A lawsuit filed against Madison County District Judge Orville Clift is the next step in the debate over how to fund the district court, Huntsville Mayor Kevin Hatfield said Friday.
The suit seeks to set aside Clift’s Feb. 17 order, which directed the Madison County district court clerk to split the court’s costs evenly between the city and county.
Hatfield said the city supports Clift’s decision, but said this sort of action is the only way to resolve the disagreement with the county.
“Madison County is doing exactly what they should do if they don’t agree with Judge Clift’s ruling,” Hatfield said.
The suit was filed March 20 by Billy Allred, who serves as Madison County attorney and deputy prosecuting attorney.
Clift was served Wednesday and has 30 days to respond. After a response is filed, 4th Judicial District Circuit Judge Kim Smith will set a court date.
Allred said the county believes Clift erred in his interpretation of ArkansasCode Annotated 16-17-115, which requires the county to pay half of Clift’s salary and half the salary of the chief court clerk.
“Obviously if we didn’t think it was proper what we were doing we would not have done it, but that doesn’t mean we know any more than anybody else,” Allred said.
Chief District Court Clerk Michelle Bohannan said she will continue following Clift’s February order until directed to do otherwise.
Bohannan said even after splitting the operational costs, the county is receiving more money in fines and fees than it did last year. She said that last month the county received about $20,000 after paying its half of the operational costs, which runs $3,500 to $4,000 month.
The city received about $4,100 after its half of the operational costs were paid, Bohannan said. She said the court’s case load has been increasing each month.
Madison County Judge Frank Weaver, who was not available for comment Friday, has explained the disagreement in funding came when the city decided to stop contributing $35,000 toward emergency dispatching costs. He said previously that the county made up for the added dispatching costs in the 2012 budget with money it originally budgeted for the district court.
Huntsville City Attorney Howard Cain has offered another opinion of the law cited by Allred, which goes on to say the county “shall, at its annual meeting, make an appropriation of a sum sufficient to pay the county’s proportion of the expenses of any such district court.”
By Cain’s interpretation, the county is responsible for paying more than half of two salaries.
Hatfield said the dispute won’t hurt the two government’s relationship.
“Well goodness no. We’re not seventh graders, we’re government officials,” Hatfield said. “I’m trying [to] act on the best interest of the city and Judge Weaver is trying to act on best interest of the county. We just disagree on what the law says.” To contact this reporter:
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/14/2012