Quorum Court - Regular Meeting

on this country and our county. We ask that you be with us and guide us tonight as we consider the business of Washington County. We also ask that you lay your hands upon us and remind us of your greatest lesson, that we love you with all we have and that we love each other the way that we love you, dear Lord. We ask for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it Thank you, everyone. Now we'll move to the adoption of the agenda. Justice Dennis, did you have an addition for the agenda?

Yes, sir. I'd like to add a resolution to recognize and honor Tom Sissom for his years of dedicated service as a reporter covering the Washington County and Benton County Quorum Courts.

I have a motion to add a resolution by Justice Dennis, a second by Justice Ecke. All those in favor? All those opposed? Item number 2026-R-005 has been added. It will be the first item under new business. Any other motions with the agenda? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. I have a motion to adopt as amended by Justice Ricker, second by Justice Dean. All those in favor? Those opposed? The agenda as amended has been adopted. Item number four is preliminary motions.

Justice Dean? Thank you, Judge. I'd like to make a motion that all ordinances and resolutions be read by title only.

I have a motion by Justice Dean to read all resolutions and ordinances by title only, seconded by Justice Lemming. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Ordinances and resolutions will be read by title only. Item number five is a citizen's comment period. 15-minute comment period with three-minute limit per individual. Come forward. I'll need the first person to press that bottom button on the right to activate that microphone. I'll let you know when it's active. You should be good.

Good evening, Judge. Diana Scott, Fayetteville, Arkansas. In reviewing the agenda, item 10 really appeals to me. It is an ordinance to accept an $81,000 grant from the Arkansas Access to Justice Foundation for the Washington County Public Defender's Office to create and fund a social work coordinator position. So this sounds like a wonderful idea and apparently it wouldn't take Washington County taxpayer dollars. So I'm speaking out in favor of it. I hope you ratify it, thank you.

Public comments? Seeing no further comments, we'll move on with the agenda. Item number six is approval of the minutes. The minutes were sent out with a packet. Barring any corrections, I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes. Motion to accept the minutes by Justice Dean, second by Justice Dennis. All those in favor? Those opposed? The minutes have been accepted. Item number seven is a county judge's report. Just a few quick items this evening. First of all, I'm proud to announce that our road department was honored with the 2026 NACO Achievement Award for their innovation of the road forge pavement preservation process. What I want each of you to know and remind you is the road forge process was an innovation that was created right here in Washington County with our road department in partnership with our vendors, specifically Ergon out of Tulsa, who sells us our road oils and emulsifications. What I want to say today is that is a product and a process that has been innovated right here in Washington County and that will now move off nationwide to bring savings and safety to the taxpayers. I want to thank our road department. The last few years have been very difficult. They are on the front lines of a lot of our growth and also a lot of our destruction if we see natural disasters or things like that. They've really stepped up and gone above and beyond. And this award is another reflection of that. And so I'm proud of those individuals. And absolutely, please clap. And I look forward to the many, many things that they can do in the future. You know, kind of on that note, too, just a quick PSA to all of Washington County. Please be on the lookout. Summer is officially here. All the children are out attending pools and all their activities and riding bikes. Just be aware of those children. Let's all be a good community and collectively watch out for one another. And then also, right on the backs of the news about the road department, we're right in the middle of the 101 days of summer. And for those of you who follow that, please stay hydrated and take care of yourself if you're out there. in this balmy heat that's come around this time of year. I want to say a quick happy Father's Day to all the fathers in Washington County as we move into the holiday weekend and celebrate that. We all know that fatherhood is a greatest responsibility and also the greatest blessing you will ever have in your life. I can personally say that. Just last week, I remember having a conversation with both my sons, they're eight and ten, and I thanked them for the moment because I said, gentlemen, I learn as much from you as you do from me, and I want you to know that. And so I hope every father out there this weekend can be honored and spend some time with their family and loved ones who, of course, mean the most to any father in their lives. One other thing, quick PSAs tomorrow. June 19th, nonessential officers at the courthouse will be closed in observance of Juneteenth. This year marks 161 years since the anniversary of Juneteenth, which is when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, first learned of their emancipation, June 19th, 1865. Today, when I was putting together my notes, I thought to thank my predecessor, Judge Joseph Wood, who was the first African-American county judge elected in the state of Arkansas. The man carries himself very well, and I'd also like to say he was the county judge who brought the Juneteenth holiday to Washington County. So in reflection of him and, of course, the wonderful news that emancipation was for this country, we'll honor that tomorrow at the courthouse. I appreciate all of that. Moving forward, we'll now jump right into the agenda. Oh wait, I was almost remiss. We always want to thank the wonderful hosting by the county extension offices. Tonight we were graced with the presence and the snacks of the Lincoln County 4-H Club. Some of them anyways. That is a big organization and a big club, and we were graced by some of them here this evening. So without remiss, I did want to mention that. All right, moving on with the agenda. Item number eight, first item on unfinished business. Counselor, you read that by title only.

