The statute the city used to annex a 621-acre area south of its corporate limits was subjected to further analysis Wednesday in Garland County Circuit Court, as the lawsuit challenging the annexation moved from the pleading to the oral argument stage.
The hearing on the city's dual-motion for summary and declaratory judgment saw attorneys for both sides in George Pritchett, Russell Skallerup and Bruce Mitchell v. City of Hot Springs restate positions argued in the numerous pleadings filed since the lawsuit was initiated Feb. 18.
Division 1 Circuit Judge John Homer Wright implied that he found the city's argument more convincing, telling attorneys that the affected area seemed to fit the situation the Legislature intended to address when it broadened the definition of enclave last year to include land bound by municipal territory on three sides and a lake or a river on a fourth.
Enclaves are unincorporated areas surrounded by corporate limits that a city's governing body can annex by a two-thirds vote of its members. The Hot Springs Board of Directors adopted an ordinance annexing the area Jan. 19. It was scheduled for an April 1 enactment, but Wright issued a stay pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
He didn't indicate when he'd make a ruling on the city's dual-motion but denied motions to consolidate the case with another lawsuit challenging the annexation. Wright said he may consider combining them for trial purposes, but that preliminary matters in the two suits would be decided separately.
"I don't want to read too much into it, because you never know, but it felt like he understood our argument at the very least, which is always a good sign," Arkansas Municipal League attorney John Wilkerson, who's representing the city, said of Wright's comments. Ben Hooten, attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment after the hearing.
Hooten's pleadings argued that the Lakeland Drive, Lake Hamilton Drive and Buena Vista Road areas aren't surrounded on three sides by the city, a position he reiterated during Wednesday's hearing. Wilkerson told the court the plaintiffs are construing the statute too rigidly, an argument he too has made in several earlier filings.
"The fact is this area is an enclave," he told the court. "If you interpreted it as literally as the plaintiffs wanted, it would create absurd results."
Hooten told the court that the city board's action disenfranchised residents who were brought under city authority without a say. Land can also be annexed by an election of city residents and property owners in the affected area or by a voluntary petition of residents who own more than half the affected area's acreage.
"The people did not get to vote," Hooten said. "It was decided by the city board, who are not elected by the people being annexed. There was no representation. There was no opportunity for them to vote for city board members."
Wilkerson said the residents had the opportunity to express their wishes to state lawmakers who amended the enclave statute.
"They have state senators and state representatives," he told the court. "The Legislature made this decision. To say that they now don't have a voice isn't accurate."
Citing a fire that evacuated a unit of the Village Square Apartments during the summer of 2014, Wilkerson said the improved fire protection that annexation would bring to the area justified the board's action. The Lake Hamilton Fire Department called on the city for assistance, which Wilkerson said was readily available as a result of the city's nearby Lakeshore Drive fire station.
He also said the area's proximity to Central Avenue, part of the police department's regular patrol area, positions police to respond to complaints sooner than sheriff's department deputies responsible for patrolling more than 700 square miles of unincorporated area.
"The reason enclaves are disfavored under law is because it creates a poor use of government resources," he told the court. "The city is the nearest governmental entity. It makes no sense for another governmental entity to provide these services."
Local on 04/28/2016