Benton County Panel To Discuss Building Costs

Sunday, January 5, 2014

BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s Finance Committee will discuss how the county might finance a new courts building when the panel meets Tuesday.

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, said the justices of the peace need to look at financing options for the proposed building. The cost could be $49 million-$53 million, according to preliminary estimates. The county is considering a new building to house the circuit courts, prosecutor and public defender’s offices, circuit clerk’s office staff and other related staff.

Meeting Information

Finance Committee

Benton County’s Finance Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

A study looked at two locations in downtown Bentonville and one on county property near the jail and Road Department on Southwest 14th Street. Officials and downtown interest groups are reviewing the study for final comments.

“I wanted to bring it up for discussion in Finance as early as possible,” Allen said of the project. “I believe we shouldn’t go too far into the details of where we’re going to build it and how we’re going to build a $40 million to $50 million project without having our arms around the financing of it.”

The county could look at several ways of paying the project, including raising taxes or imposing some kind of fees, issuing bonds or borrowing money, Allen said. The financing question could render many other questions moot, Allen said.

“The Quorum Court could decide they don’t want to go that way, so there’s no point in getting too far into the project if we’re going to decide not to pay for it,” Allen said. “We need to do that now, rather than later. In my opinion we need to decide three things — do we want to spend that much money, are we able to do it and is it possible?”

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, also thinks the funding question is essential.

“I think he and I are in full agreement on that,” Moore said of Allen’s concerns. “This is about twice what I had thought it might be, but even half that is a lot of money.”

The county might want to reduce the scale of the project to cut costs, Moore said.

“What they’re looking at is a 100-year building of monumental quality, like the current courthouse was when it was built,” he said. “We may want to look at a 25- or 30-year building that’s not necessarily of monumental quality. If we do that, that kind of building would probably be a better fit for the property near the Road Department rather than downtown. It’s all part of the whole discussion.”

Sarah Daniels, comptroller, said most of the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting will be taken up by monthly reports. There are three appropriation ordinances, one for the Coplink grant for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, one for the Forensic Science grant for the County Coroner’s Office and one cleanup ordinance transferring money within the 2013 budgets for the jail and coroner, Daniels said.

The committee also will hear reports on revenue and expenditures, Daniels said. Sales tax collection for 2013 came in at $7,295,870, a $560,0000 increase over 2012. The county originally budgeted for $6.6 million in sales tax revenue for 2013. The 2014 budget includes $7.3 million in revenue, Daniels said.

The county received $995,164 in jail fees for 2013. That’s money paid by state and federal governments and municipalities for holding prisoners in the jail, Daniels said. The county originally budgeted for $750,000 in jail fees for 2013, but increased that during the year to $950,000. For 2014, the budget has $1.5 million in projected jail fees, Daniels said.

The committee also will see a report detailing expenditures for the first time since questions were raised about overtime for the Sheriff’s Office exceeding its budget in 2013, Daniels said. The justices of the peace received a monthly report showing expenditures as a percentage of the budget, Daniels said. When the dollar figure for the extra overtime for the Sheriff’s Office reached $300,000 the justices of the peace were surprised and asked Sheriff Kelley Cradduck to explain the extra overtime.

The new report will continue to show the expenditures as a percent of the budget, but also will include dollar totals, Daniels said.

Moore says the new reporting form will help the justices of the peace avoid such questions in the future.

“It was a learning curve for all of us,” Moore said.