That was a good question. Uh Shay,

um I just want to say I don't support turning it back over to the planning commission. I think we have enough information. Um, I think we've heard from the property the neighboring property owners and the property owner himself on multiple occasions and uh I think if you read the information available to us on what the impacts of a C1 reszone would be, there's plenty of information about what would be allowed there. So, I don't support prolonging this process. Larry, I guess I'd like to review a little bit the possibilities in in the C2 uh C2 zoning and even in the C1. Um it allows for a mixeduse building there in either way, C1 C2. It allows for multif family dwelling in there. It allows for town houses to be put in there. It allows for retail stores, which is what the applicant has sub submitted. uh as his idea of use there, but that's not a commitment. Uh a restaurant proposal, a tavern or bar, a short-term rental, uh a financial institution, uh a uh studio uh for music and other things, a clinic, an animal, uh boarding facility. How would you like to have an animal boarding facility come in there with dogs barking all the time? as an example that's permitted in C1 and C2. Uh vet services and u a recreational facility uh and uh which could include outdoor outdoor activities at night uh and also outdoor um dining. So all of those are

permitted in both C1 and C2. For that reason, I would am asking that it be referred back to the planning commission for reassessment. Craig, uh Craig, did you want to say something? Okay, Shay Newport,

I just have a question for Mr. Kelly. If the planning commission had wanted it to be C1, is that something they could have actioned while they had it? uh they they could have denied they couldn't really make that change. Uh they could they make a recommendation to you. Um they they could have recommended not to go C2 and they would think C1 would be better but they it wouldn't necessarily change the application. If assuming they had not approved that then the developer comes in to the owner applicant comes in to appeal that decision uh with their application request and then you all consider that. So no uh but but the commission could make recommendations to you as part of their charge at any stage.

Uh Travis, so I I talked to the one of the planning commissioners and uh he had conveyed to me that if if the applicant had applied for C1, he would have supported it. uh personally not speaking for the entire commission, but and uh to Larry's point, I mean, I understand there's some things that could be put next door that would be uncomfortable, like a dog barking. It would be much similar to having a neighbor with a dog that's barking. So, um but I I agree with Shay. I don't think there's a need to send this back. I'm ready to make a vote on it.

I think everyone's spoken. So, we have a motion and a second to uh refer it back to uh planning commission. So, we'll have a roll call vote on that. Whether uh yes vote means you uh want it to be referred back to planning commission. Okay. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, no. Wilms, yes. Isbel, no. Hunchel. No. Harp. No. Was that a no? It's a motion.

Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't. Yeah. So, that motion failed. So, mayor, you you're still on second reading for further debate or further motions. Jay, motion to approve the amended ordinance. Second. Well, don't we have to go to third and final first? You you would you would have to suspend the rules and go to a third and final reading. Sorry. Motion to suspend the rules and move to a third and final reading. Second. That was Shay Newport and Travis Harp on any discussion on that. Okay.

Well, go ahead, Greg. Before we do though, you know, I would like to see this go to third and final because I would like to see every single one of you guys go out there to the property and see exactly how close and see I mean what that impact could be.

Exactly. I mean, I would absolutely encourage you guys to go out there, have a conversation, see proximity-wise how disruptive I mean, I don't even know how disruptive it would be trying to fill a 40ft hole with traffic moving through through Lancshire. I mean, so there's there's a lot of stuff to this. Um, I'll gladly go to third and final, but I would encourage everybody to to visit with the neighbors. That's all I have to say about that. Wendy is

if you haven't done a site visit, I highly recommend it. Um, it's eye opening and I've only been able to talk to one of the neighbors. The Calahanss weren't available when I was there. They talked to the other neighbor um at length and so I definitely would prefer everyone to do a site visit first and actually lay eyes and walk it. Well, you can't really walk it. Travis. Yeah, I'm perfectly fine with voting no on the suspension of the rules and uh adhering to that advice. So I withdraw my motion. Motion can be withdrawn if the second is also withdrawn. I withdraw. Okay.

