Quorum Court - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'm going to call the November 2025 meeting of the Washington County Cororum Court to order this evening. As you can see, we've got some dignitaries with us tonight, guests of honor here from the uh Land O Go Ocean Goan 4 club and a couple of those representatives tonight. Yeah, let's go ahead and give a round of applause. We open every meeting with prayer and pledge and a couple of these volunteers have volunteered to do that for us tonight. I think that's an awesome honor for us. So, uh, Miriam Calhoun and Mr. Dave David Anderson, if you guys would come forward, they're going to do the prayer and pledge for us this evening.

Yeah. If I could get your guys' attention for a second, I'm going to say a quick prayer. So, please remove your hats. Thank you, Jesus, for tonight and this meeting. Please watch over all that's happening in this meeting. Lord, please help to be very productive and please help us all to have a safe ride home in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

What an absolute honor and treat. Thank you, Miriam and Dave, for your uh wonderful welcome and invitation to this meeting. With that, we're going to move into the adoption of the agenda. Do I have any motions with regard to the agenda? Yes, sir. Motion that we adopt the agenda. Motion to adopt the agenda by Justice Eki. Second by J Justice Dennis. All those in favor? Those opposed? Do we have any preliminary motions this evening? Justice Dean is out. So, if somebody would maybe Justice Washington would go ahead and I move that all ordinances and resolutions be read by title. Justice Washington makes a motion that all ordinances and resolutions be read by title only. Justice Rio Stafford has seconded it. Uh all those in favor?

Those opposed? Uh ordinances and resolutions will be read by title only. Um item number five is a 15minute public comment period with a limit of three minutes per individual. Any public comments this evening? [snorts] When you come forward, please state your name and where you're from. Just for the record.

Thank you. And before you start my time, I do have copies. if you would. Uh, my name is David Baltz. Good evening to the court and thank you for the opportunity. I return a third time asking for action to be taken by the ordinances this court has taken an oath to uphold regarding the Steuart's family Christmas amusement park and Steuart family fireworks. First, I am here to give caution to that all justices, judge, sheriffs, and planning department have been placed on notice. You have been placed on notice that there is an illegal business operating within Washington County. Placed on notice that public safety has been put at risk by the illegal business's operations. placed on notice that Steuart's Christmas lights is an illegal business that is impacting quality of life for the citizens of Wyman Road. Trash, noise, light, and environmental pollution illegal business creates. You've been informed this amusement park is operating as an LLC with vendors, product for sale, admission, advertising, paid staffing, events, structures, multiple vehicles, and heavy equipment. Because you have been and are also now so and are also now again being informed of the ongoing situation with the illegal business Steuart family Christmas lights. You are culpable and liable and will be held to that culpability by the citizens of Washington County for all that is being allowed to transpire regarding this illegal business. Accidents, injuries, death, or any impact to personal property or well-being that is caused by the Steuart's Family Christmas lights is not a matter of if, but when. If so, facto a matter of not if, but when, this court is liable. I should not have to stand here and cite ordinance 202544 for you. But to understand the numerous infractions that are occurring, you have not complied with any part of section 4 requiring the owners apply for the CUP. Section five, administering the rules has not happened. Uh appropriate files being filed has not happened. Notification of property owners, proof is not there. Adequate utilities, the road is unsafe. Entry and exit are

unsafe. Traffic is halted, stopped, or at a standstill. Proposed use compatible with the surrounding area. We are a single family aggy area. Fireworks, loudspeakers, late night traffic, and trash are not found anywhere else in the surrounding area. that the permit will not be um I'm sorry. Let me move ahead here. Conditional use majority vote. Quorum court. Have you voted? They're operating right now taking money. Have you voted? Penalties $1,000 each day as they're open. Everyone keeps not wanting to enforce the ordinance, but the George the judge has to direct the sheriff's department to enforce the ordinance. It's time to step up and do that before someone is ultimately hurt or killed. We keep getting told that the county wants to allow its citizens to do the right thing. I think we all can agree and see that it's now time for the county to do the right thing and listen to its citizens. Finally, if there are any people out there that applied for a cup that aren't getting it, what are you telling them? You're telling them that they don't have to. They can just operate. They can do whatever they want in the eyes of the county by ignoring this. I've included on this list also the names of the owners and operators for you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Public comments. if you Yeah. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Kenneth. Love it. Fable, Arkansas. That's pretty sad. Have that right there. Y'all scared of your public. There's a gentleman that spoke last week or last during the public meeting said uh needed to censor the citizens. Censorship of the public in public meetings is not allowed when it restricts speech based on its center based on its content or viewpoint as public meetings are considered a limited public forum protected by the first amendment. However, officials can impose reasonable contentneutral time, place, and manner restrictions on a speech. Speakers can only be removed after their speech becomes disruptive and after a warning, and that's done by the the chair, not individuals. Key takeaways is public meetings are a vital forum for public discourse. And while officials can manage the process with reasonable rules, they cannot censor speakers because of their views. The right to criticize the government is at the core of the First Amendment and is protected during public comments periods. Respect is given to those that deserve it, not just because of a title. Disrespect is earned, and five of you here tonight have earned my disrespect. What is the true meaning of deserve? To merit, be qualified for or have a claim to reward assistance, punishment, etc. because of actions, quantities, qualities, and situation or deserve exile to deserve charity, a theory that deserves consideration. It's a sad day when we come in here to a public forum and we look at people and

acting like children. and your leaders in our community. It's a sad day. Washington County Justice of the Peace is primarily a county legislator who serves on the quorum court, the county's legislative body where they vote on all spending revenue. Their responsibilities include setting the county budget, levy and taxes, and appropriating public funds for various departments. JPS also have other duties such as performing marriage ceremonies and addressing local administrative matters, legislative and financial responsibilities. Some of which are the county budget, taxation, public funds, employee pay, contracts, land use, marriage ceremonies, local issues, constituent concerns, preserve the peace, and other roles. Be nice if y'all stick with it. Thank you. Public comments. [clears throat]

Sherry Maine, 15451 Rich's Road, Fagetville, and my JP is District 7. Um, Chuck Dean, which I see he's not here tonight. My comments are mainly on the budget. I wanted to come up now and speak before um budget is the last item on the agenda. So, I wanted to um let you all think about this a while before we get to that point. Um I've went through the budget from beginning to end. Um and I do have some questions. I don't think I've I've heard answers to or I've heard any of the JP's ask about the budget. And I have not seen any justification letters or explanations in the budget for these items. So, uh, I respectfully want to go over these, but I did do a print out to hand to each of you all tonight so you can look at what I'm saying and see on your own the budget items that are in question and hopefully we'll get some answers before there's a vote tonight on the budget. Um, I'd already gone over the county judge, five positions total. uh on one position. He needs to add additional $66,352 to his budget to um fund one position. And unemployment compensation, the 2025 budget was zero. 2026 budget for the judge is 11,275. What caused this increase? Training education under the judge's budget 2025 was 1,000. 2026 budget is 5,000. $4,000 increase. No justification explanation on any of these. Corn court under other professional services 2025 budget was 14,000. 2026 budget is $45,000. A $31,000 increase. No justification explanation.

