After an opening parade of landlords and tenants representing both sides of a proposed ordinance to strengthen rental agreements in the city, it was time to finally put or shut up. The 3rd and final reading of the ordinance took place, but not before the author, council member William Fells told those in attendance the council had listened to all parties and made significant changes. Some of those included lowering the fines that could be assessed to landlords and even going as far as instituting a tiered fine schedule. Also strengthened was the requirements for tenants, making it easier to evict. But in the end, the ordinance went down to defeat by a vote of 5-3. Steven Mays was tentative about voting for the ordinance, but joined Lynette Frazier and Fells supporting it. There was no further discussion and the meeting rolled on.
Toward the end of the meeting was the moment that a lot of people wondered about. Would Mayor Vivian Flowers address the giant elephant in the room that has been dominating the news cycle that even the New York Knicks couldn’t wash away. That issue is the drowning last Wednesday at the Carl Redus, Jr. Aquatics Center. Flowers had not made a public statement since the drowning and was unable last night to still use the word drowning, still referring to it as an incident.
Those FOIA requests have come fast and furious from Little Rock television and Deltaplex News. Our latest was to see the lifeguard schedules for Monday and Tuesday, the two days preceeding the drowning and for Wednesday morning. This to compare what is a normal schedule to the day of the drowning. Deltaplex News has reached out to the family members of the drowning victim, Iredell Collins to conduct an interview, but has they have not returned messages at the point. While we feel the family does need some level of privacy, they have also said that cannot get answers from the Mayor, who has taken the point on the investigation, the Pine Bluff Police Department and Parks and Recreation. Deltaplex News will be filing a FOIA request on Tuesday with the Arkansas Department of Health, who spent two days compiling a report. We will continue to update this story.