yes automates on its second reading an ordinance authorizing washington county arkansas to join the arkansas property assessed capital expenditure arc pace improvement district approving and incorporating the uniform participation agreement authorizing the county judge to execute the participation agreement and for other purposes justice rio stafford thank you judge motion to suspend the rules and go to the third and final reading

I have a motion by Justice Rio Stafford to suspend the rules and move to a third and final reading. I heard second by Justice Lyons. Are we okay with that? Everybody's okay. Motion by Justice Rio Stafford, second by Justice Lyons. All those in favor? Those opposed? Mr. Allen, will you please call a roll? This is on the question to advance this to the third and final reading. Mr. Allen?

Justice Dean. No. Justice Washington? Yes. Justice Coger? Yes. Justice Dennis? No. Justice Hiers? Yes. Justice Rios Stafford? Yes. Justice Lemming? No. Justice Ricker? No. Justice Pond? Yes. Justice Bruns? No. Justice Wilson? No. Justice Massengill? No. Justice Lyons? Yes. Justice Ecke? Yes.

That question fails. Item 8.1 will move to its third and final reading at the July quorum court meeting. Item number nine. Counselor, will you read that by title only?

Item nine is an ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Genesis Ranch project.

Justice Lemming.

I'd like to leave it on the second reading.

There's no motion needed. If no further motions, this. Correct. I believe J.P. Lemming's request was to leave it on the second reading. That would require no motion. Justice Pond.

I move to suspend the rules and. Move this on to the third and final reading.

I have a motion to suspend the rules and move it to a third and final reading by Justice Pond, second by Justice Ecke. Third reading. Third reading. I'm sorry, was I saying second? This will be the third and final reading if we move this advanced. Second reading right now. Mr. Allen, will you call a roll on this? This is for the question to suspend the rules and move item number 9.1 to a third and final reading.

Justice Dean? Yes. Yes. Justice Washington? No. No. Justice Coger? No. No. Justice Dennis? Yes. Justice Hires? No. Justice Rios Stafford? Yes. Justice Lemming? No. Justice Ricker? No. Justice Pond? Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Justice Lyons? No. Justice Ecke? Yes.

That question fails. Item 9.1 will move to its third and final reading at the July Washington County Foreign Court meeting. All right. First item of new business was the resolution added to the agenda by Justice Dennis. Justice Dennis, would you like to introduce this, sir? Will you cue your mic? Let's get you on record.

I move that we accept this resolution.

I have a motion to pass by Justice Dennis, and I heard second by Justice Lemming. Any further discussion?

It would be nice to read it out loud.

Would you like to do that?

I think should get to do that. She did a lot of work on it. OK. Yes, sir. Be it resolved by the Quorum Court of the County of Washington State of Arkansas a resolution to be entitled, a resolution recognizing and honoring Tom Sissom for his years of dedicated service as a reporter covering the Washington County and Benton County Quorum Courts. Tom System has served as a reporter for the Northwest Arkansas Gazette, faithfully covering the proceedings and activities of the Washington County Court and the Benton County Quorum Court for many years. And whereas, through his profession and journalism, Mr. System has kept the citizens of Northwest Arkansas well-informed about local government matters. And whereas, Mr. System is retiring from his position marking the end of a distinguished career in local journalism. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Quorum Court of Washington County, Arkansas, that the Washington County Quorum Court hereby extends its sincere gratitude and appreciation to Tom Sissom for his dedicated service, and wishes him health, happiness, and fulfillment in his well-deserved retirement.

JUSTICE GINSBURG?

Thank you, Judge. When I first joined the court, we had a couple of other reporters, and I'd attend the meeting, and I'd read the paper, and I'd shake my head. I went, wait a minute, I was there. This does not line up. And it wasn't until Tom Sism became Washington County Quorum Court's reporter that with confidence we would have a meeting and the next day that is exactly what happened and i called him walter cronkite and and then he says oh please don't do that and i said okay well you deserve the walter cronkite journalism award because you tell the truth and you or you report what happened accurately for everybody to know and i greatly appreciate it It's not partisan, it's not elevating one to put down another, and it's not mean-spirited. It is, that's the way it was. And Tom, I'm going to miss you, and I thank you, and God bless you and your family.