IT information technologies dues and memberships 2025 budget 1,620. 2026 budget 36,620 $35,000 increase need justification explanation county attorney special legal 225 budget was 7 two 2025 budget was 73,000 2026 budget is a h 100,000 27,000 $27,000 increase dues and memberships under the county attorney 2025 budget 225 2026 36k 135 increase meals and lodging 2025 budget 5,000 2026 budget 15,000 10,000 increase no justification explanations animal shelter utilities electric gas and water 2025 budget was $54,000 2026 budget is zero need explanation as to why $54,000

Thank you ma'am your time has expired public comments may I approach to hand these out Please uh you can give them to Mr. Showers. Director Sers will take those papers from her and take them to Mr. Allen. Public comments.

Hi, my name is Maline Farquar and I'm the leading developer for the wind project that is be that res is developing north of Lincoln and I know you all have heard about about it by now. I've had the pleasure of speaking with some of you already and while we don't have any official county business at the moment, I thought it was important to come and speak. Uh you've heard a lot of negative comments about wind energy over the past months and I think you deserve a more complete picture of the benefits the project could bring to the county. Um, I have some information here also that uh goes over almost every community concern that we've had over the past year and how we plan to address it along with much more detailed information on our website trillium wind.com uh with peer-reviewed studies uh to back up the facts. Uh over the past year, I've sat at a lot of kitchen tables around here. I've talked with farmers and land owners who've been on the on the same land for generations out there. One landowner told me, "My biggest fear is losing my family land. Once it's gone, it's gone forever." And it sticks with you because we all know families who have had to sell their land, who've lost their farms. And it's one of the biggest reasons why I believe this project matters because it's not just about energy. It's about giving land owners another option, a way to keep farming, to keep ranching, and to keep their land in the family instead of selling to a developer who's just going to put in a bunch of subdivisions. If you want to talk about preserving the rural nature of a county and protect from overexpansion, this is an excellent option. Is there a visual impact? Absolutely. But the project only uses about 2% of the land, and the income it brings to land owners in the county can be life-changing. It means tens of millions of dollars in long-term tax revenue for county schools and infrastructure. And the project could bring over 200 temporary jobs at the peak of construction. This brings economic stimulus to local businesses without the long-term strain on resources that a permanent relocation brings. and and I wouldn't be here if there have we haven't had a lot of interest. We have around 30 families who've already come together with a local independent

attorney to evaluate this project um as a group and we currently have around 2,000 acres either leased or under negotiation and I understand why people are concerned. Every industry has bad actors and these projects can be disruptive during construction. But the wind industry has matured over the past 50 50 years and Rez is a company with deep integrity. We're a private, family-owned company. We don't have to answer to shareholders. We answer to fiscal responsibility. We encourage every landowner to have an attorney review the lease. We work collaboratively to offer protections on things that matter to them the most. And we work with counties to ensure this makes economic sense altogether. That is why I'm asking the court to consider rejecting ideas of bringing more a moratorium on wind energy. Not because questions shouldn't be asked, they absolutely should, but because a moratorum would shut down the conversation rather than support it. It would take the decision out of the hands of the very people most affected, the land owners in the area. I believe this can be a partnership that strengthens families, strengthens the local economy, and strengthens our state energy security. All we're asking is the chance to continue listening, studying, and collaborating with this community, not a complete halt that ends the conversation before it begins.

Thank you, ma'am. That's your time. I appreciate you. Public comments. Hello, Sarah Moore, Fateville, Arkansas with Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition. Um, for the past several months, uh, we've come before you and sent notes and talked to specific JPs asking for there to be a conversation of the $18.8 million jail expansion that's happening down in South Fable at our current detention center. Uh, that is funded with American Rescue Plan money. um something that we're concerned is an ineligible use of those funds. But even uh thinking about the project just itself in the budget um I don't know if you guys have reviewed but we spent many hours and we do think this is the job of of um this body to oversee um that the components of this project with what's been filed through the clerk's office look to be overspending substantially. I mean do you know how much has been spent to date? Do you know how much overrun has had on been had been had on potent on uh parts of the project? Do you know what the final cost is going to be for this? And then also we've talked to you about 88 beds at our $80 a day. This is about $2 million operating expense ongoing. That as we're talking about budgets, our quarter cent sales tax doesn't c cover the $26 million operating cost of the gel today. um on some specific line items we where we spent again hours going to the clerk's office and compiling um their structural steel from Will Shark that was bid at 354,355 that's come in at 629,215. Uh so that's a 78% increase. Um we have Garrett Xear earthwear and storm drainage and site utilities bid package was about 1.7 million. That's come in closer to 1.9 million. So a 12% increase. Um we have things like uh the door frames hardware from PC hardware at

114398 is was bid. Um it came in at 18883,786. So that's about a 61% increase. Um red dot building system was bid at $223,94 and it came in at $315,528 or a 41% increase. I could read these over and over and over again. That's your I hope that publicly we'll have a conversation about this project. Thank you. Now we'll be moving forward with our meeting. Item number six is an approval of the minutes. The minutes were delivered with the agenda packet. Are there any corrections? If not, I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes.

Motion to accept by Justice Limming. Second by Justice Dennis. All those in favor?

Those opposed? The minutes have been accepted. With that, we'll move into the judges report. Um, first of all, I want to thank the young men and women here this evening again from the uh uh Lando Goan 4 club. I really appreciate you and I want to know what that means to us that we get to see the youth of this county uh and then also get to have conversations with you. And thank you again. Special thanks to Dave and Miriam for uh our invitation and our welcome this evening. I really appreciate that. The disposal report was delivered with the agenda packet. a little lengthier this time, but if you have any questions about that, please get with the department leadership or or with my office and we can try to get you uh any answers. Always trying to continue to clean and keep the county robustly uh ready to pivot. Uh I had the honor and distinction to uh welcome the lead AR21 class to Washington County this morning. Uh they went and spent the day um at the Center for Arkansas Farms and Food. And what lead AR is, it's a leadership class that moves around the state and basically takes civics lessons, uh, for lack of a better terminology about what the challenges we're seeing in local governments, uh, within our communities and within our societies. And I really appreciated seeing all those people there. We had some new faces from all around the state and of course some familiar faces from right here in Washington County. just good to see a lot of people engaged on the issues that we're going to see not only here in Washington County over the next 5 to 10 years, but statewide in the next 5 to 10 years. And so I really appreciate that. I was also invited this morning to uh have breakfast. Uh this month is the National Homeless Awareness Month. Uh and I was invited to Genesis Church in South Fatville uh this morning for breakfast. And what an u an honor that was and also eyeopening. Uh Genesis Church and a few other churches around the area along with Seven Hills have developed a collective that they've um dubbed Community Response to

