Rogers Public Art Commission Holds Inagural Meeting

ROGERS -- The Public Art Commission met for the first time Thursday.

The commission consists of five voting members and four advisory members who are city staff. The five voting members are Bill Schopp, Roger Reithemeyer, Jennifer Hatfield, Bryan Harvey and Kelli Roberts. They were appointed by Mayor Greg Hines and approved by the City Council on Oct. 28.

Hatfield's term will expire Oct. 28, 2015 and Reithemeyer's Oct. 28, 2016. Schopp, Harvey and Roberts' terms will end Oct. 28, 2017.

The four advisory members are John Burroughs, museum director; Andrea Britton, assistant parks director; Ed McClure, historic district commissioner; and Derrel Smith, city planner. Hines designated the advisory members.

"We are non-voting members of this committee," Smith said. "We are here to give advice."

Harvey was absent at Thursday's meeting.

The goal of the meeting was to establish rules and appoint officers, said Chris Griffin, city attorney.

Reithemeyer volunteered to serve as the commission's chairwoman for its first year. Hatfield was appointed to the vice chairman's position and Roberts to the secretary position.

Griffin walked commissioners through its bylaws. He also explained how the commission's business is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Reithemeyer asked about the artist application process and if the commission needed to develop a written application.

Griffin said he could draft an application as well as contracts and bring them to the next meeting for review. Changes could be made if needed before adoption, he said.

Griffin said he could email drafts before the next meeting to get feedback.

"Feel free to comment to me, but do not comment to each other," he said, referring to the Freedom of Information Act, which requires communication between commissioners to be done in an open, public forum. "If I send it out to you all in an email, do not hit 'reply all' and start talking about it. Just reply to me."

Griffin explained the ordinance was formed in a "bit of a vacuum," and can be amended as needed.

"If we find something that's unworkable or too burdensome or cumbersome to deal with, we'll certainly take it back to the council and have it amended," he said. "We'll just sort of have to work with it as we go along."

City Council created the Public Art Commission on Aug. 26.

Commissioners set the next meeting to be at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 15. They will meet at least once every three months.

"It kind of depends on what we start seeing," Smith said. "If we have no applications, there's not a big reason to meet every month, but if we start getting applications in, we may want to have monthly meetings."

Rogers is the third of Northwest Arkansas' four largest cities to create a Public Art Commission. Fayetteville created its Arts Council and Bentonville created its Public Arts Advisory Committee in 2007.

Bentonville installed its first public art this year along the North Bentonville Trail.