Further discussion? Citizens' comments on item 2026-R-005. Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, will you please call a roll? This is on the question to pass, item 2026-R-005. Motion by Justice Dennis, second by Justice Ecke.

Justice Dean. Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Washington. Yes. Yes. Justice Coger. Yes. Yes. Justice Dennis. Yes. Yes. Justice Hires. Yes. Yes. Justice Rios-Stafford. Yes. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes. Yes. Justice Ecke? Yes.

Yes. Item number 2026-R-005 passes. Next, we'll move to the first original item of new business, which is item number 10. Counselor, you read that by title only?

An ordinance accepting and appropriating a grant in the amount of $81,000 from the Arkansas Access to Justice Foundation for the Washington County Public Defender's Office to create and fund a social work coordinator position. Appropriating $81,000 as set out herein and for other purposes.

Justice Lyons.

Thank you, Judge. I move we amend this ordinance. by in line nine, striking out accepting and adding the word anticipating, therefore it will read, an ordinance anticipating and appropriating a grant in the amount of $81,000, et cetera. Additionally, on line 35, same thing, line out accepts the and add anticipates A. Therefore, it reads, Washington County hereby anticipates a grant from the Arkansas Access of Justice Foundation in the amount of $81,000, et cetera.

It's all of it.

Justice Lyons, will you do me a favor and restate your motion one more time for me? I just want to make sure I was clear on it before I.

Not a problem. So my motion is to amend by on line nine, striking out the word accepting and adding the word anticipating. So an ordinance anticipating and appropriating. Okay.

So I have a.

Same on line 35. Strike out accepts the. And add anticipates a. Washington County hereby anticipates a grant, et cetera.

Great. Line 28.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I miss one? Yeah. Okay. Also on line 28, apologize. Line out accepts and.

Great. I have a motion by Justice Lyons to strike the word accepting and replace it with anticipating on line nine. On lines 28 and 29, striking the words acceptance and. And on line 35, to strike the word accepts the and replace it with anticipates a. Is that correct? Yes, sir. I heard motion by Justice Lyons, I believe second by Justice Dean. Does that stand, sir? Yes, sir. Okay. Did everybody understand those amendments? I believe we have notes on our table. I just, for the audio portion, wanted to make sure we got that as correct as possible. Any other questions?

So I'll just add that the reason for the amendment is the quorum court doesn't have the authority to sign contracts or accept, and only the judge does. So we're trying to make it correct. Basically, if the judge decides not to accept this grant, then this is null and void. So we're just appropriating it if the judge decides to accept.

Great. Any discussion on the amendment? Can we take up the amendment first? Any discussion on the amendment? Justice Ecke, is your discussion on the amendment a little grander? Justice Ecke?

Thank you, Judge. Just in support of my colleague, that is ACA 1414. 1101-1102 that clearly states that it is only the county judge that can accept grants. It is a quorum court that appropriates the grants. So the language of accepting would have been unconstitutional and illegal for us to do that. Just want to support him in that. So if you want to look up ACA 14-14-1101-1102 specifically.

Justice Lyons.

Yeah, I'm sorry. We're going to bat this back and forth because I'm going to give credit to JP Ecke who brought it up during this finance meeting. Because of the way it came, we didn't have a counselor. We went ahead and passed it. I called Counselor Wednesday to make sure we had this right coming into this meeting. So really, the credit goes to JP Ecke for bringing this up.

Thank you. Justice Koger?

Thank you, Judge. I didn't hear all that J.P. Lyons just said, but as far as my ordinance being legal, I sent it to Attorney Lester, and he never told me that it was illegal. And so I did what I was required to do. If it's illegal, he would have told me before then. He should have.

No, I think I want to take a moment just to clarify that as, I guess, Mr. Lester's ultimate supervisor. You guys are duly elected, and he can give you advice about the ordinance, but he's under instructions to bring what you guys want to the floor so it can be debated. And that's what his job is to support you guys. Absolutely, he tries to give you advice on what's legal and not. And I think we could all agree on this horseshoe that that advice is sometimes taken and sometimes not. So we have to respect you as an individual and a duly elected justice of the peace and bring what you bring to the horseshoe.

