FAYETTEVILLE — Talk of pursuing an injunction to block the Walton Arts Center’s expansion outside the city may have been squelched following opposition from the mayor, Chamber of Commerce and a local labor leader earlier this week.
City Attorney Kit Williams, on Wednesday, was drafting a different resolution, he said, would seek a commitment from the arts center to maintain a certain level of programming at the center’s facility on Dickson Street. Details of the resolution were still being finalized Wednesday. Williams said it could be considered by the City Council as soon as Dec. 21.
Arts center staff have said despite its board’s decision to locate a 2,200-seat performing hall in Bentonville, Fayetteville residents could expect a high level of performances to continue on Dickson Street along with additional programming at a new, 600-seat theater in Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas’ Barnhill and Bud Walton arenas and the Arkansas Music Pavilion in northeast Fayetteville, which is being purchased by the arts center.
Williams has said he is not so sure.
He offered his legal opinion to Mayor Lioneld Jordan and the council last week that the city may have legal grounds for fighting the arts center board’s decision, based on a 1986 agreement that established the arts center’s board and foundation as “agents” of the city and University of Arkansas.
Adella Gray and Brenda Thiel, Ward 1 alderwomen, have said they would consider pursuing an injunction, but, Gray said Wednesday, she wouldn’t do so without majority support from the City Council.
At least two council members have clearly said that they are not on board.
“The horse is out of the barn,” said Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Ferrell. “I see no merit in pursuing legal action.”
Jordan also made his position clear in response to a letter sent to him Friday from David Gearhart, University of Arkansas chancellor.
“I agree with you that a lawsuit against a board of volunteer citizens would be counterproductive, and it would not be in the best interests of the city of Fayetteville, our vibrant arts community or our creative economy,” Jordan said in his response. “It could jeopardize fundraising and delay construction of the additional 600-seat theater space on the current WAC campus and other improvements in the Dickson Street area that link our city and the university.”
The Chamber of Commerce’s board also issued a resolution Monday calling litigation “counterproductive,” and Stephen Smith, president of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council, wrote Jordan on Tuesday, saying it would costs workers in the building trades “hundreds of jobs.”
Gray said the resolution Williams was drafting Wednesday was an attempt to look out for the best interests of her constituents.
“I just want to do what we can to ensure the types of the programming that we have in Fayetteville,” Gray said. “If we have good programming here perhaps we won’t feel a great sense of loss (with the arts center expansion outside the city).”
Williams said the resolution would attempt to renegotiate the city’s lease agreement with the Walton Arts center considering the potential for new facilities.
Jodi Beznoska, spokeswoman for the arts center, said staff members had not been a part of conversations with Williams about potential litigation, and she said any notion the Walton Arts Center would reduce its level of programming in Fayetteville was unfounded.
“Our plans are to have the facility here in Fayetteville busy, full and successful,” Beznoska said. “There isn’t a business model for the WAC that makes sense that includes these spaces not being successful.”
Williams maintained a legal case could be against the arts center’s expansion, but, he added, “It’s up to the mayor and City Council to decide if they want to go forward. They don’t have to assert their legal right if they don’t want to.”