LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — In the last regularly scheduled meeting of the year, the Little Rock board of directors met to pass the budget for 2025.
However, it is now delayed.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr. was visibly frustrated after some directors said the budget wasn't ready to be approved.
Director Kathy Webb first started with a question to the city attorney clarifying when the deadline is to get the budget passed. Arkansas state law said the deadline is February of next year, but according to the city attorney, going into the new year without passing the budget would be rare.
"Y'all have always done December 31st since I've been here. But that has been an obligation you placed on yourselves," said Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter.
Then, some directors explained why they said no to passing the budget.
"I do not feel we are ready to vote on the budget. We have not had an open discussion in front of the public about this," said Director Joan Adcock.
Director Dean Kempuris added he didn't feel comfortable voting on the budget when the firemen contract was still being negotiated.
According to Mayor Scott, the police and fire contracts for 2025 are still being negotiated, but he said that's typical and the budget still got approved in previous years.
"The city has had this on the agenda for several weeks. It appears we are invoking something that hasn't been done ever before because we never have a contract signed prior to a budget," said Mayor Scott.
The city will have a specially called meeting on Wednesday afternoon. However, they don't expect to take a vote on the budget until possibly sometime in January.