Well, maybe we have something from Mr. Lester, county attorney, not just from J.P. Ecke. I swear to God, my ordinance is legal. Councilor Lester, you want to comment on it?

Sure. You all can bring whatever ordinance you want. I mean, that's up to you. Whether or not it is legally binding in the wording that it is or not, you could pass the ordinance saying you're accepting it. Ultimately, grants have to be accepted by the county judge, just like contracts have to, you could pass an ordinance to enter into a contract, but that doesn't mean that the county is compelled to do so, right? In this instance, if you wanted to pass it as accepting, you could, but that doesn't mean that the county automatically gets to accept that.

Say that last part again, please.

That doesn't mean the county automatically accepts that, right? You can't usurp the authority of an elected branch official based on an ordinance. You can pass it, but that doesn't mean that the county is automatically compelled to do that. Does that make sense?

Let me think about that. I can pass it, but the county, when you say the county is not automatically compelled, are you saying the county judge is not automatically compelled?

Correct, and as the chief officer of the county, thereby the county is not compelled, right? So you can't usurp the state law and say, well, if, this part doesn't happen, we're just gonna go ahead and say that it happens. Does that make sense?

Sort of. I think I understand what's going on.

I don't know that I would completely agree that it would be illegal, but it would not be enforceable as to the point of actually accepting the grant. And that's what JP Lyons called and asked. And I said the more appropriate thing to say would be accepting. Treasurer Hill and I have a lot of conversations about this on ordinances. We have something and it may be missing a number or it's stated one way that he prefers it to be stated a different way. Not necessarily that it's wrong, but it's clearer that way to the reader of the ordinance.

Okay, Mr. Lester, in your opinion, what do I need to do then to make the ordinance legal?

Well, I mean, I think putting anticipating, which is typically what we do, because one, we have not received that money as far as I know. Treasurer Hill hasn't told me that we've deposited. The fact that we haven't deposited that money means that we haven't accepted it. Anytime that we anticipate getting money on any project that we do, we try to monitor that as much as possible to say, hey, Treasurer Hill will often say, hey, we haven't received that money. Can we change this from accepting to anticipating? So for one reason, that would be more clear to the reader of the ordinance to say that we haven't received that money. A lot of times, we have already received a check. And when we do, we will pass an ordinance that says we accept that money. just for his benefit, for the treasurer's benefit, to signify that we've already received that money.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Lester. I appreciate that.

No problem. And don't get me wrong. I often draft ordinances that say accept or anticipating that I get an email back from him saying, hey, we haven't gotten that money, or yet we already have gotten that money. Can you change this word?

I appreciate you. Thank you.

No problem.

So do I introduce my ordinance now?

No, we have a motion to amend the ordinance on the floor. Any other discussion about the motion to amend? Seeing no, Mr. Allen, will you take up this question? This is a motion to amend the ordinance. We had a motion by Justice Lyons, second by Justice Dean.

Justice Dean.

Yes, sir.

Yes, Justice Washington. Yes. Yes, Justice Koger. Yes. Yes, Justice Dennis. Yes. Yes. Justice Hires. Yes. Justice Rios Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Justice Ricker. Yes. Justice Pond. Yes. Justice Bruns. Yes. Justice Wilson. Yes. Justice Massengill. Yes. Justice Lyons. Yes. Justice Ecke. Yes.

The amendment passes. Now we're back to the original item. Justice Coker, would you like to introduce this?

I would, Judge. Thank you very much. So we talked about this pretty much last week. But in case there's somebody here or somebody listening online who doesn't know, the Public Defender's Office has received a grant to finance and pay the salary of a social work coordinator for one year. And they need that because it would be very helpful to the clients that they serve, the Washington County clients that they serve. And I'm just asking that you pass this. And I want to thank, again, the Public Defender's Office because they've worked so hard on getting this. And this is a good thing. It will help get people to court. It will help connect people to resources and help that they need. And they'll have someone at the Public Defender's Office looking over the interns who are working there. And that's very much needed, and I

respectfully ask that you support this and we make a motion to pass it I have a motion to pass by justice Coger second by justice hires we'll give you one justice hired second by justice hires any further discussion on item on the side I'm sorry justice Wilson Thank You chair I just have a question

How many social workers are employed by the county at this time? Do we have that number?