Homelessness and it has an acronym CR2H. Uh and it was just a good morning to get um with other local leaders and talk about the issue of homelessness and how challenging that is, which is the goal of the collective. It's to educate people on the underlying issues of homelessness and try to work together to solve it. uh our very own district judge, Judge Terara Stevenson was one of the honored speakers today. Judge Tara Stevens uh Stevenson heads up our mental health court and so she got to share about some of the exciting things that we're doing there uh in Washington County and I surely appreciate her work uh along with Dr. Bridget Russell who was they were both very instrumental about us obtaining the grant for the mental health court from the department of justice here this year. I applaud their efforts and think that they go above and beyond and I hope we can all appreciate where they're going. Um, you know, it was good to talk though. We have uh increased or more funding tonight for the community rebuilding initiative. That on the backs of that CR2 meeting really got me in the mind. We are bringing the community together. Uh, and right now the epicenter with that with CRI and with these other initiatives and with SE 7 Hills is uh southern Fagatville. And so I want you guys to know that we we continue to uh take pride that the stake of community rebuilding initiative is housed in South Fagatville. uh I believe a lot of governmental efforts uh are concentrating there and I think CRI has energized the community to come in work in that environment and see if we can't come up solutions and I'm very appreciative for every one of the citizens and one of every one of our staff that are helping doing that. Um finally um a couple house one housekeeping item tonight. Uh the district court of West has reached out to us. They're doing a little cleaning themselves. Um, state statute requires that by document destruction, uh, we have to re notify the justices of the peace, you're one of the funding authorities of the West Fork District Court. And so, anybody that has an a funding jurisdiction, uh, we have to record this in the minutes that you've

been notified that they will be destroying the vote on it. Okay. I will take a motion for that in a minute. Uh, councelor Baker has reviewed those requirements that she believes they're in compliance and we just want to take a vote tonight to reflect that in the in our minutes so that they can continue to spring house justice recorder. I'm make a motion to sorry court has notified me about that and what it is is they've changed most of their paper records to electronic format. So they're needing an order to be able to destroy all the paper stuff and I so move. Move Justice Lions second. All those in favor? I

I that's been reflected in the minutes and also approved by the court. Finally, I think we continue to watch the weather and the rain over the next 24- 48 hours. And I wanted you guys all to know that we've got a dedicated road crew down there that will probably be called out at some point, whether that be emergency or convenience for our traveling public over the next 48 hours. And if you would allow me, I'd like to say a little prayer for them right now as we watch this. If you remember, our road department works 410. And so tomorrow is usually a day that they would be enjoying uh when they're off time, but highly likely that they'll be enjoying their time uh with us. So with that, if you'd bow your heads, heavenly father, we lift up our road department crews as heavy rains come. Surround them with your protection as they work through the night and day. Give them clear minds, steady hands, and safe paths as they respond to washouts and emergencies. Strengthen their bodies against fatigue. Guide their decisions, and bring them home safely to their families. Let their work be effective keeping our roads passable and our community secure. We trust them into your care for the next 24 hours and beyond. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. [snorts] [clears throat] With that, we'll move on to new business. Item number eight, councelor, will you read that by title only?

Item eight, an ordinance amending ordinance 2019-4. Justice Lions.

Thank you, chair. Um the the amending this ordinance of basically to provide more time for my colleagues and [snorts] myself to review the agenda and prepare for the upcoming all the upcoming corn court meetings whether it's corn court here the county services or the finance and budget committee meeting. Um to do that we've we've moved some time frames back. It used to be five days that we would provide any ordinance or resolution that we'd like to be put on the agenda to the the county counselor. Five days prior. We're moving that to seven days to still give him five days to review and and provide um updates to drafts, etc. So it can be prepared for the [clears throat] meeting and the agenda going out. uh basically leading to instead of the agenda going out the Friday afternoon prior to the meeting is for it to go out the Wednesday prior to the meeting. Again, just trying to provide more time to review the agenda um get to appropriate parties as we need to to ask questions and um get some input from county officials, etc. I move that we pass this this amendment to this ordinance. Justice Lines, this is on the first reading.

Thank you. I make a motion we suspend the rules and move it to the second reading. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move this to a second reading by Justice Lions. Second by Justice Ricker. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Okay. I'm sorry. Counselor, you read that for a second time by title only. An ordinance amending ordinance 2019-4. Gotcha. Justice Koger.

Thank you, Judge. Yes. My question is I'd like to understand when this goes into effect, like will it go into effect before our next county services meeting or does it have to be published or something like that? It has to be published. It won't go into effect for 30 days after it's signed and entered and published. It had there's a 30-day period before it goes into effect because there's not an emergency clause on it and it's not an appropriation ordinance. 30 days from the date of publication, 30 days from the entry of the ordinance. Once it's signed and filed with the county clerk, then it's there's a 30-day time period. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. [clears throat] I make a I move we suspend the rules and move this to a third and final reading. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move this to a third and final reading by Justice Lions. Second by Justice Ricker. All those in favor? Those opposed. Uh that passes. Council, will you read this ordinance both third and final time? An ordinance amending ordinance 2019-4. Justice Lions. I move we pass this ordinance.

I have a motion to pass item number 8.1 by Justice Lions, second by Justice Ricker. Any further discussion on item number 8.1? Any public comments on item 8.1? Seeing none, Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? This is a motion to pass item 8.1 by Justice Lions and a second by Justice Ricker. Justice Lions. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Eky, yes. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, yes. Yes. Justice Dennis, yes. Yes. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, yes. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, yes. Yes. Justice Pond.

Yes. Justice Bruns, yes. Justice Wilson, yes. Yes. Justice Mingill, yes. Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez. Yes. Yes. Item number 8.1 passes. Moving along to item 9.1. Councelor, will you read that by title only? An ordinance amending ordinance uh 2025-44. Justice.

Thank you, judge. This is an ordinance that we the quorum court passed in October and it contained a scrier's error. It has to do with the uh me the pay increase of the members of the planning and zoning boards. And with that um we needed to make an amendment to the ordinance. And so I make a motion that we pass ordinance number 9.1. That's on this first reading. Therefore, I make a motion to suspend the rules and pass this on to the second reading. Second.

I have a motion to suspend the rules and move it to a second reading by Justice Seki. I believe Justice Lion's going to let you have it. River Justice River Lopez. Second by Justice Rivera Lopez. Uh all those in favor. Those opposed that passes. Councelor, will you read that for a second time? An ordinance amending ordinance 2025-44. Justice. Thank you, Judge. I'd like to make a motion that we suspend this rules and pass this on to the third reading. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move it to a second reading by Justice Eki. Second. Second by Justice Rivera Lopez. I said third. I apologize. Second reading. Third. It was a third reading. I might have said second. I'm sorry. Okay. I'll get as excited as you guys are. I know. So, it's a third reading. Correct.

To the third and final reading. [laughter] All those in favor? Those opposed? Uh, that passes. Council, will you read that for a third and final time? An ordinance amending ordinance 2025-44. Uh, Justice Eki. Thank you, Judge. I'd like to make a motion that we pass ordinance number 9.1. Second.

I have a motion to pass item 9.1 by Justice Seki, a second by Justice Lions. Any further discussion on item 9.1? Any public comments on item 9.1? Seeing none, Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? This is on a motion to pass item 9.1. Motion made by Justice Eki, second by Justice Lions. Justice Lions, yes. Justice Eki, yes. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, yes. Justice Dennis, yes. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, yes. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, yes. Yes. Justice Pond,

yes. Yes, Justice Bruns. Yes, Justice Wilson. Yes, Justice Massingill. Yes, Justice Rivera Lopez. Yes. Yes. Item 9.1 passes. Item 10.1. Councelor, you read that by title only. An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Puptown Doggy Daycare project. Justice Lions, could we have Director Add introduce this, please? Dr. Adam, will you give us a summary on this project, sir?

