Mayor Butch Berry called the Eureka Springs City Council back to the table last Wednesday morning for two special meetings in his effort to get his proposed one percent sales and use tax on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Berry said after reviewing recently passed Ordinance 2244, he and his staff decided it was necessary to amend the passage in Section 5 which stated “to fund the City’s Water and Sewer infrastructure’s maintenance, repairs, improvements and operation in an amount equal to three-fourths (3/4) of the revenue.” He wanted to omit the word “operation” because he intends the revenue from the tax to be used for fixing the city’s infrastructure, not hiring new personnel. He wanted to ensure future mayors did not interpret the ordinance differently.
Council approved all three readings of amended Ordinance 2244 plus the emergency clause.
Berry pointed out a special meeting can have only topic, so the first meeting was adjourned and a second one opened to consider Ordinance 2245 which called for putting Ordinance 2244 on the Nov. 8 ballot and included the language which voters would see on the ballot.
City Attorney Tim Weaver told council county election officials were not satisfied with the language that would go on the ballot, “so we expanded it to cover ourselves better.” He said the change explains better what the election is about and “adds details to the title to make us more bullet-proof.”
Again council approved all three readings of the amended ordinance plus the emergency clause.