I do not have that number off the top of my head, Justice Wilson. It is several. Several, meaning? Tens? Ten. Probably tens, teens. I see our HR director, Ms. Jess Bennett, back there. Not that we'll put you on the spot tonight, Ms. Bennett, unless you have that question, but can you please grab that maybe tomorrow and maybe get that emailed out to the staff or to the JPs? Is that okay? I'm sorry about that, Justice Wilson. I don't want to harbor that. Thank you. Justice Hickey?

Thank you, Judge. I would prefer that this follow proper procedures. that it goes through the judge's office, the language is then vetted, then it comes to the quorum court, and then we can approve it. I'm not opposed to the public defender's office receiving this grant. I've never opposed the public defender's office when it comes to staffing or raises or even supporting of your office. Never have I opposed you. But I think for transparency's sake and for the public to be aware of what's going on, we need to follow proper procedure and we need to follow the steps correctly. So I'll be voting no, but I think it needs to be withdrawn and sent back so that way it could follow proper procedures. So just for transparency's sake, I just wanted everybody to understand It's important that we follow procedure. Thank you.

Further discussion? Public comments on item 10.1. Do me a favor. Be the bottom of the bottom right. Bottom right. Button on the bottom right. There you go, sir.

My name is Blake Chancellor. Those that don't know you, I do work at the Public Defender's Office. Just a brief, I know we've already kind of talked about this before. I was not here, so I just kind of wanted to put my short spin on this. A couple things that I would talk about. The question that you just asked was how many social workers are employed by the county. It's a good question. I don't know. I can tell you how many is employed by our office that go to the Public Defender's Office. That would be zero. We do have interns that work in our office that do this same similar thing. But interns turn over with semesters. So in other words, when that semester leaves, those interns leave, and there is a discontinuity between until we get new interns in our office. So that turns over regularly. The other thing as far as social work goes, I'll be the first to tell you, when I heard that we were getting even interns in our office, I asked, what does this mean they're going to do? think there's kind of a misconception at least my old school when I hear social worker what they do is not what I think of what they do a lot of and what I think is most beneficial to the county is they are a conduit of communication I want to be clear because this has also been tossed about with pre-trial services and that type such thing which this is really kind of different this goes back to even the CJA panel the judge himself multiple times would come to that panel and say, we want statistics. We want numbers. This is an opportunity to get some of those numbers at no expense to the county. The social workers, they communicate with our clients. They assist with reminders of court dates, which cuts down on failure to appears, which is a large amount of expenditure. In our jail, go to the jail website, look at how many people are in there on FTAs. You'll see that that's a good portion of money. So even a few of those that we can save is a large amount of money cut from the amount that we have to spend there. The other thing that the social workers do is they do present and offer to connect them with other services. Food, you know, if clients are not able to provide enough food or do not have enough food, it can be as simple as that. It goes to drug treatment, to helping them get introduced into rehab facilities, which with insurance and everything else is a skill in and of itself that's even beyond me. Often when I try to get somebody in there, insurance is just confusing as heck to try to get somebody into treatment. The only other point I want to make, and to distinguish this and to make sure that there's not some confusion, is with pretrial services. This in no way is any guarantee of an outcome in a case. What these social workers do is give them the tools and give them the information that they can follow through. But in no way is this any kind of workaround. The system would still go in front of a prosecutor. A prosecutor would still review whatever that client has done, including treatment or anything else. That prosecutor still has to make a say in what happens in that offer or that case if it is to be resolved. So this is not anything to do with pretrial services in that fashion.

Thank you, Mr. Chancellor. That's the time. Public comments on item 10.1. Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, will you please call roll? This is on the motion to pass item 10.1, motion by Justice Koger, second by Justice Hires.

Justice Dean.

Abstain.

Abstain. Justice Washington. Yes. Justice Coker? Yes. Yes. Justice Dennis? Yes. Yes. Justice Hires? Yes. Yes. Justice Rios-Stafford? Yes. Yes. Justice Lemming? Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Yes. Justice Wilson? No. No. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes. Yes. Justice Ecke? No. No.

Item 10.1 passes. Item 11. Counselor, will you read that item by title only?

Item 11 is an ordinance appropriating $73,865.32 from other services and charges fund to the human resources budget for 2026. Justice Ecke?

Thank you, Judge. This request comes from our director, Ms. Bennett, requesting an HR Generalist I for the rest of the year. And I am in support of what she needs in staffing, because their office deals with so many employees. I feel that if they're just asking for this one position, they know their office, they understand the ins and outs, and what they can and cannot do. And if they need help, then we need to give them the help that they need. So therefore, I make a motion that we pass 11.1.