Good evening everyone. So, the the project was like uh presented to the planning board on October 30th. It was approved by the five five members attending. Uh so, just like short background, um the applicant is like requesting um a doggy daycare and like a boarding facility. Uh the project will utilize 1.7 out of like 4.2 2 acres. It's going to operate between 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p p.m. daily would drop off and pick up [clears throat and cough] by appointment only. The business will initially have like one employee who is like the uh the owner of the property which is like basically lives also like north of that like facility and she's planning to have like um future like for employees like in general. Um she they they applied for a cup and was approved for two phases. Um they're going to apply for phase one. It's going to be construction of like 10,000 square footage like um office building. It has like all the utility and sewer and it has 10 9 by 20 uh uh parking lots. One of them is ADA accessible and they're going to have like a solar lit sign by the entrance. 15 10x10 mobile doggy cottages with electricity, individual fences and and all the amenities that comes with it. Phase two, uh they're going to allow to have additional like 20 uh mobile dog cottages for um so if this project um is ratified today, they're going to have to come back for each phase for a large scale. Um, we only had it, [clears throat] I don't want to say concern, but we have like one neighbor calling us about like a clarification since they're going to be indoors outdoors dogs. His question was after 6 p.m. any dogs is going to be parking outside. We said like no, every all the dogs are going to be indoors in

the afternoon. They're going to be outside and inside in the mornings only. And the project engineers here if you have any further questions. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Dr. Atta. Justice Lim, did you have a question for Dr. Atta? Yes. Just Dr. Atta, will you hang on a second? Justice Lim, that one neighbor, how close was they to the property?

Uh, it's just uh it's like the neighboring um neighboring property. And that property, it was designed to be um it's complicated. So, it's uh it's one acre that has about like 20 plus homes on it. It was done back in the day. So he's the only one who called us. So how close is the closest neighbor? You one h there's 20 houses and Yeah. He's he's just like the adjacent like property. So like it's lateral uh housing. So they join they join together. It's a subdivision type. Yeah. Well, that'll be good to wake you up in the morning. Oh well. Absolutely. [clears throat] Thank you, Dr. Ada. Absolutely. Justice Lions,

I move we suspend the rules and move this at second reading. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move this to a second reading by Justice Lions. Do I have a second? Second by Justice Limming. I'm so sorry. [laughter] Justice Ricker, excuse me. Uh motion by Justice Slime, second by Justice Ricker. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Councelor, will you read this for a second time? An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Puptown Doggy Daycare project.

I move we suspend the rules and move this to a third and final reading. I have a motion to suspend the rules and move this to a third and final reading by Justice Lions. Second by Justice Ricker. Uh all those in favor? I. Those opposed? Councelor, will you read this for a third and final time? An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Puptown doggy daycare project. Justice Lions. I move we pass item 10.1. I have a motion to pass item 10.1 by Justice Lions. Second by Justice Ricker. Any further discussion on item 10.1.

Sorry about that. I have microphone issue here. Justice Koger. Yes. Thank you. And maybe Dr. Add have said this, but I missed it. I assume that the letters notifying the neighbors, they were all sent out in a timely manner. It's part of the process, ma'am. It has to. Okay. Otherwise, we won't be meeting ordinances and that like project would have been like tabled for the next following month. And you've only received uh information. I mean um feedback from that one neighbor, one person and like he called us. Yes.

Okay. It just kind of worries me because I mean I imagine it's going to be a lifechanging experience for those neighbors. So just want to make sure that they had been notified and and it's usually I hear from people on things like this, but I haven't heard from anyone about it. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion on item 10.1? Any public comments on item 10.1? Seeing none, Mr. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? This is a motion on the motion to pass item 10.1. Motion made by Justice Lions, second by Justice Ricker. Justice Lions, yes. Justice Eky, yes. Justice Washington,

yes. Justice Koger, yes. Justice Dennis, no. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, yes. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, yes. Justice Pond, yes. Yes. Justice Bruns, abstain. Justice Wilson, yes. Yes. Justice Massingill, yes. Justice Rivera Lopez, yes.

Item 10.1 passes. Item number 11. Councelor, will you read this resolution by title only? a resolution in support of an order by the county court of Washington County to provide assistance to Ozark's electric cooperative and Ozark's go. Justice Lim.

Well, this is this pro this will be a wonderful project for Washington County and Ozark Electric. They uh their facility they have out here on 16 highway is horrible for traffic in the morning getting in and out and and they want to build a facility and and take about half their employees up there to a different area and that would really help them get in and out in the mornings. And I know given tax breaks, we're still going to get tax money, but everything they do is going to bring tax money back to Washington County when they pour concrete, when they build buildings, when they put light fixtures in and and all the improvements is going to just help Washington County all the way around. And you know, and then they're going to work on the lines and the infrastructure to keep it up to date so we can build more like we don't really need, but we're going to anyway. But uh but I think this is a win-win resol win-win for the Washington County. Thank you.

Just Justice Lim, would you like to make the motion? Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion that we pass this. I have a motion to pass item 11.1 by Justice Limming, a second by Justice Dennis. Any further discussion on item 11.1? Justice Masengill? Yeah, thank you, Chair. I'll I'll just make my same comment I made last time. I don't support this. I think Ozark Electric's going to make the infrastructure improvements they need to make to [clears throat] satisfy their customers uh to serve their customers. Um this this gives them a tax break. And I'm not I don't support giving a single company a tax break.

Justice Koger.

Yes. Thank you, Judge. Um, I can understand funding true infrastructure needs like substations and grid upgrades and service expansions. Those benefits for the public and the company, but the proposal goes beyond that. It includes a 20 to40 million office building in Springdale. I also cannot justify a 65% abate tax abatement for 30 years. I think that's too much and it's for too long. Just this week, Springdale approved Act 9 bond issues for Tyizen with a 50% tax abatement for 10 years. Their project was $127,000. Um, Ozark is being offered 65% for 30 years, far more generous terms with a much longer term impact on taxpayers and school districts. Um, I'm also concerned that the pilot negotiations occurred only between Ozark and the county judge without input from the county assessor who understands valuation and long-term tax base effects. A 30-year 65% commitment is a massive commitment that affects generations of Washington County taxpayers. I do not believe this is a good deal for Washington County taxpayers now and in the future. Thank you. Justice Lines.

Thank you, Judge. I [clears throat] agree with my colleague JP um Lemming. I think it's a good deal for Washington County. I think it's a good deal for Ozark. I think it's a good deal for Ozark customers because I agree JP Madison that they'll do it regardless because they have to. The question is, um, without support, um, you're going to see rate increases across all of the Ozark companies customers, which is a huge majority of those in Washington County. So, you're just adding additional costs for electricity and other services provided to the constituents of Washington County. This [clears throat] is a way to to support that, get the upgrades that will last for years. Uh, we'll support the expansion that we're going to see across Washington County in the next several years. as [clears throat] well as do it at a point that doesn't adversely affect the monthly budgets of our constituents. I will support this.

Justice Burns.

Thank you, sir. I think um most of those questions that um Mark Carly, our colleague had on Ozarks Go were addressed during their presentation. And the one thing that I really particularly looked at was a term called return on investment. And I know I'll never live to see this return on investment, but there's a lot of these kids out here that will and it's going to have a long-term effect on I think some very valuable assets in these kids and that's why I'd vote yes.

Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. If this were a matter of giving a tax break to an ordinary corporation, I would be against it. But that's not what this is. This is an investment for a public utility. Um, what's more, they're a a member-owned cooperative. Um, you know, which is rare in our world. Um, we need more of those sorts of things. Um, and what this public utility is going to do with that money. um including with their expanded headquarters is essentially provide services to our community, our rapidly growing, booming, expanding community. We're expected to double our population by the year, I think 2040 or 2050. And so this will help them get those uh utility assets online faster in order to address that growth. And so that's those are some of the reasons I'm supporting this. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further discussion on on item 11.1? Any public comments on item 11.1? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, will you please call a role on item 11.1? This is a motion to pass by Justice Limming and a second by Justice Dennis. Justice Lions. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Ekki. Yes. Yes, Justice Washington. Yes, Justice Koger. No, Justice Dennis. Yes, Justice Hires. Yes. Justice Rio Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Justice Ricker. Yes. Justice Pond. Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns. Yes.