So mayor, you're now you're now on second reading for further debate or I can move to third reading next month.

Okay. Thank you. So I take it we're okay with going going next month going to third third and final. Okay. So we'll go to third and final that has been amended to see one. Okay. A new business, an ordinance amending section 16-41 permit required of the code of ordinances of city of Bella Vista to provide for more streamline renewals of short-term rental permits and staff requests move the third and final. Others some discussion of this last time Wendy.

Oh, I was going to motion to suspend the rules and go to third and final. This makes total sense. Second. That was Wendy Hughes and Larry Wilms. Any discussion? I I guess the I don't know why we have to process an ordinance to do this. It would seem common sense that it would be implemented as an administrative function, but apparently it was not. Um and so we have to address a problem uh with an ordinance amendment and I fully support it. Okay. Uh, we have a motion second to go to third and final. Uh, roll call vote. Suspend the rules and go. Suspend the rules and go to third and final.

Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Isbel, yes. Hel, yes. Harp, yes. Motion carried six to zero. I'll read it for a third and final time. Amending section 16-41 permit required of the code of ordinances the city of Bella Vista to provide for more streamline renewals of short-term rental permits. Recommend approval. Second. That was Larry Wilms and Craig Honchel. Any more discussion? Hi, Travis.

I just want to thank the staff for working with me on this and supporting this. So, I don't know if Taylor is in here, but thank you if you are. Okay. Uh, roll call vote. Council members Hughes, yes. Sorry. Yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Isbell, yes. Honel, yes. And Hart, yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Next one is a resolution is approving and adopting a fee schedule for city of Villa Vista planning and development related permits and applications. We had some discussion of this at the work session and uh there's a chart kind of laying out what cities around us have done and what ours used to be and what is proposed that it be in the future. Is there any discussion? Uh Travis? Yes. So, anytime that we were asked or to to adopt an ordinance, we were repeatedly told that the city council sets the fee because I remember asking on multiple occasions, well, what is the fee in mind? And we were always told the city council sets the fee. You guys will decide the fee at a later tight. Uh we didn't decide any of these fees. So, I feel like I was misled and so I'm just going to vote no on this. Well, you're deciding them now, I guess.

Well, I'll decide no then. Yeah, Shay, I was just going to remind the council that uh last Monday Taylor had suggested that this is a 33% fee recovery. Um that's the average across the board. I support not only a 33% uh recovery, but eventually moving to a scale of 100% recovery. Um, our government doesn't run on thoughts and prayers and hopes and wishes. It does require dollars to make all of this work. And I support uh funding these activities that are optional appropriately. Uh Larry,

I would tend to support Councilman Freeman's sentiment with the exception that if it's a non-t taxgenerating business, then it would be 100%. If it's a tax generating business, it would be uh Pratta shared because they're generating income to the city, paying the salaries already. So they should have a break in my humble opinion over what the full cost is. So I would differ in that respect. Craig Hansel. So how do we differentiate that between Mike? Mike. Oh, I'm sorry.

How do we differentiate that between STRs that are being built strictly for business? Could be houses but maybe business. That part of it we would not know in a single family res. We're we're putting gray area in it. We're building it in. Okay. That's that's really an unknown.

Well, I mean, I I'm in support of of what's being proposed. Uh like I said, or such there there's cost to doing business. Um, and before everybody paints it out to be that I'm trying to hang money on everybody, uh, you know, we're following, I think, part and parcel to what other communities are doing, trying to recover, uh, you know, that's common business practice, efficiency, six sigma, you know, etc. So when you can identify those inefficiencies and and cost and try to rein those in and uh make it make sense and this would be something that I think uh people could refer to and see exactly where that money is going. This this makes it makes sense where the dollars are being spent and why. So with that being said, I'd be in support of this. Okay, I think we have a motion second. So, we're ready for roll call vote.