I have a motion to pass item 11.1 by Justice Secke, second by Justice Dennis. Any further discussion on item 11.1?

Justice Rio Stafford. Thank you, Judge. When we heard this in committee last week, I had asked to pull this off the consent agenda because I just still had some more questions around it. And in the week since then, I have had a chance to talk to Director Bennett and get some of those questions answered. The number one question I had was, We had heard that creating this position would be budget neutral this year because of money being moved around from other funds within the department where there was unspent funds. But the question I had was, if we're creating a new position, is this really budget neutral going forward into following years, next year and the year after and the year after that? So I did get that question answered, that the reason that there's unspent funds in some of the other line items within the department is because of contracts that have been canceled, some of them software contracts. And so those are permanent cancellations. And so to me, that answers that question of yes, because that money is permanently unspent, that this will be budget neutral going forward. The other question I had is that I had heard from that there are some other departments as we go through our budget process this year that are also going to be looking at wanting to add additional staff members to their departments as well. And some of them I think had been kind of directed to you know, sort of hold off until our budget process. And I do think that, you know, ideally we would be looking at everything as one totality as part of the budget process of all the departments that want positions and looking at them all together as one whole. But I do understand that, in those other cases, that those other requests would not be budget neutral. And so even though I would have preferred that we hear all of these together as part of the budget process, but I do understand that this is a request and sort of a special case. So I'm gonna go ahead and be supporting this. Thank you. Justice Massengill.

Yes, I had a lot of the same questions that you had, but I am kind of curious why we're doing this right now when we're fixing to, within a couple months, start looking at all the other requests for additional positions. So I do have one question if Director Bennett could.

Director Bennett, would you like to step forward? Thank you. You hit that button on the bottom right, please, ma'am.

Thank you. So just a couple of questions. One would be, you know, why right now? Why not two or three months from now? If this is approved tonight, when would you be looking at hiring this person?

Tomorrow. Tomorrow? We are drowning. So yes, it would be nice to be able to go ahead. We've got a lot coming, not just in terms of regrades, job descriptions, and things like that. But we've got open enrollment that's coming. They had eliminated the benefit coordinator role years ago. as many medical claims as that we're getting in and just the navigating all of that we have a ton of projects that we cannot get to because we are trying to do the every single day-to-day things and we are we are just drowning and to be able to support all those other departments that need our help we're going to have to have some help and you all know i am very frugal in general but especially with taxpayer money i pride myself on how much we've been able to give back we're on track to do that again this year so i i come very humbly and i i would not be asking if it wasn't absolutely necessary okay thank you yeah of course for what it's worth i'll just chime in uh the hr department's about to hit their hay season

between open enrollment and also I just want the quorum court to consider the immense amount of budget support they do. I know that a lot of times you automatically contribute that to the comptroller's office, all that budget work, but keep in mind all the employment matters that go into the budget and Director Bennett's office is very involved in that and it can be quite overwhelming. It's you know anything I can observes observations They're about to hit their busiest time of the year probably in the site the calendar cycle of the county Any more other questions for director Bennett? further discussion Seeing none any public comments on it. Oh, I'm so sorry justice bond What I understand this is this is a

My concern, we have a number of asks for new positions in other departments. And so it is concerning to me that we're talking about and getting ready to do this ahead of the budget process. where the others will be coming in asking for positions. Thank you.

Correct. I feel like we're reiterating the same points. I want you guys all to know that the direction to the directors has been any big spending or any big moves needs to be taken up with the budget. I've always been philosophically believed in that so that you guys can take all those needs at once. I completely agree with that. What we're communicating to you is, is there an exception that you guys have to decide is big enough to make this exception? And what I'm telling you and what Director Bennett's telling you is for the smoothness of the budget process and the smoothness of supporting our workforce with the HR services that they expect, this position's required. Further discussion? Just slides?

Just to continue that perspective is, that's the reason in our budget controls, new positions only come to us certain months of the year, if you remember. And if you remember, at the Finance and Budget Committee meeting, we had to suspend the rules and have a two-thirds vote to consider it because it was outside of those months. So again, we try to stay within, so we see all these coming at once, budget time's best, Things happen throughout the year, but we try to collect them so we're seeing a bigger picture rather than just individual, like it used to, right? When I first started, we were getting them all over the place. But again, I think that the important part that's been said here is the support that HR needs to give to all the other departments for budget, consideration of all the regradings, all the new employees, all that comes through HR. That's their work and they need staff to be able to do that so we can get the budget, have the other departments understand what's there, get it into the budget and bring it through to us so we see the big picture and decide what to do.

