County Officials OK Pickup Purchase

Sheriff’s Answers Satisfy Quorum Court

— Benton County’s justices of the peace on Thursday approved buing pickup by the Sheriff’s Office after they previously withheld approval over questions of policies and protocols.

The justices of the peace quizzed Sheriff Keith Ferguson over the pickup and whether the county’s purchasing policies had been followed.

At A Glance

Court Action

Benton County’s Quorum Court met Thursday and approved:

• The county’s 2013 budget

• Declaring a vacancy in the District 2 seat on the Quorum Court

• Spending $15,000 for postage costs for the County Clerk’s Office

• Spending $23,177 for additional salary and benefits for the Coroner’s Office

• Spending $5,117 for a copier for Circuit Judge Xollie Duncan’s office

• Transferring $500,000 from the general fund to the Road Department for additional paving work in 2012

w Spending $182,000 for accounting software

Source: Staff Report

The Sheriff’s Office took possession of a pickup for Sheriff-elect Kelley Cradduck to use during the transition period and presented an invoice and a purchase order to Sarah Daniels, county comptroller. Daniels brought the purchase to the attention of the Finance Committee, which put it on hold until someone from the Sheriff’s Office attended a meeting to answer questions from the justices of the peace.

Ferguson argued the purchase followed past practices while the justices of the peace insisted it didn’t.

“I believe the purchase order was filled out properly,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said Cradduck picked out the vehicle and Chief Deputy Don Townsend competed the paperwork for the purchase.

“He’s done just exactly what he’s done in the past,” Ferguson said of Townsend. “He had no reason to divert from what he’s done in the past.”

Justice of the Peace Dan Douglas said he questioned the need for buying a vehicle for Cradduck to use for one month.

“One of the things that doesn’t look real good is that you drive a county vehicle and on Jan. 1 that truck will be available,” Douglas said. “Was there a need for Kelley to purchase a new vehicle when the county has a carpool and he could have checked out a vehicle there to be used for this one month?”

Justice of the Peace Shirley Sandlin said Ferguson knows county policies and said the issue could have been taken care of had someone from the Sheriff’s Office been available to explain the purchase and answer questions at the earlier meetings.

“The thing that we were questioning was that we had nothing and no sheriff to ask about it,” Sandlin said.

Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said the county can’t do a “cleanup ordinance” at the end of the year to transfer money from the County Jail budget to the Sheriff’s Office budget as Ferguson was requesting in this instance.

Allen said the purchase order should have been submitted for approval in advance of the purchase and said Daniels has done her job properly.

“She has done exactly what she’s supposed to do,” Allen said. “I want to make sure everybody understands we haven’t changed anything.”

After discussing the matter, the justices of the peace voted to approve the transfer of $5,850 from the County Jail budget to the Sheriff’s Office budget to cover the $19,871 cost of the pickup.

At the end of Thursday’s meeting Douglas raised a new issue for the justices of the peace to consider.

Douglas, who is leaving the Quorum Court to take a seat in the state Legislature, said he thinks the county should explore the possibility of using reserve money to implement a road improvement program and then replace that money with the proceeds from the sales tax measure voters approved in the Nov. 6 general election. Benton County is slated to receive about $1.2 million a year from the tax over a 10-year period.

“I had an epiphany the other day,” Douglas said. “The state is going to bond its sales tax money to build roads up front. Even though the county is prohibited from bonding its sales tax money, we have money sitting in reserves that we’re not using.”

Douglas said the county could draw up a five-year road plan, or a six-year or seven-year plan using money from the $17 million reserve to do the work more quickly than waiting on the county’s $1.2 million share every year for 10 years.

“You’ve heard the expression ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it too.’” Douglas said. “In this case you just about can.”

Douglas said he has asked the state to look into the details of the proposal and see if any legislative action is needed to authorize the county to take the course he suggests. He said he wanted the justices of the peace to be aware of the possibility and be considering a plan.

“If it comes to the point where we need to do something legislative, we need to be able to move on it,” he said.

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