Week of December 13, 2021
💡 Big topic this week: Council (and the CivicLex Weekly) are on recess
Readers, it's been quite a year! We've so enjoyed refining spending the past 11 months with you, refining this newsletter, and building something we're very proud of.
This will be the last of our CivicLex Weeklies for 2021. Council is on recess, and the CivicLex office will be closed from December 17 through January 3. The next CivicLex Weekly you'll get will be on January 10.
Before we go, though, we have a favor to ask! If you've enjoyed this newsletter (or haven't), would you send us a quick reply letting us know why you have found it helpful (or haven't)?
If you reply, we'll use it for evaluation purposes to help us understand how to build a better CivicLex Weekly next year. Also, let us know in your reply if you're ok with being directly quoted in our Annual Report talking about the CivicLex Weekly.
We've covered a lot this year, including COVID-19, Accessory Dwelling Units, Redistricting, ARPA funds, and much, much more. We hope to grow our newsletter in 2022!
🗞 Updates from last week:
Redistricting
On December 7, the Urban County Council gave second reading to an Ordinance to adopt the recommendations of the Redistricting Commission.
The measure passed unanimously through the Council, and the new districts are already in effect.
In a Committee of the Whole just an hour earlier, Council considered options to delay the enactment of the new districts.
Ultimately, despite several Council Members disapproving of the new maps and the process, the new map was approved.
ARPA
On December 9, a Committee of the Whole advanced several ARPA projects for consideration in January. Here they are:
$5,000,000 for investments in the arts, including $200,000 for an Arts and Cultural Master Plan
$4,000,000 for additional investments in homelessness initiatives
$150,000 for a city-wide study on sidewalk ADA accessibility
$25,000 for a greenspace project in the Eureka Springs neighborhood
Lastly, CM Jennifer Reynolds proposed advancing $10,000,000 to implement planned sidewalk improvements along the Versailles Road Corridor, but its advancement was postponed.
Council has set its next ARPA Committee of the Whole for Thursday, January 14 at 3pm. The City's Administration will create a framework for making final approval decisions on the remaining ARPA funds between now and then.
This framework will likely include considerations like cash flow, alternative funding streams, feasibility, and more. As always, find up-to-date information on ARPA funding on our website and in our ARPA database.
Sustainable Growth Task Force
This was one we missed in the newsletter. Sorry about that! In a meeting on Thursday, December 9, the Planning Commission unanimously adopted the Sustainable Growth Task Force's recommendations as part of the 2018 Comprehensive Plan.
Who is Running for Office?
We have new candidates who have filed for elected office! You can find our candidate listing page here - we plan to update it every week. New candidate filings are below.
District Council Races:
District 8 - Current CM Fred Brown has filed to run for reelection.