Arkansas Reporter
THE
INSIDER
A city inspection of the Union Rescue Mission at 3000 Confederate Blvd., which the city has purchased for future use as a day resource center for the homeless, has turned up a number of code violations that needed Day immediate attention, officials confirmed. The city purchased the building for $210,000 on Aug. 30, concluding a transaction approved by the city Board of Directors in June. Its total budget for purchase and upgrades is estimated at nearly $600,000, if an anticipated contribution comes through from North Little Rock. The funding derives from $290,000 in CDBG grants, $175,000 from the state, $8,000 from a special account and North Little Rock’s anticipated third of that total, Assistant City Manager Bryan Day said. That would leave a little less than $400,000 for improvements. Day said the city is addressing “life-safety issues” first, the most significant being that there is just one set of stairs to the third floor, which had been serving as a sleeping area for Union Rescue Mission clients. At the city’s instruction, that floor is now closed off. The city is also installing emergency lighting in the building, adding smoke detectors and adding two fire doors to the basement, which is also a dorm. Dr. William D. Tollett, executive director of the Union Rescue Mission, said the building, built in 1929 and occupied by the mission since 1949, had been grandfathered in and as such was not out of compliance. As a new owner, the city had to bring the building up to code. Day said the city, to save money, is using a lot of its own employees to upgrade the building. The mission will lease the building from the city for the next 12 months (with an option for a 12-month extension) for $3,000 a month while it raises money to build a new facility on Confederate. The city plans to open its day resource center in January; it will have 1,500 square feet for exclusive use on the first floor and will share another 6,000 square feet with the mission, though the CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 10 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 ARKANSAS TIMES
BRIAN CHILSON
Repairs begin on Union Rescue Mission
BUCKNER: Says she hears more good than bad.
Nobody likes to see her coming Tax Collector Debra Buckner faces off with delinquents. BY DOUG SMITH
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ot only is Pulaski County Treasurer Debra Buckner not going to resign, as a (formerly) delinquent taxpayer recently demanded, she says rather convincingly that she barely notices such comments. That’s because she hears far more in the way of approval. Tax delinquents, newspaper columnists, and anti-government types may complain about her tax-collection procedures, Buckner said in an interview, but “The people who get this money applaud — the public schools, the library, the hospitals, the city and county governments.” So do almost all of the common citizens she hears from after she’s made a delinquent come across
“I have a lack of compassion for people who evade taxes because they think they can get away with it, for blatant and repeat offenders.” in public. “I hear constantly, ‘If I pay, everybody should have to pay.’ At Wal-Mart, at church, I hear that all the time.” Comments to the Arkansas Times blog were mostly along the same line, after Buckner’s latest well-publicized confrontation with a business owner who was behind on her taxes. Generally, the county judge and the
sheriff are the only county officials most people pay attention to. But every so often, Treasurer Buckner barges onto page one and into the 6 p.m. newscast. That happens when she personally goes to a delinquent taxpayer’s business, accompanied by the media she’s invited, and demands that the offender pay up. The offender does, usually with an embarrassed statement that it was all just a mistake. But the owner of Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Darla Huie, exchanged sharp words with Buckner before writing checks to Saline County, where the restaurant was formerly located, and Pulaski County. Later Huie issued a statement calling for the resignation of Buckner and Saline County Collector Joy Ballard, who accompanied Buckner to the restaurant. (In some counties, the offices of collector and treasurer are separate. In Pulaski County, they’re combined.) Huie said in her written statement, “The women (Ballard and Buckner) conspired to contact the media, using misleading press release statements to mobilize both electronic and print media outlets, admittedly to embarrass and humiliate us, personally and professionally, as an ‘example’ to others.” Buckner cheerfully admits that she often invites the media to accompany her on “site visits” to businesses to collect delinquent taxes. As far as she knows, she started this practice in Arkansas, and “The media visits have become something of a phenomenon. … I think collecting taxes is harder in the smaller counties. They go to church with these people.” “I have a lack of compassion for people who evade taxes because they think they can get away with it, for blatant and repeat offenders,” Buckner said. The collection of delinquent business taxes is a six-step procedure, and the procedure covers a year, Buckner said. It starts with a “phone-call blitz” from the collector’s office to the delinquent taxpayer. Then there’s a letter from the county attorney, the sheriff serves a writ, Buckner makes a site visit, postcards are sent to everybody who’s delinquent on business taxes. Finally, Step 6 is the seizure and sale of the business’s assets. “We can’t padlock the door, but we can sell everything they own,” Buckner said. (Business taxes are paid on assessed assets, that is, inventory and everything else it takes to operate the business. Real-property taxes are a separate matter with a separate procedure.) Nobody’s ever taken a swing at Buckner, but at least two people from the collector’s office go on every site visit, just in case. “I CONTINUED ON PAGE 18