Yes. Justice Wilson. Yes. Yes. Justice Mingill. No. Justice Rivera Lopez. Yes. Yes. Item 11.1 passes. I appreciate that support. I very much support the mission of Ozarks Electric and County Court will move post haste. Uh, next item up is uh our consent agenda. Councelor, will you read those items uh by title only?

Sure. [clears throat] Item one on the consent agenda is an ordinance recognizing revenue in the amount of $47,347 in the highintensity drug trafficking areas Haida grant fund and appropriating $47,347 from the Haida grant fund to the Haida 2025 budget for 2025. Item two is an ordinance levying the county, municipal, and school district taxes for the year 2025. Item three is an ordinance amending the buildings and grounds budget for 2025 and for other matters pertaining there too. Item four is an ordinance amending the treasurer's budget for 2025 and for other matters pertaining there too. Item five is an ordinance amending the circuit court 5 budget for 2025 and for other matters pertaining there too. Item six is an ordinance recognizing additional revenue in the amount of $16,13167 in the general fund and appropriating said $16,13167 from the general fund to the medical dental and hospital line item in the circuit court 4 budget for 2025. Item seven is an ordinance amending the juvenile detention center budget for 2025 and for other matters pertaining there too. Justice Lions.

I move we pass the consent agenda. Second. Motion to pass the consent agenda by Justice Lions, a second by Justice Rivera Lopez. Um, are there any discussions on the consent agenda? Any public comments on the consent agenda? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. I have a motion to pass the consent agenda by Justice Lions, a second by Justice Rivera Lopez. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Lions. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Eky? Yes. Yes, Justice Washington. Yes, Justice Koger. Yes, Justice Dennis. Yes. Yes, Justice Hires. Yes, Justice Rio Stafford. Yes, Justice Lemming. Yes. Justice Ricker. Yes. Justice Pond.

Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns. Yes. Justice Wilson. Yes. Justice Mingill. Yes. Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez. Yes. Yes. The consent agenda passes. With that, we'll move on to item number 13. Council, will you read that by title only? Item 13 is an ordinance appropriating 121,138 from the unappropriated reserves in the general fund to the children's safety center of Washington County. Justice Ricker, make a motion to suspend the rules. Push on second reading. It's a appropriation ordinance and doesn't require that. I'll make a motion to pass. Motion.

Motion to pass by Justice Ricker. I believe I heard second by Justice Hires. Uh any further discussion on item number 13.1. Justice Koger.

Thank you, Judge. Um I want to support the Arkansas Children's Safety Network and the important work they do. Um but many nonprofits are facing deep cuts right now and I know others would like to understand how they can work with the county and this is opening the door to that. Um, the county discontinued support for the HIV clinic, environmental affairs, Ozark regional transit, and more. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of how the county determines which organizations and programs can be funded and which cannot. Um, and I ask these questions not in opposition to helping children, but in the interest of fairness, transparency, and consistency, and how we support all our community partners. Some of you were here in 2022 uh when we had peop when we had nonprofits coming and asking for money and it was heartbreaking to watch all that and I just don't want to see us step and do something like that again. Thank you.

Just a second. Um, thank you, Judge. Correct me or just clarify. Did we not support the HIV clinic that it was a motion by Justice Hires to fund it? Didn't we fund that? Uh, the HIV clinic has been moved to the operations of of the community clinic, which I continue to say it's still funded. It's still operational and it's better than it's ever been in that new home. Okay. So, we just wanted to make that clear that it was mentioned that we don't support or fund the HIV clinic and we do. Thank you.

Any further discussion on item 13.1? Justice Koger. Thank you. We we did not fund the HIV clinic. We passed that and then something happened happened afterwards and they ended up we ended up with withdrawing the fund. Is that not correct judge?

You're making me a little uncomfortable by the geriness of this conversation but community clinic had a way to fund that. They had groups they had grants that they were eligible for. And what we did was we took our seed money, if you remember, that we had left over in the account from the HIV clinic and gave it to community clinic with the approval of our other partners, which were Benton County and Washington Regional. They had claim, I think, to each a third of those funds and we transitioned that all to community clinic to get them started on the best foot they can. I've heard no complaints and everybody seems happy. But the bottom line is we're no longer funding them because they're funded by community clinic. Thank you. Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. Uh, the Children's Safety Center, uh, provides some essential services that our criminal justice system here in the county depends on. Um, the Washington County Prosecutor's Office uh, and the Washington County Sheriff's Office um, both rely on services that are provided by the Children's Safety Center. Um, so you know, to me, this is they're a nonprofit that directly interfaces with the services that we as a county are tasked with providing um to our citizens. Um, and so that's why I think that they this deserves some uh special consideration. Um, and I'll be supporting this.

Thank you. Further discussion. Any public comments on item 13.1? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. I have a motion to pass item 13.1 by Justice Ricker, second by Justice Hires. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Lions? Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Ekki, yes. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, no. Justice Dennis, yes. Yes. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Justice Ricker. Yes. Justice Pond. Yes. Justice Bruns. Yes. Justice Wilson. Yes. Justice Mingill. Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez.

Yes. Yes. Item 13.1 passes.

Item 14.1. Councelor, you read that by title only. Item 14 is an ordinance anticipating additional revenue in the amount of $284,90.76 in the community rebuilding initiative grant fund and appropriating $284,90.76 to the community rebuilding initiative grant fund for 2025 and appropriating $94,696.92 to the RSAT matching 2025 2026 6 fund for 2025. Just a sec.

Um, thank you, judge. This is to clarify any fuzzy math that I'm sure all of us received an email from um, Comproller Sherman from Dr. Bridget Russell giving an explanation of how the math actually broke down. Um, and it is basically a match requirement is 25% of the total projected costs of the project. It is not 25% of what the grant provides. In this case, the total projected cost for this specific project is calculated at 378,000 I mean what is it? 378 Yeah, 78768. The grant awarded is the amount of $284,90.76 which is 75% of the 378. Um the county's contribution and matching part of it is 25% which is 94,696.92. So, I hope I thank Comproller Sherman and uh grants director Dr. Russell for sending out this email and clarifying the math that was included. Therefore, I make a motion to pass 14.1.

I have a motion to pass item number 14.1 by Justice Eki. I heard second by Justice Lions. Any further discussion on item number 14.1? Justice Koger.

Yes. Thank you, Judge. Uh, I want to be clear that I support treatment and recovery programs. My concern tonight is not with the ideal treatment. It's with the impact this funding will have on our ability to invest in real justice reform. Our set has only been operating for seven months. That's not enough time to meaningfully evaluate outcomes or whether the program is effective in reducing our jail population or is it leading to more pre-trial defendants held in jail longer. Every time we expand a program like ARSAT, we push true justice reform further down the road. The 2020 criminal justice assessment study that the county paid $70,000 for found that pre-trial defendants are the number one driver of our jail population. And that study recommended a robust pre-trial services program. The National Association of Pre-Trial Service Agencies defines pre-trial services as a program that offers support options for defendants that require oversight while they are on pre-trial release.

