Mayor to deliver state of city address Jan. 30 – Arkansas Times

In a meeting of the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. told directors that he’ll be delivering his State of the City address at Heifer Village on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m.

Scott gave his first State of the City speech on March 28 last year at Horace Mann Middle School, after less than 100 days in office. Since then, many of the goals Scott shared in his first speech have come to fruition, including the creation of a citizens review board for police misconduct, a revised “no-knock” search warrant policy for the Little Rock Police Department and the hiring of Jay Barth as Little Rock’s first chief education officer. 

As part of the consent agenda for next week’s meeting, directors will consider a resolution that allows the city to contract with PepsiCo as the “exclusive” beverage provider for all of Little Rock’s parks and recreation facilities. This service includes vending machine items and concessions operations. The Parks and Recreation Department issued a Request For Proposal for “pouring rights” for its parks and facilities in August 2019, and PepsiCo was the chosen bidder. If directors approve the resolution at next week’s meeting, Parks will contract with PepsiCo for five years with an optional sixth-year renewal, and the company will pay the city $20,000. Combined with other fees, a cash support and a marketing fund, PepsiCo has pledged a total of $206,870 to the city, to be paid over five or six years.

The consent agenda also included a resolution that sets Tuesday, Feb. 18, as a public hearing for the city’s potential issuance of up to $51.4 million in Water Reclamation System Revenue Bonds. Little Rock’s Water Reclamation Commission, which oversees the city’s Water Reclamation Authority, said it needs the revenue to make improvements to the Water Reclamation System in order to continue to comply with state and federal environmental standards.