Motion to approve. Oh, okay. Second. Shay Newport and Wendy Hughes. Sorry about that. There we go. Okay. Okay. Roll vote. Uhhuh. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, no. Isbel, yes. Hansel. Yes. And Harp. No.

Motion carried 4 to2. Next one uh is a resolution awarding bid and authorizing a contract with GL Stabilization International in amount of $225,335.82 82 plus an additional 20% project contingency for a total amount not to exceed $270,42.98 for Oldham Road slope stabilization and repairs and amending the 2025 city budget. Uh we had some discussion at the work session. Dan Downing's here if you want him to go over it some more or Wendy.

So, the mayor and I had the privilege of being on the streets committee and been get to hear Karen and Dan talk about this for several months, probably a year, year and a half now about identifying the issue and trying to come up with solutions that will be cost-effective and workable for our residents opposed to closing the road down. And so, I want to applaud them for their work on this and for their dedication and making sure that we are getting this taken care of for our citizens. It's been a long time coming and I'm glad to see it go forward. Shay Newport.

I also want to thank the street department for their work on this. I commute down that road daily and uh there's a big dip that that uh shakes my car every morning. So really looking forward to getting this resolved.

Larry Wilms. Um I I have a question about the project itself. Um uh the we we actually were fortunate when you look at the list of biders and uh three out of the four bid uh and the successful bidder was uh left a lot on the table. Um which I really am a little surprised about but that that's not unusual with construction projects. They either have more experience or more knowledge about doing the project as it's required. I do have some questions for staff. So, if uh if Dan is here, is Dan here? Yeah, he is.

I probably should have asked these questions, Dan, at our work session, but I I didn't get a chance to fully review the whole packet. So, uh, what I understand is that they're doing three rows of the nail soil nail u wall construction. So, will those be is that at three trenches then where they they're all individually drilled in and concrete anchored posts every 5t in spacing. It's anchoring down an uh fabric mesh that holds that back. It's not a wall.

So, how is the mesh installed? Do they dig a trench uh to put the mesh into that? These anchors hold uh h how is that what's that process? It's at the surface level. The mesh is the what? The mesh is at the surface level currently. So they it says it goes in at a 15 degree angle. Yep. They'll be working from the roadway. So it'll be like be like they'll drive the So they'll pre-drill, drive the nails in, mortar them in, and then the fabric gets fastened to those at the current ground level and then everything's reestablished within that dip zone.

So the they show a 4 inch, if I'm reading this right, a 4 inch diameter casing. Uh, so if they put the grout in the casing, uh, is the casing going to slip on the soil? No, the casing goes down to the current bedrock. It goes down to the bedrock. And so does that nail go into the bedrock. Okay. And then it gets fortified with the the mortar and then it gets filled with a with a a mortar pumped in locking it in. Yeah.

Okay. So that's how you anchor that nail, if you will. It's into bedrock and you mortar it in. So that's how it stays. Uh and the concrete ring around it will keep it from moving up and down in the ground or sideways as the case might be. And then do they dig a small shallow trench? Then these things can't be at the surface. These the nail heads can't be at the ground level. They have to be underneath the pavement somewhere. So, are they in the subgrade? None of this is in the pavement area. Huh? None of this is in the pavement area. None of this. It's 12t.

The fabric is 12t wide and they are actually off the side of the It's going into the side of the slope. So, it's off the edge of the roadway. So then I asked the question uh why do we need to defer traffic um around the section if they're not going to do anything in the road?

Because everything will be performed from the roadway. The roadway itself will also be utilized as the staging area. And once all that soil nailing is completed, the roadway itself will be dug out, the uh subgrade reestablished and the road repaved in that section. So So in your your opinion or in your consultant's opinion, even one-way traffic with flag control is not a viable. It'll just complicate the process, not much more. Okay. All right. It's better to be a one and done thing. Okay. All right. And has this been done elsewhere?