Just let me cue your mic. Justice Lions, we have a point of order by Justice Lions. Sorry, I don't I don't believe the discussion of other um pro programs such as uh justice reform such as the pre-trial has anything to do with the motion on the table. I agree. Justice Ky, please keep your comments germaine to this funding. Don't I get to reply to that? No, I've made a ruling. Well, then I appeal your ruling, but I should get to reply to that. Okay. we have in the past.

Uh, Justice Koger has appealed my ruling and the ruling was just to ask to keep her comments germanine to the topic. So, now there's a question. Do we sustain that? To sustain that would be a yes vote. To overturn my ruling would be a no vote. Is that right? Does that make sense? to sustain my ruling, to confirm it, to ask Justice Koger to please keep her comments germaine to the topic per Justice Lions's request would be a yes vote. I don't really know what we're voting on, but you can understand where we're at, right? All that said, please show hands to sustain the ruling of the chair to ask Justice Cover to please be. Uh, thank you. and those who disagree who who want the Thank you. Justice Koger, please keep your comments Germaine to the t topic.

But Judge Mr. Lester didn't rule on whether or not I had the right to reply to that. I don't believe there's a right to reply. I believe you have a right to make a point of order. The chair then rules on the point of order and then the proper procedure after that would be to appeal that if you didn't agree with it, someone doesn't agree with the ruling. I I know that maybe in the past that has happened, but I don't I don't believe there's any right to like a debate over that in Roberts, but I'll look that up and if I'm wrong, I'll be certain to let everyone know. I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Also, um get the floor back. Okay. Also, um to say that RSAT is better than nothing is not a good method for spending taxpayer money. We have an evidence-based solution. If we continue funding programs that don't address the real cause of overcrowding, we will never get around to building programs that do address that. Thank you. Thank you, Justice Lions. [clears throat]

Thank you, Judge. I I'm a little confused. As I understand this ordinance, counselor, you're looking up. This is an ordinance recognizing grant funds that is being provided to the county for a specific purpose that that grant was was written for which is the CRI. This money cannot be used for anything else because it's that grant for that purpose is my understanding. Correct.

That is correct. So, I I don't understand how this is affecting other possible programs, quite honestly, programs that have never came to this this board, this quorum court, and presented as an ordinance or a resolution or anything else to make a decision on or to discuss. Um, and and I I I I I guess the best I can tell is I my colleague would like us to not accept money as a grant to be able to do more in the arena of justice reform through the CRI. I will be supporting this, but want to make sure my understanding was correct. Thank you.

Thanks, sir. Further discussion, public comments on item number 14.1. So, Justice Koger, back to your question about the the uh explanation. A point of order is not debatable. The chair may provide explanation and can submit questions to the body, but a point of order is not debatable. So, there would be it's just ruled on and then voted on. Sure. Thank you. public comments.

Thank you. Uh Sarah Moira with Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition. Um you know, we continue uh to be concerned at the how this uh program originated. Um you know, it never uh with returning home was competitively bid, which is required both by federal procurement standards as well as state procurement standards. Um, additionally, um, there, uh, have been concerns too that, um, oftentimes the accounting has been fuzzy. Um, whenever we approve for 2025 what was said to be a pilot program, um, you know, it only started taking people in April of this year, um, but the period award period was for 2025, January to the end of December. Um, the, uh, award amount ended at the end of September. And so this body appropriated general fund money of I think somewhere around a half million dollars for October through December. I can't help but see um that this seems to be another double dipping possible situation where we need to get clarity where it looks like we're continuing to give returning home additional money um from October forward through the state funds. These are still taxpayer funds. We we don't really want to see additional funds double dipping. And so I'd really like to understand, are we going to um recoup and take those general fund monies back um to our general coffers? And so the grant money will replace it. We'll just have that 25% match. Um additionally, if you look at the application that was put in place, um you know, it's interesting to see where the money goes. I mean, do you know that, you know, over about six different individuals, that's the majority of the money, about a half million dollars. um and that Nick Robbins himself gets about 93,000 from that. He doesn't just do the CRI, he does other things like CAP and other things for returning home. It's very unusual for a nonprofit um to put a 100% of their salary for their um executive director to just one program. It's

usually spread based on the amount of time you spend at each program. Have you asked then does Nick Robbins make 200 300,000? I will tell you that most nonprofits are scraping by of total budgets of 400, 300, $200,000. And so typically their CEOs or their EDs are not making anywhere close to that. I have a lot of concerns that those monies are not going into the individuals into the programming into uh the therapeutic treatment and care and evidence-based approaches that could happen. And I I understand that this body wants to be caring and wants to make sure we're taking care of this part of our population. I very much appreciate that. But also, it's kind of like when when the automobiles came out and it was like you can have a black Model T Ford, that was your choice. It really feels like for taxpayers, we're basically being told you can have this Christian men's ministry returning home or you can't have anything else to help your community. It's incredibly disappointing because many of us have been having this conversation for seven years in depth, have expertise, have gone and looked at best practices, have looked at programs that have better return on investment. Um I'm incredibly um concerned and you should be as well about the constitutionality of how much we're focused on Christianity in this program.

I appreciate you ma'am. Public comments.

Sherry Main 15451 Riches Road. I normally don't get into discussions like this. Um anyway, I I'm into numbers and the numbers um the counties, my understanding the county provides the building, the utilities, and the jail staff for the CRI and we don't have a budget or anything for the CRI from returning home on how the money is budgeted. Um and that little that concerned me a little bit because I I do numbers. Um, so I went and in in uh on the IRS website and pulled up the 990 form, which is a return of organization exempt from income tax for returning home. Uh, last one they had on record was 2023. 2024 is probably on an extension and wasn't filed until just recently, so it's not available yet online yet. But I wanted to [clears throat] point out since we work in numbers, um, sorry, lost my page. I burned up my minutes here trying to find a page number. Uh, payroll. If we look at compensation for officer salaries and uh, compensation of well, the total officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. uh on their 990 form, they had $437,585 in wages paid for returning home as a whole and an additional $33,855 in payroll taxes. So, I'm a little concerned as to putting this kind of money in an organization that's taking that kind of payroll expense is a little concerning and I think it should be a little concerning for you as well without seeing a budget or some type of operating um expense for returning home or maybe broken down by the cap in the

CRI facility. Um it's just a little concerning. I wanted to point that out since I just found this information today. Thank you. Thank you. With that, we'll take up the question. I have a motion to pass item number 14.1 by Justice Ekki and a second by Justice Lions. Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Lions. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Ekki, yes. Yes. Justice Washington. Abstain. Justice Koger. No. Justice Dennis. Yes. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, yes. Justice Lemming, yes. Justice Ricker, yes. Yes. Justice Fond, yes. Yes. Justice Bruns,

yes. Justice Wilson, yes. Justice Massenill, yes. Justice Rivera Lopez, abstain. Item number 14.1 passes. With that, we'll move on to item number 15. Councelor, will you read that by title only? Item 15 is an ordinance establishing the Washington County annual budget for the fiscal and calendar year 2026. Justice Lions. [clears throat]

