# City Resolution 16671 The executed [[City of Little Rock]] Board of Directors Resolution **No. 16,671**, adopted 2025-04-29, authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the Special Warranty Deed conveying Port Authority land to [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]]. This is the Tier-1 executed instrument that the earlier-produced [[City of Little Rock Willowbend Resolution|draft template]] became, and the deed's reciting condition under Ark. Code Ann. § 14-54-302. ## What's inside - 8-page resolution with the executed signature page on p. 8 — Mayor [[Frank Scott Jr]], City Clerk Allison Segars, and City Attorney Thomas M. Carpenter signed; the signature page is dated as part of the 2025-04-29 adoption. - Sections 1 through 4: deed-execution authorization (Section 1); Purchase Agreement ratification (Section 2); severability (Section 3); repealer (Section 4). - A full metes-and-bounds legal description in Section 1, plus six numbered parcels (Parcels A: 188.63 ac; B: 81.20 ac; C: 41.09 ac; D: 36.34 ac; E: 23.73 ac; F: 1.28 ac), totaling ~372.27 acres of the ~385.16-acre overall description — substantively identical to the description in the [[Port Authority Land-Sale Resolution]] adopted the same day. ## Key takeaways - **Resolution Number: 16,671.** Adopted 2025-04-29 — the same day as the [[Port Authority Land-Sale Resolution|Port Authority's Resolution 0429221]] and the City's MOU resolution. The three resolutions form a single 2025-04-29 action package by which the City and the Port jointly authorized the disposition. - **The City explicitly invokes § 25-19-105(b)(9)(A) inside the resolution itself.** Page 1 recites: *"a copy of the Purchase Agreement has been delivered to the City Clerk the terms and conditions of which have been reviewed and approved by the City Board of Directors but are not open to public inspection pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. Section 25-19-105, including subsection (b)(9)(A)."* This is the City's own statutory predicate for keeping the underlying Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement out of public inspection. [[Bryan Day]]'s morning 2026-05-26 cover note invoking the same exemption tracks the language the City itself put in this resolution — explaining why he treats the (b)(9)(A) framing as boilerplate template (see [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records]]). - **Statutory authority on the City's side.** Recital on page 2: *"before the City can alienate any interest in property, as demonstrated by the execution of conveyance documents by the Mayor and City Clerk, it is required by Ark. Code Ann. Section 14-54-302 that the City Board of Directors adopt the resolution authorizing such action."* Resolution 16,671 is the § 14-54-302 instrument the [[Willowbend Capital Warranty Deed]] recites. - **Purchase Agreement is custody-of-record at the City Clerk.** The City Clerk's office holds the Purchase Agreement under the (b)(9)(A) exemption — the same Purchase Agreement [[Bryan Day]] confirmed in his 2026-05-26 afternoon follow-up is not in the Port's files. The Clerk's custody of the document is a documentary anchor not directly accessible under FOIA via the City but is itself a known location. - **The right-to-shrink provision.** First page recital: *"under the Purchase Agreement, Purchaser has the right to not acquire portions of the Real Property that are deemed to be unnecessary or not acceptable to Purchaser."* This is the contractual mechanism that explains the gap between the Port resolution's 400-acre ceiling, the City resolution's ~385.16-acre description, and the deed's ultimately conveyed 383.52 acres. - **Signatures.** Mayor [[Frank Scott Jr]], City Clerk Allison Segars, and City Attorney Thomas M. Carpenter — the same three officials who would later execute or counsel on the June 24, 2025 deed. The OCR-rendered "Approved as to legal form" line is partly garbled but the Carpenter signature block is intact. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[City of Little Rock]] — adopting body. - [[Frank Scott Jr]] — Mayor; approval signature. - Allison Segars — City Clerk; attest signature. - Thomas M. Carpenter — City Attorney; legal-form approval. - [[Little Rock Port Authority]] — the City instrumentality whose land is being conveyed. - [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]] — the Purchaser counterparty (the resolution names "or its assigns"). ## Concepts invoked - Ark. Code Ann. § 14-54-302 — the City's resolution-authorization predicate for alienating real property. - Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-105 and (b)(9)(A) — invoked by the City itself to keep the underlying Purchase Agreement out of public inspection. ## Events documented - The 2025-04-29 adoption of Resolution 16,671 — the previously-implicit-but-now-anchored City Board action that the deed recites. ## Cross-references - [[City of Little Rock Willowbend Resolution]] — the previously-produced unexecuted draft template; this executed Resolution 16,671 is the operative version. - [[Port Authority Land-Sale Resolution]] — the Port-side counterpart adopted the same day. - [Little Rock resolution and MOU](../../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/www.littlerock.gov/willowbend-capital-mou.md) — the third 2025-04-29 City action (MOU approval), already archived as a primary public record. - [[Willowbend Capital Warranty Deed]] — the deed Resolution 16,671 authorizes; recorded 2025-06-25 as Pulaski County Instrument # 2025033561. - [[2026-05 Little Rock Port Authority Produces Project Boar Records]] — the event page for the FOIA exchange that surfaced this resolution. ## Open questions / follow-ups - **The Purchase Agreement under (b)(9)(A) custody at the City Clerk.** Resolution 16,671 confirms the Purchase Agreement has been delivered to the City Clerk and is being withheld under the (b)(9)(A) exemption. Whether the City would produce the Purchase Agreement under a FOIA — particularly post-closing, when the bidding-stage rationale has weakened — is an open question. A targeted FOIA to the City Clerk for the Purchase Agreement, framed around the post-closing collapse of the (b)(9)(A) "give advantage to competitors or bidders" rationale, is a candidate next step.