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Pine Bluff civil service commission abolished legally, court says Friday, May 30, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A simple majority vote by the Pine Bluff city council was enough to abolish the city's Civil Service Commission, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The decision reversed a ruling by Jefferson County Circuit Judge Robert H. Wyatt, Jr., who said the council needed a two-thirds majority to abolish the panel. The high court ordered a hearing in circuit court to consider other issues not ruled on by Wyatt the first time. "I think it's a very sound opinion," said Mark Hayes, an attorney for the Arkansas Municipal League, who represented the city of Pine Bluff in the case. "We're very pleased and we're ready to move forward." In Thursday's nine-page ruling, the court said state statutes allow for a city to abolish a civil service commission with a simple majority vote. A two-thirds vote is needed, along with just cause, to remove individuals from the commission. Referring to previous case law, Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber wrote that the state Supreme Court in 1983 "held that 'the removal of one or more commissioners for cause cannot be equated with the abolishment of the commission itself, although it has the obvious effect of separating the commissioner from the office he holds. But he was not removed, the office itself was terminated.'" The Pine Bluff City Council in April 2007 adopted an ordinance abolishing the Civil Service Commission by a 5-3 vote along racial lines, with all five black aldermen voting yes and the three white aldermen voting no. Later in the year, Wyatt voided the ordinance, saying two-thirds of the council was needed. The city of Pine Bluff appealed, arguing state law allows a city to abolish its civil service commission by a voice vote and two other issues: that abolishing the commission complied with the due-process requirements in the U.S. Constitution, and that police officers and firefighters do not have a contractual right to a commission. In a unanimous opinion, the court ruled only on the first point, whether state law allows a city to abolish its commission by a voice vote. "The Pine Bluff City Council was free to abolish its civil service commission by majority vote," Imber wrote. The court ordered the two other issues back to circuit court for consideration. |
