City officials in Little Rock want to increase contract transparency

Little Rock, Arkansas – Following difficulties resulting from a postponed music festival this year, Little Rock’s vice mayor wants to increase openness for city contracts up to $50,000.

Lance Hines stated on Tuesday in the late afternoon that he intends for this ordinance to uphold the Mayor’s guiding principles of accountability, clarity, and transparency.

A month after the cyberattack, some county offices in Arkansas are still unresponsive.

According to him, the rule will only improve the way the board approves contracts worth $5,000 to $50,000.

Hines argued that he sought change because the board was not involved in contracts like Litfest.

Ken Richardson and other board members, however, had other opinions.

“We have been circumvented in that regard and you know if you look at contracts that we looked at that we felt like we had been circumvented, total about a quarter of a million dollars over the last 4 years and we just feel that we needed input,” said Vice Mayor, Lance Hines.

“I know in matters of information requests in the past, based on this process that I responded to. We haven’t had any type of change in respect to the clarity of this process. So, I will choose to vote unequivocally, no,” said city board member, Ken Richardson.

Hines emphasized the importance of the word transparent, particularly in light of the contract for Litfest, which was slightly under $50,000.

If Hines’ first prediction came true, this would be placed on the Dec. 20 agenda if the supermajority vote was not obtained.

The vote passed with a supermajority, hence it was decided to put it on the agenda and vote to approve it at a later meeting.

It was approved eight to two, therefore it is now in force.