The Arkansas Municipal League Guidebook encourages council members in Arkansas’ towns to learn how best to adopt bylaws, make motions, design ordinances and approve resolutions by the use of objective, fair language. Council members are urged to learn how to make these rules clear so a town’s residents might have the chance to understand what they must do to avoid breaking a law.

Writing an ordinance might not seem so difficult from the public’s view. However, to make all the words come together as sentences to describe what a resident should do in a certain situation takes much work. To write objective laws means to write them without bias and make them based on fact. Council members should use observable criteria and provide a distinct, provable and verifiable line by which to judge whether someone steps across a law’s limit, thus breaking the law.

How do council members make fair and objective laws for those they serve?

The first step should be to read and comprehend chapters II and III in the Arkansas Municipal League Guidebook. It explains procedures a council should use to pass laws and hold meetings. To pass good laws, the guidebook explains, the council should follow specifi c proceduralrules and use proper methods to pass ordinances and resolutions.

As unique as each Arkansas town is, the guidebook explains to council members: “Your city and its residents you represent are no exception.” It goes on to explain how the city council must first agree on their rules of procedure: “Rules of procedure are guides to the generally accepted way that things get done” (Guidebook, chapter II, page 9).

By design, good rules of procedure should include getting public input for debate on how best to “facilitate the transaction of public business” (Guidebook, page 9). The public then knows how leaders carry on their town’s business “in an orderly way,” Guidebook. That way when the city council meets in regular sessions, special sessions, public hearings or work sessions, city offi cials as well as city residents know what to expect and the procedures they can use to voice their public opinions.

Chapter III, page 10 of the Guidebook explains “proper ways to pass ordinances and resolutions.” There it lists two ways a “city or town council” can take official action, by “passing a resolution and/ or ordinance.”

“A resolution, explained on page 10, “is an expression of the will of the council. Resolutions voice the council’s opinion on various matters. For example, supporting or opposing legislation pending at the State Capitol. Resolutions usually affect items of a temporary or administrative nature, such as letting contracts, approving large purchases or entering into agreements with other governmental units. A resolution is the official expression of the council and may be adopted by the council at one reading” (Guidebook).

The proper procedure for adopting an ordinance is different from a resolution. The Guidebook on page 10 defines an ordinance as “a local law that usually regulates persons or property and usually relates to a matter of a general and permanent nature.”

The Guidebook explains how ordinances are more formal and solid than a resolution. Therefore, the Guidebook reads: “We recommend your city attorney approve the structure and content of all proposed city ordinances.”

The Guidebook lists six rules council members should remember to use when writing and passing ordinances: 1. Ordinances must be reasonable. 2. They must not be oppressive. 3. They must not be discriminating or partial. 4. They must not undulyrestrain lawful trade. 5. They must not violate civil rights. 6. They must not be ambiguous.

It then explains how passing a typical ordinance involves three steps taken at three different regular council sessions, if not an emergency. The “fi rst month’s step,” the Guidebook reads, “is the introduction of the proposed ordinance at a council meeting. The second month’s step is to allow for

the city clerk’s, recorder’s

or attorney’s reading of the

ordinance. This is followed

by allowing the person(s)

proposing the ordinance

the opportunity to explain

its provisions. Third month’s

step, the council debates the

ordinance and then defeats

it, postpones it, refers it to a

committee for study, or ap

proves it. It is then signed by

the mayor and attested to by

the city clerk” (ACA § 14-55-

201 et seq.).

Council members should,

“Remember that all ordi

nances of a general or per

manent nature must be read

fully and distinctly on three(3) different days [usually three different regular meetings], unless two-thirds of the members of the council shall suspend the rule” (ACA § 14-55-202). However, an emergency clause for emergency situations requires a separate and distinct vote of the council and is valid only if there is a two-thirds vote of approval by the council” (Ark. Const. Art. 5 Sec. 1).

“All ordinances of a general or permanent nature and all those imposing any fi ne, penalty or forfeiture must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in those municipalities wherea newspaper is published. However, the law provides that in municipalities where no newspaper is published, a written or printed notice posted in five (5) of the most public places (designated by ordinance or minutes) shall be sufficient publication of any law or ordinance” (ACA § 14-55-206).

Mayors and council members can obtain additional and more detailed information about resolutions and ordinances from the Municipal League Handbook, Title 14, Chapter 55, Subchapters 1-7, available at the Arkansas Municipal League website.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 11/13/2013