FAYETTEVILLE -- A "glitch" in Washington County's budget process has put the brakes on a plan to replace seven vehicles for the Sheriff's Office.
The Quorum Court on Thursday considered and failed to pass a proposal spending $232,000 for the Sheriff's Office to buy five Chevrolet Tahoes and two pickups.
What’s next
A request for new vehicles for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office will be on the agenda for the Quorum Court for its February meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Quorum Court room in the County Courthouse, 280 N.College Ave.
Source: Staff report.
The Tahoes would be used by the Transportation Division to move prisoners from the jail to court and transport prisoners inside and outside Arkansas. The trucks would be used by the Community Service Division and Detention Division to haul equipment for the work release and inmate work programs.
Sheriff Tim Helder said the money to buy the vehicles comes from the 0.25 percent sales tax dedicated for jail operations. His office has a regular rotation of buying some vehicles every year to move high-mileage or high-maintenance vehicles out and new ones into the fleet.
"This request was approved, but it was not in the final budget," Helder told the justices of the peace.
Shannon Worthen, comptroller, told the justices of the peace there was an error in compiling the final budget information.
"It never was put into the budget, but nobody ever noticed it wasn't in the budget," Worthen said.
"It seems like a glitch in paperwork happened somewhere in this building," said Sue Madison, justice of the peace for District 12.
Helder said his concern was restoring the request to the budget.
"I'm not pointing fingers, but the misstep did not occur at the Sheriff's Office," Helder said.
The Sheriff's Office submitted two capital requests for vehicles during the budget process, according to documents. Letters of justification for the transport vehicles and for another group of vehicles for the Enforcement Division were submitted in October.
"We did everything we were supposed to do," Helder said.
Some justices of the peace weren't ready to make the change.
"I feel very uncomfortable changing a budget that was approved by a previous Quorum Court," Patrick Deakins, justice of the peace for District 5, said of the request. "Let's be deliberate about this."
Andrea Jenkins, justice of the peace for District 10, offered a motion to move the proposal to the Finance and Budget Committee, but her motion was ruled out of order because a motion to approve it was already on the floor for discussion.
Eight voted in favor of the proposal and six against it, meaning it didn't have enough affirmative votes to be approved. Brian Lester, county attorney, said appropriation proposals require a two-thirds majority -- 10 affirmative votes -- to pass on the first reading.
Butch Pond, justice of the peace for District 15, sponsored the ordinance and voted for it along with Sue Madison. Also voting in favor of the ordinance were Judith Yanez, justice of the peace for District 4; Lisa Ecke, justice of the peace for District 6; Suki Highers, justice of the peace for District 11; Willie Leming, justice of the peace for District 13; and Ann Harbison, justice of the peace for District 14.
Voting against the ordinance were Deakins; Lance Johnson, justice of the peace for District 1; Susan Cunningham, justice of the peace for District 2; Harvey Bowman, justice of the peace for District 3; Sam Duncan, justice of the peace for District 7; and Shawndra Washington, justice of the peace for District 8.
Justice of the Peace Eva Madison was absent Thursday.
Lester said the proposal will remain on the Quorum Court's agenda for its February meeting. Lester said on second and subsequent readings, appropriation ordinances may be approved by a simple majority vote.
Pond said Friday the vehicles are important and he hopes the Quorum Court will reconsider the purchase.
"You don't want to have any kind of situation come up that makes a transport riskier," Pond said. "You don't want to be using a vehicle that's not reliable."
Helder said the prices of the vehicles he's seeking are from a state bid contract and those prices will expire in April. He said if the county doesn't make the purchase before the state bid expires, it might be put off until next year, when costs will almost certainly be higher.
Pond said that's another reason for the justices of the peace to reconsider the proposal.
"We wouldn't be able to get the same price," Pond said. "It's another whammy on us that might actually wind up costing us more money."
NW News on 01/19/2019