Yes, philosophically too, in support of one of our great directors, what I'd say is we've always told our directors to please innovate, find efficiencies, in your work, find efficiencies that are gonna be bringing better services to the taxpayers and in this case to our workforce. And what we've said is if you innovate and you make things less expensive for the taxpayers, if you're eliminating costs, the reward to that in my mind is that if you think you also identify things that make your office more efficient, we shouldn't completely not invest in that office because they took the time to cut their budget. And I will say that Director Bennett and her office very much see that. They feel like they've been on the front line, paid it forward to find the savings and invest the sweat equity on the front end, but now have identified, through those savings, better ways to serve our workforce.

Justice Burns? Thank you, Judge. It's always been my experience that if you get behind the eight ball on personnel, then that's just going to trickle down. And if we do approve some of these other positions come budget time, they're going to get behind us. And we're just going to keep going backward instead of going forward. I think we need to be innovative thinking here tonight to give her the help that she needs to at least try to keep this on an even keel and get it to where we're not getting behind the A ball so much. I really am going to strongly support this.

Thank you, Justice Burns. I want to compliment our HR team every time I get the experience or the chance, and so I probably talk too much. But the other thing I'd like to say is our HR team and the benefits we're offering our workforce make us competitive. I hope you guys can appreciate that. Many of you have been on this horseshoe several years, and I think we've seen an uptick in the quality of and the retainage in our county, the HR group's a big part of that, to make our employees feel special, to make them feel welcome, to make sure they're the resources we have. I would like to continue that work as an employer here, constantly looking for talent to bring to the county. Further discussion? Public comments on item 11.1? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, will you call a roll? This is on a motion to pass item 11.1, motion by Justice Ecke, second by Justice Dennis.

Yes, sir.

Justice Dean. Yes, sir. Justice Washington. Yes. Justice Coker. Yes. Justice Dennis. Yes. Justice Hires. Yes. Justice Rios-Stafford. Yes. Justice Lemming. Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes. Yes. Justice Ecke? Yes.

Yes. Item 11.1 passes. Moving on to item number 12. Counselor, will you read that by title only?

Item 12 is an ordinance appropriating $506,469.12 from the general fund to the cap budget for 2026.

Just a second.

Thank you, Judge. As this court remembers, or I'm going to refresh your memory, that this court did approve and pass this appropriation in 2025. However, due to an oversight, it wasn't rolled into the 2026 budget. And because of that, the money was unspent, and now it needs to be reappropriated to the 2026 budget. And so therefore, I move to pass item number 12.1.

I have a motion to pass item 12.1 by Justice Secke, second by Justice Lyons. Any further discussion on item 12.1? Any public comments on item 12.1? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, will you please call a roll? This is on the motion to pass, item 12.1, motion by Justice Ecke, second by Justice Lyons.

Justice Dean. Yes, sir. Yes, Justice Washington. Yes. Yes, Justice Koger. No. No, Justice Dennis. Yes. Yes, Justice Hires. Yes. Yes, Justice Rios-Stafford. Yes. Yes, Justice Lemming. Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? No. No. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes. Yes. Justice Ecke? Yes.

Yes. Item 12.1 passes. Item 13.1. Counselor, you read that by title only? Yes.

An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Skelton project.

Justice Lemming?

Yes, Judge. Thank you. This is a gentleman that just sells lumber wholesale to the public. And he's been doing it for several years. And he's not been a problem. And nobody even called and said a word about it. And he's way off the road. So I'd like to move it to the second reading.

I have a motion to suspend the rules and move it to a second reading by Justice Lemming, second by Justice Lyons. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Counselor, will you read that for a second time?

An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the Planning Board for the Skelton Project.

Justice Lemming.

I'd like to move it to the third and final reading.

I have a motion to suspend the rules and move it to a third and final reading by Justice Lemming, second by Justice Lyons. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed?

Council, will we read that for a third and final time? An ordinance ratifying a conditional use permit recommended for approval by the planning board for the Skelton project.

Justice Lemming.

Oh, sorry.

Move to pass. Motion to pass by Justice Lemming, second by Justice Lyons. Further discussion on item 13.1? Justice Coger?