Yes, this actual geostabilization, they actually have an ongoing contract with AR dot and uh they've sent us over some very similar repairs that they've done for AROT as well. So, they're very familiar. They're you're talking the contractor or the engineers? The contractor. Contractor has done this before. stabilization in Arkansas. Yep. For our in a similar process as we're asking for. Mhm. And that maybe enable them to have given us a better bid. Yeah. They're well verssed in this line of work.

Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Wendy. Motion to approve. Second. That was Wendy Hughes and Larry Wilms. Uh, roll call vote. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Bow, yes. Hansaw, yes. And HARP, yes.

Motion carried six to zero. Thank you for that. Next one is a resolution approving amounts of leans to be certified to the Benton County tax collector against certain real properties as a result of grass cutting expenses and abatement of other nuisances by the city of Bella Vista. And uh we need to have a public hearing on this. So if there's anyone in the public who would like to speak about this matter, you may come up and and speak. Mayor, I just want to state for the minutes that u the affected property owner received lawful notice uh of the hearing at this in conjunction with this meeting and uh legal requirements have been met regarding notice to that person. Mayor, if no one is wanting to appear for the public hearing, you can close the public hearing and then move forward.

Okay, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing and move forward. Is there any further discussion? Uh Larry Wilms. Um in in looking at the lawn cutting at this site, the first one was like six weeks between 1 and 2, then about a month, then about a month, but it ended in August. And my question for the chief is did the grass stop growing that we didn't have to mow it in September, or did the owner pick it up? I know the owner did not pick it up. I can't tell you whether or not we know we didn't. So, did we miss the boat and asking for another mowing?

I can't answer that question. I don't know. Okay. It's just a No, I know. I know my grass didn't quit growing in September. So, keep in mind it would have to get over 10 inches tall each time before we could cut it. Yeah, I I realize, but if it they cut it at 10, do they cut it at 10? Yes, it has to be over 10 inches tall before it's in violation. Well, but do when they cut it, do they cut it down to a normal height or do they cut it at 10 inches? I would have to assume they cut it to a normal height. I haven't asked them specifically the length that they cut it to. Is there anyone has a thought about this? It seems like a silly question, but uh it does,

but but but but it's a silly it's a silly situation. And and so are we are we being uh inappropriately severe or inappropriately unsure to a property owner who doesn't maintain their yard? I'm not sure how to answer that. Mayor, I don't think we're being inappropriately severe. Uh Travis, uh Larry, I think you might find it helpful if uh if Chief would share the pictures of the property with you. I I couldn't share it with you. it would be a foyer violation, but I I did get them. So, it was helpful for me to make my decision on this.

So, in in in the future, and I I appreciate council member Harp, he asked me for some pictures. I believe to yesterday or today, I was able to get them pictures. In the future, I'll include pictures to all council members when we when we submit this stuff for approval just so you can see uh the grass and and it was extremely uncapped. I'd say the pictures I sent you were over 10 inches. And so to to clear this up in the future, we'll make sure that we get some initial pictures of the grass um before we start cutting it. And it and it begs the question, I guess lawns can be 11 in tall or 10 in tall uh if they have a what is it? A the monarch butterfly thing.

Yeah. A special a special turf uh that they're growing there. It's not a lawn turf, but it's a special, if you will. This this was just unkempt grass and weeds. Anna,

I don't know that we're being too severe or not severe enough, but I think that it's inconsistent to that this is the only is this the only one for the year 2025 that we have are having an issue because I drive all over Bella Vista and I see plenty of unkempt places. I see unckempt businesses. I see unckempt homes. So, I think it's very inconsistent. I'll be voting no. Not because I don't think that it's okay for this individual to not keep their lawn. And it's unfortunate that we actually had to use taxpayer money to to mow the lawn. But I think that it's very inconsistent that this person was um not not targeted but you know held to this standard while many many others are not. So, if I could comment on that, I have I have three code enforcement officers that enforce all the codes in in the entire city of over 33,000 people in almost 50 square miles. And so, we really act upon complaints. And so, I'd love if you see those lawns, if you complain to us, we could act upon them. Um, I know there's other other lawns out there that are in violation, but if we don't receive a complaint and or happen upon it ourselves, then it just doesn't get addressed. Shay Newport.

