FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County's Quorum Court on Monday easily cleared 2016 spending requests for emergency management, planning, juvenile detention and other services during one of the least controversial meetings of this year's budget talks.
The justices of the peace unanimously gave tentative stamps of approval to requests from about a dozen county departments during their special budget meeting -- another such meeting is scheduled this evening. Monday's slice of services represented about $4.5 million in taxpayer dollars, or about 7 percent of the county's overall budget.
Meeting information
Washington County Quorum Court
• When: 5:30 p.m. today
• Where: Quorum Courtroom in the county courthouse, 280 N. College Ave., Fayetteville
• On the agenda: 2016 budget requests for the county animal shelter, road department and other departments
Source: Staff report
The votes were part of the ongoing process of piecing together next year's spending that's expected to end in November or December with a final, overarching budget vote for all departments. None of these early money decisions are set until then.
About $1 million of the money approved Monday would go to the Department of Emergency Management and the 911 systems, which coordinate firefighters, police and other personnel during emergencies whether they're on an individual scale or county-wide. John Luther, emergency management director, said operations should stay mostly the same in the new year.
The biggest single budget before the Quorum Court was the Juvenile Detention Center's, coming to around $1.36 million. That would be down a few thousand dollars from this year's thanks to some newer staff members, said Director Jean E. Mack.
Lower budgets are welcome among the Quorum Court, which is struggling to wrangle a $62 million proposed budget for all county operations next year that would exceed the new revenue forecast by several million dollars. Unspent money left over from this year would more than cover the gap, but that leaves less and less for the reserve set aside for emergencies or big public projects.
So far the justices have approved large vehicle and equipment purchases and a handful of new employees for some departments and have resisted calls for a tax hike to cover the shortfall, complicating the search for budget cuts.
In that vein, the justices questioned and occasionally trimmed specific line items Monday, asking why the line item for food went up a few hundred dollars in emergency management, for example, or what the Planning Department planned to do with the line item for employee training.
"It's very helpful to talk to people on a national level, who are doing what we're doing, and learn from them," said Juliet Richey, the planning director. She noted Washington County takes a more intensive and deliberate approach to planning than most other Arkansas counties. "We don't have a lot to pull from in the state."
Richey also asked the justices to let department heads decide where to make the cuts should the Quorum Court begin slashing budgets. The county took that approach when it pared down 2015's spending by about $4 million from 2014.
Recent budget concerns got a few laughs during discussion of the county judge's budget. Several justices have criticized the county's practice of allowing dozens of employees to take their county vehicles to and from work while the county foots the maintenance bill. Chief of Staff George Butler said he didn't use his county vehicle, instead letting the Road Department use it as needed.
"Saving yourself some trouble?" joked Eva Madison, D-Fayetteville, who has scrutinized vehicle use.
"That's exactly right," Butler replied with a laugh.
NW News on 10/13/2015