Thank you, Judge. Are we going to hear from Dr. Atta? I think he can answer my questions. Or he may answer them when he speaks anyway. We'll see.

Good evening, everyone. The applicant and the engineer are here if you have any further questions. So this project was approved on June 4th. Six members voted yes. One member was absent. Same as Mr. Lemming said, JP Lemming mentioned it's a small-scale lumber shop. The applicant did not know that he required a permit. He came to the office, and we asked him to come into compliance. He has a shop that's like 80 by 50, and his house is next door, so he lives on the property as well. And it's basically, it's going to Average like two to three like customers like a week and maybe one two three maximum lumber like Deliveries like to the to the property per month per month So I'm like everything he has like a tiny like gravel parking and he has an access easement That's already been approved by the road department. So no issues there Okay

So there was something in the staff report from, I think it was from the health department, about they couldn't find the septic tank permit.

Yeah, the location of the septic tank, like they're working on it right now to be able to locate it. But for the CUP purposes, what's needed is a PERC test. And he already passed that PERC test, like that we have that to move forward. But after that, like locating the septic or designing the septic or even reorienting the septic, that's between the applicant and the health department. It's a state requirement.

Okay. Is that the same then as the 50-foot setback, pond setback?

Yes. So if it's within the distance, less than 50, he will be asked by the state or the health department to move it to have it at a minimum of 50. And that pond, is man-made pond, so it could be dried out. It's not like natural pond.

Okay. Okay, one more question. Yes, ma'am. What if the applicant wanted to expand? Would he have to come back?

Oh, definitely. It's like any expansion, that's one of the requirements, I guess, the planning condition number 12. So it says any changes, any expansion, any modification, he needs to come back and reapply for an amended CUP.

I do have one more I forgot. So where does the lumber come from? I mean, do they go to a lumber company and buy lumber? Or do they cut the lumber there? I'm sorry, it's funny.

It can come from kind of all over the place. It just gets shipped in on a semi. Any more questions?

I guess it was asked and answered during the planning board as well. He doesn't have a specific supplier. He buys as cheap as possible and he just sells out. So he basically buys bulk and sells retail.

So it's not like a sawmill. It's just a lumber.

No, no, no. It's just ready mix. He brings in bales and just send out retail.

Okay, that's good. Thank you very much. No more questions?

Further discussion? Public comments on item 13.1? Seeing none, we'll take up the question. Mr. Allen, would you please call roll? This is a motion to pass item 13.1, motion by Justice Lemming, second by Justice Lyons.

Justice Dean? Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Washington? Yes. Yes. Justice Coger? Yes. Yes. Justice Dennis? Yes. Yes. Justice Hiers? Yes. Yes. Justice Rios Stafford? Yes. Yes. Justice Lemming? Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Eche? Yes. Yes.

Item 13.1 passes. Next up is the consent agenda with items 14 through 16. Counselor, will you read those items by title only?

Item 14 is an ordinance recognizing additional revenue in the amount of $10,292.56 in the general fund and appropriating the total amount of $10,292.56 to the IT budget for 2026. Item 15 is an ordinance recognizing additional revenue in the amount of $12,490.60 in the road fund and appropriating the total amount of $12,490.60 to the road department budget for 2026. Item 16 is an ordinance appropriating two million from the unappropriated reserves in the general reserve fund to the employee insurance fund for 2026.

Justice Lyons? Thank you, Judge.

I move we pass the consent agenda. I have a motion to pass the consent agenda by Justice Lyons. I heard second by Justice Lemming. Any further discussion on the consent agenda? Any public comments on the consent agenda? Seeing none, we'll take up the item. I have a motion to pass the consent agenda by Justice Lyons, second by Justice Lemming. Mr. Allen, will you please call the roll?

Justice Dean? Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Washington? Yes. Yes. Justice Coger? Yes. Yes. Justice Dennis? Yes. Yes. Justice Hiers? Yes. Yes. Justice Rios Stafford? Yes. Yes. Justice Lemming? Yes. Yes. Justice Ricker? Yes. Yes. Justice Pond? Yes. Yes. Justice Bruns? Yes. Yes. Justice Wilson? Yes. Yes. Justice Massengill? Yes. Yes. Justice Lyons? Yes, sir. Yes. Justice Ecke? Yes. Yes.

The consent agenda passes. The committee reports were in the packet that were delivered with the agenda. Without further ado, and without objection, we'd like to have an adjournment. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers in Washington County.

But I don't read the reports from the planning department because it doesn't really affect me.