Were there other lawns that were mowed uh as a result of code compliance, but perhaps those property owners paid their invoice?

So, I I know in the past, we have a feeling because we haven't brought one of these to city council for for years, years, and years. I think in the past, the prior uh uh director of the uh the community development, they may have mowed them and not brought this forward. I just don't know. That's a suspicion that the current uh director has. Um I do know now that the code enforcement is under the police department. We are addressing this. I know that we have mowed some more uh that will be brought in front of council next year, but this is the only one this issue that we've we've had the complaint against and it was severe enough and and we addressed it. I mean it's 10 inches. So that that takes a while. So a lot of the stuff you might see might be six or seven or eight. I don't know. But I mean 10 inches is quite unkempt and it takes a while to get there. it takes probably probably a couple three months uh when during the growing season to get there. So, um um I I just can't comment otherwise. I know there's other violations in the city. If people please complain to us, we'd be happy to address them, but again, I have three code officers addressing a lot of different violations for different things in the city. Uh and so we really need people to complain to us that it's happening uh so we can address it. Sorry, I just want to clarify though that this is because the property owner received an invoice and failed to pay, right? It is entirely possible that someone else could have had their property serviced and if they had paid the invoice, it wouldn't have reached this step. Is that correct?

Well, off the top of my head, I don't think we've had to mow other people's we haven't had a situation that I can recall uh since code enforcement's been with the police department that we've mowed a a lawn and then they've paid the invoice. Usually we go to them, we we say, "Hey, your lawn's you're unkempt. Uh there's unsightly things on your property." We work with them and then they get it taken care of. Uh in this case, it just was never taken care of. We just couldn't get a hold of the the owner of the property. This property also, just so you know, it appears to be almost abandoned. No one lives there. Um um so we we tried to even get a hold of um a daughter of the property owner and she just basically said she wants nothing to do with it to leave her alone. And so there was really nobody else who who could take care of this property. So we took care of it. I I I'm I assume that we'll see many many more of these annually as as the years go on because now we have the process in place to address it and I'm sure I'll get more complaints about this this sort of stuff. Javvis. Well, I want to go on record and make a complaint about Lancashire and Bellis the way right behind Cafe USA. My second complaint.

Okay. But I I support this and I understand that this is this is important. So this will have my vote. So Okay. I'm accustomed to seeing 300 to 400 for a community our size of lists of properties there, but I come from the north country, so most of those were not lawn cutting. It was snow removal on sidewalks. So, it's a whole different story, but it's the same same process. Uh, I would make a motion. Well, go ahead. If there's no more comments to be said, I would make a motion to approve.

Second. That was Larry Wilms and Travis Harp. Uh, roll call vote. Council members Hughes, no. Newport, yes. Wilms, yes. Isel, no. Honel, yes. Harp,

yes. A motion carried four to two. Thank you for that. Uh next one is a resolution setting the meeting schedule of the Bella Vista City Council for calendar year 2026. I want to point out that uh Glenda Kellerman uh didn't feel she could make the one change that was requested. And I did put a date in for the uh work session for the budget. I put Tuesday, December 1, which is similar to what we did this year. I didn't want to do Monday. You know, Monday's kind of logical because we're used to Mondays, but it's right, it's the first day right after Thanksgiving weekend next year. So, I thought it was a little dangerous. So, I'll put Tuesday in. So, everything else is what you saw last week. Wendy,

thank you for recognizing that change and making it happen for us for the budget meeting and motion to approve. Seconded. It was Wendy Hughes and Shane Newport. A roll call vote. Council members Hughes. Yes. Newport. Yes. Wilms, yes. Isbel, yes. Hansel, yes. Harp, yes.

