LITTLE ROCK -- The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed as moot the appeal by Greenwood of a Sebastian County Circuit Court ruling voiding annexation ordinances on the November general election ballot.
Greenwood appealed a ruling in October by Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh that the ordinances the city put on the ballot to annex eight parcels of land into the city were nullified by the fact that City Attorney Mike Hamby contacted at least four City Council members to discuss amending the ordinances.
Fitzhugh ruled Hamby's discussion of city business with individual council members outside an official meeting violated the open meetings provisions of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The council passed the eight ordinances, one for each parcel up for annexation, and the ballots for the Nov. 4 general election were printed with the eight ordinances included before Fitzhugh's ruling. Many voters still cast ballots on the nullified ordinances; each received more votes against than for.
Greenwood appealed Fitzhugh's ruling to the state Supreme Court, arguing that Hamby and the aldermen did not violate the Freedom of Information Act and asking the court to set aside the ruling.
Attorneys for the city also argued that Fitzhugh's voiding of the ballot questions was moot because the Sebastian County Election Commission was not included in the legal challenges brought by residents of two of the parcels, the Shadow Lake Property Owners Association, and Shirley Ann Walters and Jennifer Puckett, the trustees of the Bill and Shirley Walters Family Trust of 2007.
But Associate Justice Paul E. Danielson wrote in the court's decision that the election had already occurred, so any opinion the court would render would be advisory, which the court doesn't do.
"Generally, a case becomes moot when any judgment rendered would have no practical legal effect upon a then existing legal controversy," Danielson wrote.
Danielson also discounted Greenwood's argument Fitzhugh's ruling was moot because the city never brought up that argument at the circuit court level and never received a ruling on it.
The Greenwood City Council passed two of three readings of an ordinance that listed all eight annexation parcels on one ballot question.
But after Hamby consulted with the Arkansas Municipal League and then with individual council members, the council passed an amended ordinance on Aug. 12 as its third and final reading, even though it differed from the previous initial ordinance by listing each parcel as its own ballot question.
Six weeks later, attorneys for Shadow Lake and the Walters trust filed challenges to the council action in circuit court.
NW News on 04/10/2015