Little Rock City Director Ken Richardson was a no-show at a virtual meeting of the city’s Board of Directors on Tuesday despite previously seeking authorization to attend sessions electronically.

City officials made Tuesday’s agenda-setting meeting a virtual session on the heels of a major winter storm in Arkansas.

Richardson, 59, has not attended meetings since May 2024 after facing a serious health crisis, although he and others have not fully explained his health issues or offered a timeline for when he might be able to return.

After Richardson missed a series of meetings in 2024, the city issued a statement Aug. 1 of that year acknowledging that Richardson had undergone multiple life-threatening surgeries and was hospitalized.

Since 2007, Richardson has represented Ward 2, which encompasses a southern section of the city around Scott Hamilton Drive, Geyer Springs Road and Baseline Road.

His latest four-year term expires Dec. 31, 2026, having been reelected in 2022 without an opponent. The Ward 2 seat will appear on the ballot during the November 2026 election.

Richardson was the only one of the 10 city directors who did not appear via teleconference during Tuesday’s meeting.

In March 2025, the board voted to do away with the virtual-attendance procedures that had allowed members to attend meetings electronically during the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent period.

Several months after the board changed the rules, a new Arkansas law took effect that requires members of municipal governing bodies to attend meetings in person unless the governor has declared an emergency.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Jan. 22 in anticipation of the winter storm.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Frank Scott Jr. in late October, Richardson asked to attend meetings virtually, citing the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city’s Human Resources Department later asked that Richardson and his health care provider complete paperwork detailing his request for reasonable accommodation under the law.

The board typically meets every Tuesday, alternating between formal meetings in which action is taken and agenda-setting meetings in which officials review the agenda for the following week’s meeting or discuss other policy matters.

To date, board members have not been presented with a measure that would authorize Richardson to attend meetings virtually as a disability-related accommodation or for other reasons.

In December, the board rejected a measure sponsored by City Director Lance Hines of Ward 5 that would have called on Richardson to resign. Scott spoke out against the proposal and had pledged to veto it if it passed.

City code lacks provisions that could lead to Richardson’s removal from office based on nonattendance.

Last year, an effort by some of Richardson’s constituents to gather enough signatures from Ward 2 residents to initiate a recall election fell short. At the mid-December deadline, organizer Pam Noble said they obtained fewer than 500 signatures out of the nearly 1,400 required to trigger the election.

John Brummett

jbrummett@arkansasonline.com

John Brummett’s career in news began when he was in high school, as a part-time reporter for the Arkansas Democrat. He moved to the Arkansas Gazette in 1977.

He wrote a political column for the Gazette from 1986 to 1990. He was an editor for the Arkansas Times from 1990 to 1992.

In 1994, his book, “High Wire: From the Back Roads to the Beltway, the Education of Bill Clinton,” was published by Hyperion of New York City. He became a columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1994. In 2000, he signed a deal with Donrey Media Group, now known as Stephens Media, and wrote for them for 11 years.

He rejoined Democrat-Gazette as a columnist on Oct. 24, 2011.