Motion carried. And next one is a resolution establishing salaries for mayor, city council member, and city clerk to begin January 1, 2026. I want to give a little uh explanation about this. This is just a proposal because it's up to city council. Um, the way we've done this in the past, our employees, we try to compensate them and compete head-to-head with Bentonville and Rogers and Springdale and Favville. Compete with the big boys. In other words, in the case of the elected officials, we use a completely different philosophy. We identify what those cities have done and we purposely try to do something significantly less because we're a smaller city. It's just a little different philosophy. So, uh that's how we do it. Now, these proposals and this sheet I passed out today was just because the pageionation wasn't very it's the exact same proposal for city council. We propose 7%. This is the reasoning. The elected officials haven't had a change in in two years. And the city employees got 3% in 2025 and now they're getting 4%. And that's everybody. That's the least the least. A lot of people got would get more than that for various reasons. I got promoted or maybe they did some of those things on that sheet I passed out to you. You know, different things like that. So, every employee got 7% or better since city council's had a raise. So, uh I proposed 7% for city council because of that. And actually, if you get a 3% raise one year and a 4% the next year

because of compounding, that's a little better than 7% after two years.

Take a 100, multiply one by 1.03, 03 and then take 103 multiply by 1.04 and you'll find you come out with le a little more than 107. So what I propose for city council is actually slightly less than what any employee got because of compounding. So I proposed 7% for city council, 7% for the city clerk and you also saw the comps on city council. uh you're quite a bit under uh all the uh larger cities and if I can take a step back I've had experience that city council sets their own pay and I find people are very reluctant to give themselves raises and uh just the opposite of what the citizens might think. So that's one reason why I made a proposal kind of egg you on a little bit, but it was constantly a problem with our last council, people arguing against things, whatnot. So that was the rationale. Now on city clerk, there aren't very good comps because some people have full-time city clerks, some people have part-time, some people have city clerks that do almost nothing, just very little minimum. So, uh, you know, I think our city clerk does great. And incidentally, she doesn't report to me. She reports to the people because she's elected by the people. But, uh, you know, she's very dedicated. And I think she does a great job. And even though there's no comps, it was pointed out to me that in the state of Arkansas, people have full-time city clerks pay them 63,000 on average. So, if you're working 20 hours a week, she's working actually slightly more than that.

31,500 would be rash. Plus, the full-time is getting benefits. Our city clerk doesn't get medical benefits. So, this amount seems very fair. Even with the 7% increase, she's still below that number. So, that was the rationale for that. So on the mayor, um, I proposed 5%. And I purposely wanted to have a number that was lower than every single person. That percentage increase is lower than every single employee, everybody on city council, the city clerk, everybody. And that was purposeful. And uh I wanted to point out during that same time period uh the 5% raise inflation was 5.3%. According to social security it was 2.5 one year 2.8 2.8 the next. So and one last thing it just happened for uh there's a benefit for the city. I don't have uh medical insurance for the city and that's a savings of a little bit more than $12,000 for the city. And most of those mayors I'm comparing to which uh make significantly more from the big cities, but most of them probably do have medical insurance. So the gap's even bigger than it looks. Looks like the gap is 20 or 30,000. So that's my story. So it's up to you guys. And we did have a couple people uh give amendments and uh you may want to have some discussion about different things. So have at Jay, thanks for explaining your rationale, especially since we weren't able to talk about this at last week's work session. Um it's good to hear, you know, kind of your monologue of of what's going on

here. I do just want to point out that while I appreciate the savings for the health benefits um that that you're passing on, we I I feel compelled to remember that uh the mayor is subject to change and that they future mayors could enroll in health benefits. Is that correct? Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you. Uh Wendy. Hey. So, I did propose an amendment. If that's okay, can I discuss it now? Sure.