Thank you, Judge. Um, you know, as probably many of you know, we we started working this budget in in October through the budget and finance committee. uh went through a lot of rounds, questions, some within the committee meeting itself where we we brought in some of the um departments [clears throat] that had some of the most complex or uh complicated requests to make sure we understood them. uh we submitted questions, you know, through comroller Sherman and got many of those answered through that process and ended up in the last budget and finance committee voting to bring this to the corn court to be considered for next year. Uh a couple of points for our county millage is 4.3. The legal limit is five. Washington County is the 43rd in regard to array of counties to have that that millage. 36 counties have millage for county general at five. So we we're one of the low lowest millage in the state uh for our constituents. The budget request is for 129,77,474 up. 187% over last this year's budget. A lot of considerations in that one is the health care. As you know, county is self-funded for health care. As we all know, because we all experience, health care continues to go up dramatically. And it's it's in the best interest of the county uh to make sure our employees have the best health care out there to to so they can continue to serve our our constituents. Of that 129 million, 53.7% is for labor. 69,658,281. Um, I I believe we we we've worked hard. We've got a good budget for next year to

to take us through next year. Um, we have a an appropriate reserve in the budget of 1.7 million. Something we're going to have to watch closely. This year we spent 1.9 million of our unappropriate reserves. So, got to watch what we do through the year next year uh with that unappropriate reserve and make sure doing the most we can for what we have left. With that, I move that we pass the budget. I have a motion to pass item 15.1 by Justice Lions. Do I have a second?

Second by Justice Eki. Further discussion on item 15.1. Justice Bruns.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh, I would like to make an amendment that we um not vote on this till next month. Uh there are two areas that um I think have never been touched on in any meeting I've been in and that were um would be the county attorney's budget and the judge's budget. I'd like to have a um just an overview like we have everybody else on those two budgets. Uh, I'm sure everything's perfectly fine, but I just think it's transparently we need to have an overview on those two budgets. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? I don't I don't know that that's an appropriate motion. Is it I mean, we're amending the ordinance. I don't know that there's a way to amend it. This is an appropriation ordinance. If it doesn't get 10 votes tonight, it'll move on to another the second reading next month. I believe that's mechanically how we would do that. Councelor, do you

I don't know that there's anything to amend. I mean, that's not a proper motion to move it to to to postpone it. I mean, if it doesn't get with an appropriation ordinance, it takes 10 votes to pass with one reading. And if not, it operates like any other any other ordinance. Justice Koger. Thank you. So, if I'm understanding correct, then I need to make a motion to move to postpone this until next corner meeting next month. Is that correct? To get that to happen? If that's your pleasure. Yep. Yes, sir. I would like to do that. I make a motion that we move we postpone this until next month. I have a motion to postpone this to the corn court meeting. To the corn court,

December corn court meeting. Yes. Because so we can answer some of the questions that Judge I mean that just JP Burns brought up and also some that were brought up by the audience because I never got a copy of of those tonight. Thank you. I have a motion to postpone until the December meeting. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Justice Rivera Lopez. I have a motion and a second to postpone this until next month's meeting. All in favor say I. Those opposed. Mr. Allen, will you please call a roll? Justice Lions, no. Justice Eckie,

no. Justice Washington, yes. Justice Koger, yes. Justice Dennis, no. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, no. Justice Lemming, no. Justice Ricker, no. Justice Pond, no. No. Justice Bruns, yes. Justice Wilson, no. Justice Massingill, yes. Justice Rivera Lopez, yes.

That motion fails. That returns us to the main motion. I have a motion to pass item 15.1 by Justice Lions and a second by Justice Seki. Any further discussion? Justice.

Thank you, Judge. I'd like to compliment Comper Sherman for doing a thorough job on presenting us with all the information. And I believe that if there was a question regarding anybody's budget, they had the opportunity for months and months and months and months to bring this up for discussion, but it was never brought up. And this is the midnight hour. This is the month that we as a quorum court should be passing the budget. If there was any discussion, Controller Sherman was always available and I think these are just tactics that are being used to delay the budget. Thank you, Judge. Justice Burns, you need to cue your mic, the point of order so I can recognize you. Justice Browns,

I have a point of order for that stuff. That that had nothing to do with whether we were going to pass the budget time or not. So, understood, Justice Brent, move forward if that's all right. Is that okay? Fine. Justice Rio Stafford.

Thank you, Judge. Uh, one of the reasons I voted no is because I have my own amendment that I'd like to bring forward for discussion. Um, at last week's uh, budget committee meeting, uh, I asked Comproller Sherman about what the impact would be of adding a 2.9% COLA cost of living adjustment on top of the step raise, step plan raises that all and count county employees get. And we, by the way, we've amended this budget uh last week at the budget meeting to clarify that the step plan raises going forward will apply to all county employees. all um controller Sherman got those numbers back to me um and also included some concerns on this about um the impact that it would have on our unappropriated reserves um and uh the uncertainty and rising pressures about our employee insurance fund um for you know I want to I'm going to bring this forward uh this amendment for public discussion um so we can have a discussion about it Um, but if it's the will of the majority of the of my colleagues, um, after we've discussed it, I will withdraw the amendment. Um, or we can vote on it either way. Um, and, uh, I also would like if uh, Controller Sherman could come up and and uh, sort of discuss what he sent us in an email.

Comproller Sherman, will you please come forward? We can discuss. I believe this is Germaine. Thank you, Judge. Yeah. Um, and with that, I'll bring forward a uh a motion to add a 2.9% cola on top of the step plan raises. Okay. Second. Okay. Is that motion and did I hear a second? Just second. Uh, comproller Sherman.

Yeah. Okay. So, if if we added a 2.9% cola, um, basically it would add uh $1.8 $8 million onto the overall labor cost of the budget and take it take labor from 69 million 700,000 to 71 thou 71 million 500,000 basically um the big concerns that I have if we added that uh our county general unappropriated reserve uh uh is 1.8 million going into 2026 right now. If we did that, it would go to nine uh 900,000 basically. So, it would cut it in half. Um and then the road because there's a lot of employees in road if we they were already tight on the budget and um they were going in with 9,000 which has actually changed because uh they took they um actually unfunded a position since we had the last meeting. So they they have about 50,000, but that would that would require a cash infusion of about uh 225,000 into the road department from either county general or uh the the general reserve fund to make that fund legally a able to operate because you have to have hold back of 10% and then some unappropriated reserve. uh the jail fund unappropriated reserve uh going into 2026 right now is 819,000. It would go to 300,000 basically. So 500,000 drop. So that's my first concern. It would give us less uh wiggle room in the future to uh do ordinances and and pull on that unappropriated reserve. I mean, we could do salary sweeps if we needed to to figure out our uh, you know, overages and labor to to make that happen. But going into this next year, the unappropriated reserves are already lower than I've seen since

I've been here. Uh, okay. The insurance fund, uh, basically, you know, we we've had, everybody knows what it what what we've done there. We've gone from 832 per person that takes health insurance uh, to 1,000 that takes health insurance. So basically going from like 9,800 a person to 12,000 maybe a $3,000 in increase per person that uh the county is putting up. So in my you know that health insurance fund I already know there's a couple diagnosises coming. We hit stop loss this year. So we're going to be on the hook on that stop loss on those individuals next year. Their their stop loss is going to go up. So, and the premium of the stop loss is going to go up. So, we're not that that fund is rising and just keeps on rising and that's one of the personnel costs. So, labor cost that's driving, you know, we added a million dollars, 1.1 million just this year and in labor costs there. Um, and then I would also like for us to get rid of like as we spend down the ARPA money and revenue replacement to see where the because the budget's going to come down the overall budget as we spend that money. Next year we won't have that money in the budget. So then the percentage of labor is going to be a little bit higher. So I would like to see where that sort of shakes out before we do any kind of cola. I know that might not make me a popular person with employees, but [clears throat]

Justice Leming, we keep talking about employees. All of the ones that they're want to add in this year's budget. Looks to me like about 10, 12, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 employees. What's that going to do to the budget? Is that figured in this budget? the payroll and the insurance and everything to everything is in this budget right now that anybody's trying to add or take away. It's already budgeted. It's already budgeted. Cost is already in there. Cost is already in there. Justice Lions.

