Court Opinion

ID: 7823907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 18:02:36.443905+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:48.625312
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. My dissent is based primarily on Amendment Fourteen to the Arkansas Constitution which reads in its entirety as follows: The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special act. This amendment shall not prohibit the repeal of local or special acts. The amendment is short and simple. There is no need to resort to complicated rules of interpretation. As we have stated so many times statutes are to be construed in accordance with their plain and ordinary meaning. This makes sense. Why complicate a statute by reading in all sorts of exceptions in order to accommodate special situations. That is exactly contrary to what the people of the state of Arkansas expected by the adoption of Amendment Fourteen. I disagree with the majority in upholding this special and local legislation especially when it has already been expressly or impliedly repealed. In addition, I believe the majority opinion errs in excluding the proffered testimony of Ralph Patterson and Kathryn Hinshaw in its entirety. The Policemen’s Pension and Relief Fund was first established by Act 250 of 1937. Act 250 provided that cities with 16,000 or more inhabitants shall add to such funds ten percent (10%) “of all fines and forfeitures collected by the police department of such city for violation of city ordinances . . . .” The act did not provide an exemption for any city. Act 206 of 1959 created an exemption for the city of Little Rock from paying into the policemen’s pension fund ten percent (10 %) of all fines and forfeitures collected by the police department for violation of city ordinances. Section 2 of this act in part provided: “any city that now has, or hereafter has, an assessed property valuation in excess of $80,000,000” is exempted from adding to the policemen’s pension fund the ten percent (10 %) of all fines and forfeitures collected. At the time of the enactment of Act 206 the exemption applied only to the city of Little Rock. The exemption, created for the city of Little Rock, had the effect of severely underfunding the pension plan between the years of 1959 and 1981. By 1981 the policemen’s pension plan for the city of Little Rock was not financially able to meet the pension and retirement benefits according to state standards. This sad state of affairs is more proof that local and special legislation is generally unwise. Had the city of Little Rock not obtained passage of Act 206, exempting the city from paying some of the funds required to be paid by other cities, the Policemen’s Pension and Relief Fund for the city would no doubt have been in a stronger financial condition. The legislature attempted to correct this mistake by enactment of Act 486 of 1981. This act increased the amount of money added to the fund by the city through contributions collected from forfeitures and fines, and deleted the special exemption for the city of Little Rock. The act mandated that all cities add to the fund the ten percent (10%) of all fines and forfeitures collected for violation of city ordinances and state laws. Act 486 followed word for word, with minor changes, Act 250 of 1937. It is apparent that the legislature did not feel the need to specifically state that “the exemption is no longer applicable to the city of Little Rock.” Act 486 was expressly made applicable to all cities. Section 2 of Act 486 of 1981 states: “Section 2 of Act 250 of 1937, as amended, the same being Arkansas Statute 19-1802, is hereby amended to read as follows: Section 2.....” Act 486 then reenacted Section 2 of Act 250 essentially as it was originally enacted with two exceptions: the 10 % of fines and forfeitures was expressly extended to include fines relating to state laws as well as city ordinances; and no cities were exempted from any of the provisions of the act. The 1981 act concluded by stating: “All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.” In spite of this clear and express language, the city of Little Rock continued to evade its duty to follow the law and provide for proper and adequate funding for its police department retirement benefits. For its failure to do the just and right thing in the matter, the city argues that its own “special exemption” had not been expressly repealed by the 1981 act. It became apparent to the General Assembly that the city of Little Rock was not, under any circumstances, going to comply with the 1981 act, even though the city had to be aware of the serious financial plight of the policemen’s pension fund. In obvious disgust with Little Rock’s continued defiance of the law and neglect and abuse of the retirement benefits for its policemen, the General Assembly enacted Act 690 of 1987. This act states: “The third sentence of Section 2 of Act 206 of 1959 as amended, the same being Arkansas Statutes 19-1802.1, is hereby repealed.” There is now no escape from its legal and moral obligations because the third sentence of Act 206 was Little Rock’s own special exemption from fully and fairly contributing to the policemen’s retirement fund. Although this exemption had been at least impliedly repealed in 1981, it cannot now even arguably be said that the exemption still exists. Unfortunately the pension plan has deteriorated to such an extent that the plan will not be adequately funded for several years. Hopefully the fund will be able to provide all of the benefits which will be required. However, this would currently not be a problem had the city simply complied with the 1981 act as was intended. All other cities having such a plan complied. The adverse consequences of the 1959 act and the financial condition of the policemen’s pension plan should have been examined by the trial court. The testimony of Kathryn Hinshaw, the executive director of the pension plan, should have been admitted. The majority states that “it is impossible to tell from the proffered testimony whether the Little Rock fund suffers in terms of soundness because of the exemption.” Why else would the Little Rock fund be financially unable to meet retirement and pension benefits? The proffered testimony of Ms. Hinshaw was directly on point. There are four sources from which contributions are made to the pension fund. These are: (1) deductions from the policemen’s salary, matched by contributions from the municipality; (2) fines and forfeitures for the violation of state laws; (3) millage levies; and (4) ten percent (10%) of the fines and forfeitures collected by the police department for violations of city ordinances. The city of Little Rock has contributed to the fund through all of the above except number (4). Therefore it is only logical that its failure to pay the ten percent (10%) is the reason the plan is underfunded. The city of Little Rock has since 1959 not been paying ten percent of the fines and forfeitures collected. Now the policemen’s pension fund needs an additional $1.4 million per year to meet adequate funding requirements established by state standards. The plan is primarily underfunded because special and local legislation has exempted the city of Little Rock from paying the ten percent (10%) of fines and forfeitures which all other cities have been required to pay. The testimony of Kathryn Hinshaw would have enabled the trial court to have made this determination. Also, the testimony of Ralph Patterson was relevant as to the history of the act even if inadmissible to show the intent of the legislature. It is unfortunate and disappointing that the state’s largest and wealthiest city has so woefully neglected and underfunded the retirement benefits for its policemen. I can find no rational state purpose for the exception created by the special and local amendment to the statute exempting Little Rock from paying its full share into the retirement fund. The only way to partially repair the damage to the policemen’s retirement fund is to require the city to pay the funds it illegally withheld during the years 1983, 1984 and 1985. Apparently the General Assembly has retreated somewhat from its foray into the special and local legislative field. Such ventures by the General Assembly in the past caused the people to rise up and pass Amendment Fourteen. Hopefully, it will not be necessary for the people to take similar measures once again. This court could help guide the way by strictly following Amendment Fourteen, just as it reads. Hickman, J., joins this dissent.