Okay. Perfect. So before I go into the amendment, so I do understand the intent of the resolution with the pay increases like Shay, I don't quite understand why it was not presented at the work session. Um the table is very helpful with comparable salaries with the larger communities. Unfortunately missing missing from the table is the budget from the other cities. Um, so our budget is about 24 $25 million where Bittenville is 88 million, Rogers is 75 million, Springville 74 million, and Fateville's $254 million. Um, to be a little more comparable budget-wise, P Ridge has a budget about $24 million. Their mayor makes $100,000 and their city council makes $200 per meeting. I do believe that the clerk's position believe deserves at minimum a 7% increase in raise. Um, you deserve all the good things in the world. You work so hard and do such impeccable work for our community. Thank you so much. Um, I can't speak on behalf of the other city council members, but I do know that this council is more responsive and is more proactive than previous councils have been. Um, when he mentioned earlier that other councils have maybe voted against the raise increase in the past, that was me. I was I was that person voting against my own raise. Um, but I can talk about my own workload. So, I know that I, like my other council members, attend the monthly meetings and numerous special meetings that we have. I know that we all respond to the emails, texts, and calls from citizens while I'm also practing people on social media with their needs that they have. I know that I personally have meetings and conversations with department heads and with Blue Crane regarding sitting issues. I know that I am a member and I attend the meetings of the streets committee and the AMP commission on my own time. I also spend hours a month hosting monthly town halls for our

community to have civic engagement. I am working hard and I deserve to get paid. But I am doing this because I want to do good and not because I want to make a profit. So, I am proposing an amendment that would give our clerk a 7% increase, but would limit the mayor and city council's pay increase to being no higher than the base percentage that that the staff will receive if the 26 budget passes. And like I said earlier, I've hoped that my colleagues would vote for my amendment. Um, but like in 2020 uh three when I voted against my own raise, I will be voting for my amendment but being voting against my own raise and increase. Um, so don't be surprised when that happens later.

Anyone else want to discuss? Sure, Travis. Yeah, I I like this amendment. I think it's a good idea. That was my hesitation with the raise is that uh we didn't give the city that big of a raise and I'm not willing to take a percentage that's larger than what the city employees took. So, I support this amendment and uh I won't entertain my amendment.

What was that? So, the thrust of Wendy's amendment, I think, is uh that the city clerk gets 7% and the mayor and city council gets 4%. It's whatever. I've heard conflicting about the actual increase. I've heard it's 3% cost of living base increase plus a 1% performance increase. So whatever the base is. So if it's 3% that's why I'm proposing but not to exceed what the base increase would be for staff.

So just to clarify if I may there were two two amendments submitted oh by HAP and by Hughes. Um okay. All right. I guess Harp's not proposing his, right? Yeah. Yeah. I also want to say that thanks Wendy for getting the the budgets of those other cities and I would just like to point out to everyone and the council that those cities have businesses that are generating sales tax. We don't have that yet and we need more of that. I'll just like to remind everyone of that. And

by adding a business license, you're going to and generally promote more businesses to come to Bell Vista. Mr. Bayer. Uh, Greg, to that end, just so everybody knows, this city is developed. I mean, it's fully laid out, developed, planned. Is that correct? Yes. Uh, Jason, it isn't all built out, but it's certainly all accounted for and subdivided and restricted and and practically. So, it's a challenge. We've got empty subdivisions is what we have.

Yes. So, I know it's pie in the sky to sit here and say bring all the retail. We are limited to the nodes on our 2040 plan. Is that what we're up to, Taylor? 2040. Yeah. So, I just want to point that out because that keeps getting brought up like we're restricting businesses somehow and we're not. We don't have a place to put them. That's the way it goes. Shay, at the risk of losing the plot, um, all the other cities that we have comped to here have business licenses. So, and they have businesses. So,

Mr. One thing I would ask um because I didn't even know that we were going to be discussing salaries or anything. Is this anything that we have to vote on tonight to adhere to a timeline for something to kick in by a certain time or is this something that we can bump into next month and have an actual conversation about instead of kind of Well, uh uh one logical time to have a conversation would be December two when we're meeting about the budget anyway. Well, I mean it affects our budget for next year, so it would be helpful. Well, that's what I that's what I'm getting at is

we'd like to have it finished yet by the time the budget's finished. And we're actually voting on the Well, we're scheduled to vote on the budget on December 15. Yeah. So, that that's I didn't know if we could roll this back to a You could go anytime up till then. Up till December 15th. Okay. Shay, I have a question for Mr. Kelly. Um, is Council Member Hughes language actionable and and acceptable? The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of of naming a a certain percentage, which I do empathize is tricky since the budget isn't set. But um are you happy with this language?