Thank you, Judge. [clears throat] I I concur with controller Sherman. I you know, this is the even at the 1.8 million of the reserves, it's lower than what we've had. And I know, remember last year we had a large discussion about that. Um I think you know I can live with it. We can make it happen. We just have to make sure we're we're being very specific as we go through the year with that reserve. Taking it down to like 900,000 is just not a not a starter for me at all. I I think we're doing well by our employees with the 5% step plan. That's more than a 2.9% cola. that quite honestly a lot of others in across [clears throat] the country is all they will get. So I I think we've done right by the employees. We've made sure they've had good health care. We've increased what the county puts up for that to reduce their costs. We got a 5% step plan. So I think I think I think we've done well by employees and I hope they are very happy with with with what they received. They earned it. They deserve it. They they work hard for our constituents and and work long hours. Uh but I can't I can't this amendment just because the board is going to take the the reserves.

The one thing about our health care plan too, it is very good for the employees. It's cheap. If you go out into the civil what I call the civilian world or the private world, you're paying double premiums. We just had we had an increase and we are not passing any of that along to the employees. We're sucking it all up. So, Justice Koger, thank you, Judge. I know our employees deserve this, but I think we should listen to what Controller Sherman is saying because when once that ARPA money is gone and it'll have to be gone next year, then we then we could maybe look at this again. But for now, as much as I would like for this to be a thing, I just don't think we can afford it.

Further questions for comproller Sherman. Any further discussion on the amendment? I have a motion to amend by Rio staff. Justice Rio Stafford. A second by Justice Hires. Justice Rio Stafford. Thank you, Judge, and thank you, Comproller Sherman. Um, thank you to my colleagues for a good discussion on this. It seems like the overall sentiment um is that uh it's not in the cards this year, but I do hope that uh we can keep our spending tight this year uh and that we can revisit this issue for 2027 on a cost of living adjustment. And so with that, I move to withdraw my amendment. Justice Rio Stavver has withdrawn her motion to amend. Justice.

Um, thank you, Judge. I'd like to just kind of elaborate a bit on why it's so important for us to pass the budget in November and not wait until December. And that has to do with our HR staff. it. They have by December 22nd to key in all of the information, all the salaries um that are in the budget. There's only six people to do that and that is a time crunch for them if we pass it in November like we should. It gives them that time, but they're still under the gun. to pass it in December is to make sane people insane by pulling their hair out because they said it's impossible. And so I ask that we would consider our employees like we value them and the job that they have to perform by passing this budget tonight. Thank you, Judge.

Thank you, Justice. Further discussion on item 15.1. I have a motion to pass by Justice Lion, second by Justice. Any public comments on item 15.1.

You'll have to cue the mic if you hit the button on the right. Yep, there you go. There you go.

First time for everything. Um, good evening, Bryson Austin. I'm F um resident of Fateville. Um during the finance and budget meeting on November 11th of this year, um I stood before you all and recounted a brief history of the county's storied relationship with returning home, which seems to seems to be a little light on oversight. I told you and the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition has informed you on several occasions that returning home has not been completely responsible with taxpayer money and have failed to properly account for about $13,000 in spending. Some of the items that caught my attent Some of the items that caught my attention were the CAP program spending on televisions, television mounts, entertainment systems, gazeos, the pool, and the grill. We continue and will continue to bring to light returning home operations um hoping and expecting you all to do the proper audit and provide much neededed supervision. For years now, we have also attempted to raise the idea of pre-trial services as a community focused alternative to pre-trial detention. We have peers and data to prove that those services prevent failures to appear, save taxpayer money, and do more to prevent recidivism that than incarceration has in the state of Arkansas. So today, I ask for a few simple things um that we always do. Give the people of Washington County an accurate and complete update on the jail expansion project progress and spending. Tell us how much operations will cost going forward. be wise with the money we provide to returning home and make an earnest evidence-based attempt at developing pre-trial services in our county. Thank you.

Thank you. Public comments,

Sherry Mine, 15451 Riches Road. Um, really disappointed I didn't get my questions answered and all of you should have asked these questions tonight. This budget uh has been worked on. I've been working on it for two months. Um, it's a lot. And the HR grades these jobs. They grade them and they know what the employees are going to be paid and they already have that information in their system. There's no new entering data entry. This is all done. It's not a big deal to the HR to have this passed right away. Um, and I know you're going to rubber stamp it and pass it, but my feelings are you are the purse strings to the county money. The public is paying taxes and trusting all of you with that money to be good stewards of our funds. Ask questions, get answers. Why is this increased? Why is this decreased? Why are we doing this? Why is this number so high and it wasn't last year? That's not hard. It's simple. If anyone has the answers, I'd like them. If you would want to share them with me as to why the reasons of these I spent time on this for all of you to get questions answered so you can understand the budget. I know it's a big deal and it doesn't have to be passed tonight. Um, one year under Judge Wood's administration, we were down in the midnight hour passing it because of problems with it. It doesn't have to be rubber stamped tonight. Think about it. Just because you don't want to deal with it next month, you want to stamp it, get it on out, and not have to think about it anymore. Well, that's not being a

good steward of our funds. I'm sorry, but it's not. Um, and I don't think you understand the unfunded positions versus the funded positions on the budget. Um, there are some that are vacant and there are some are just unfunded. The money is not there in this budget to fund those. And just for instance, I gave you a copy of it, which you should have had a should have raised some eyebrows, but it didn't. On the jail, the sheriff on the jail operations, there's 23 total positions open at the jail. 12 of those current positions at the at the jail are open and funded in this budget. 11 current positions are open at the jail that are unfunded in this budget. They're asking for eight additional positions for the CRI building and that's at the current facility. That's not when we get the new facility and move them in over and there's more staffing [snorts] needed from

Thank you, Miss May. Your time is expired. I'm just saying with that, we're going to take up the question.

Think about it. judge if you don't mind. Lisa Eki, I represent myself, but I'm going to speak on behalf of our employees that work in the HR department. It is not that we are entering their grades. We have to enter the actual change in the step. It is manual. We don't have another option. Wrong. We have to key them. She doesn't know what she's talking about. We don't have that type of system. We touch every employees pay. Please pass in November. That is from our valued employees that are asking us to do due diligence and pass this budget tonight. Thank you, Judge.

Thank you. With that, we have a motion to pass item number 15.1 by Justice Lions and a second by Justice Seki. Uh Mr. Allen, will you please call the role? Justice Lions. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Eckie, yes. Justice Washington, abstain. Justice Koger, no. Justice Dennis, yes. Yes. Justice Hires, yes. Justice Rio Stafford, yes. Justice Lemming, could you repeat that, please? No, sir. No. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? No. No. Justice Wilson. Yes. Justice Mingill.

Yes. Justice Rivera Lopez. No. No. That item fails. It'll move to a second reading on December. With that, the committee reports are in your packet. And for tonight, we will be adjourned.