About as quickly as they were installed, new parking meters in Eureka Springs, Arkansas are causing controversy for the city.

Late Friday, a petition of civil suit was filed against the mayor and the city council.

"I was a bit surprised when I got wind of what the lawsuit entailed, that we were being personally sued to recoup the 40-thousand we spend on the parking meters and the installation costs," said alderman James DeVito.

He says the council's actions to hold an emergency meeting and approve the purchase of 86 parking meters was necessary.

"We had been having an ongoing problem with these machines. They would go down, unfortunately, pretty regularly," said DeVito.

He's referring to the city's old pay stations, which are now replaced with change machines for the new meters.

However, the suit claims the city was in the wrong by not allowing a city-wide special election or by opening up the competitive bidding process.

"We've been empowered by their votes to do their business, and we felt it was well within our authority to go with this remedy.  Otherwise, we would have been losing thousands of dollars per week," said DeVito.

The city of Eureka Springs says parking meters bring in about 200-thousand a year for police and fire protection.  That's money it simply couldn't do without any longer.

People living in Eureka Springs have mixed opinions about the parking meters, but the lawsuit isn't much of a surprise to anyone.

"Not at all.  Not in Eureka.  Any opportunity to sue somebody, it seems like they are going to do it," said resident Jerry McGoven.

McGoven says he sees both sides of the issue, and knows people against the meters, but wants to keep things in perspective.

"It doesn't matter to me.  I don't care.  I like to put money in the meters, and I feel like I need to do my part to support the city any way I can," said McGoven.

We attempted to contact several of the people listed as plaintiffs in the suit, but everyone we reached said they were unavailable to make comment on the matter.

It's still unclear whether the suit will remain targeted at each individual council member or whether it will end up merely a civil suit against the city of Eureka Springs.