Well, I I wrote it, so I'm I'm well pleased. Um no, let let me just um so the way this will be read, because if you approve this amendment, you're adding a section to the bottom of the current proposed resolution. So if you have your current proposed resolution there in front of you um

it's got a section one and then it's got the amounts and then section two talks about the the benefits restrict qualifications are the same. So then uh what it says in section three, notwithstanding the salary amounts stated in section one, the salary increases for the mayor and city council members established in section one shall be limited to an amount not to exceed the percentage increase approved for base city staff pay in the city's adopted 2026 annual budget if said percentagebased city staff pay increase is less than that provided for mayor and council members provided herein. So if you don't you haven't adopted a budget yet. There's a plan of what it would be, maybe even an understanding of what you're intending to do, but you haven't done it yet. Someone can roll in here and say it's going to be 10% staff increases. Well, that that that's not going to increase the mayor and council 10%. It would it would just go up to what's in section one. Whereas if you keep it at four, you know, that's going to come down off of what's in section one to the current amount plus 4%. So

I think it would be a lot simpler to name a number. That's why we did that in the first place. Travis, I'd like the motion to table this to a next work session. Well, you can't table to a work session, but you can table it the next month. You certainly can talk about it at the work session. Like table it to whichever one I can appropriately do. So you we don't we we I'll motion to table this to next month's council meeting. Okay. He should.

Okay. The the amendment has not been moved and there's not been a second on the amendment. So, I just want to make sure you understand procedurally that you would have you would have a vote on the whether to amend it and then you would still have a final vote on whether to adopt the resolution or potentially consider other amendments. But he can just vote to table it till the next meeting. Sure. And then you could amend it at the next meeting if you want. Certainly he could. Those options are open is what you're saying. Yes, sir.

So, you want to make your motion? I did and I had a second. Second. Uh, okay. Motion by Travis to table it to the next meeting and second by Craig Hunchel. Uh, roll call vote. Council members Hughes, yes. Newport, no. Wilms, yes. Isbell, no. Honel, yes. Harp, yes. Motion carried four to two. Okay. Uh

question. Yes sir. Uh relative to this last item l um can we amend the agenda for the budget review to include this as a topic since we will have a council member attendance there you the budget meeting is a work session. Oh so there's not going to be an opportunity to formally adopt anything at that budget meeting. So I guess the answer would have to be no. So you could call a special meeting to consider this one item, you know. So

immediately after your budget work session or immediately before that just for convenience. So so practically after the work session is done, can we convene a council meeting special meeting? At this point the council has voted to table it till the next till next month's regular meeting. So that's done at this point. Is that was that the language? Okay. So, it will be as all of the items for next month will be on the work session for discussion and then the next week for final action. I think this could have been avoided if we had this information in the work session in the first place. Yeah.

Okay. Uh it's time for announcements. Next city council work session is 5:30 p.m. Monday, December 8th at Bell Vista District Court. Next city council regular meeting 6 p.m. Monday, December 15 at Bella Vista District Court. Planning Commission work session 4:30 p.m. November 27 is cancelled. Planning Commission regular meeting 4:30 p.m. or immediately following BZA Monday, December 8th, Bel Vista District Court. Board of Construction Appeals, 3 p.m. Tuesday, December 9, if necessary, at fire station number four, conference room, 1639 Forest Hills Boulevard. And I'd like to add that there's special budget work session on Tuesday, December 2:30 p.m. Is that at district court or training room?

Believe it's in the training room. Yeah, at the training room across the hall here. So if there's not anything else, meeting is adjourned.