FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County's justices of the peace on Thursday voted down an ordinance allocating $598,000 in federal covid-relief money to local nonprofits.
The Quorum Court voted 5-7 on the ordinance, which was on its third and final reading. Justices of the peace Beth Coger, Suki Highers, Evelyn Rios Stafford, Sean Simons and Shawndra Washington voted for the ordinance. Justices of the peace Robert Dennis, Willie Leming, Butch Pond, David Wilson, Kyle Lyons, Lisa Ecke and Charles Dean voted against the ordinance.
The justices of the peace split on the question of how the county should prioritize the use of the covid-relief money. Several argued the county needs to fund a proposed emergency operations center and has no obligation to fund the nonprofits.
"Government's responsibility is to provide core services," Lyons said during the discussion. "It is not government's role to provide money to support outside of those core services."
Leming said he opposed "giving away taxpayer money" and argued that the county had not "promised" to fund any of the nonprofits.
Stafford said the county had established an application and review program to fund nonprofit groups, with an amount up to $2.3 million being available. She also noted that the county has funded two other nonprofit organizations -- Upskill NWA and Returning Home.
The county allocated about $2.9 million to Upskill NWA for a job-training program to address shortages of qualified employees in health care and another $1.9 million to Returning Home, a Springdale group helping men who have been incarcerated reintegrate with the community.
Stafford said the 12 nonprofit groups had invested time and resources in completing the applications and going through the review process and not funding them would be a breach of trust between the county and the community.
Simons said the county hadn't obligated the money through an ordinance but he believed promises were made.
"I feel like I made promises," Simons said.
At its June meeting the Quorum Court split evenly on the ordinance to provide about $598,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to a dozen nonprofit agencies. A motion to have the ordinance read for a third time failed at the July meeting with the justices of the peace again split evenly with six votes in favor and six votes against, and the ordinance was on the agenda for a third and final reading at Thursday's meeting. Under Arkansas law, nonappropriation ordinances and nonemergency ordinances must be read three times before they are voted on.
The Quorum Court's Finance and Budget Committee had voted 8-4 in favor of an ordinance appropriating $564,681 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the 11 organizations that had been deemed to be eligible for the money by the county. The justices of the peace also added $33,346 in funding for the Magdalene Serenity House to the original appropriation.
The county announced at the end of August 2022 it would set aside about $2.3 million of the $46 million in relief money it got under the American Rescue Plan Act for local nonprofit organizations. The county accepted applications through Oct. 31.
The county received 46 applications, which were sent to the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District in Harrison to be reviewed to determine whether they met the federal guidelines and the county's criteria for the money. The district found 11 applications met the guidelines. Another application, from the Magdalene Serenity House, was added to the list for possible funding by the justices of the peace.
Also Thursday, the Quorum Court rejected an ordinance ending the practice of having the justices of the peace hear appeals of conditional use permits after they were acted on by the county's Planning Board. The ordinance was defeated by a vote of 2-10 with 0nly justices of the peace Simons and Lyons voting in favor of the proposal.
County ordinance currently provides for appeals to the Quorum Court by either the applicants or by opponents of proposed projects. An appeal to circuit court is an option after the Quorum Court hears an appeal and makes a decision.
The justices of the peace unanimously backed a resolution calling on the state to fund the Northwest Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Unit.
The resolution "calls on Governor Sarah Sanders and the Arkansas General Assembly to make sustainable funding of the CSU a priority by sustaining its commitment to fund this vital mental health unit at the current funding level in the FY 2023-24 budget."
The Quorum Court's County Services Committee sent the resolution on to the full Quorum Court on a unanimous voice vote. A copy of the resolution will be sent to Sanders and to Washington County's state legislators.
County Judge Patrick Deakins signed a contract June 30 to continue funding the facility at current levels -- about $90,000 a month -- for three months. After that time, the money will be reduced to about $62,500 a month. The funding cuts are in effect for all of the units.
The 16-bed unit serves as an alternative to jail. Participation is voluntary for those treated, who are usually accused of creating a disturbance, trespassing or other disruptive behaviors, law enforcement officials said.
In other business, the justices of the peace voted to approved a conditional use permit for the Anytime Hauling business on a 1-acre parcel at 22296 N. Washington County Road 678 near Summers. The permit is for an off-site trash haul-off service and outdoor storage for boats, vehicles, recreational vehicles and campers. The trash haul-off service plans to keep a trailer with furniture, appliances and other household trash to be kept at the site until they can be taken to another facility for disposal. None of the trash or debris will be allowed to be on the ground.
The justices of the peace also approved a resolution calling on the County Clerk to post online all ordinances and resolutions approved by the Quorum Court.
Crisis Units
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NoneArkansas opened four 16-bed crisis stabilization units as a pilot program. The Sebastian County unit in Fort Smith opened in March 2018. The Pulaski County unit in Little Rock opened in August 2018. The Northwest Arkansas unit in Fayetteville opened in June 2019, and the Craighead County unit in Jonesboro opened in October 2019.
The state paid the operating costs of the units through June 2021 while evaluating the programs effectiveness. In June 2021, the state reduced its funding for the units, and the Northwest Arkansas unit closed when the medical services provider said it could not operate with the reduced revenue.
Northwest Arkansas crisis unit closed for more than a year, from June 2021 to August 2022, after the state cut money for the program from $133,000 a month to $90,000 a month and Ozark Guidance, the service provider at that time, said it couldnt operate the facility at the lower funding level.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette