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WHAT IS GOING ON?
Continued from last week: Please continue to contact your JP and all JPs and ask that they restore and insist on the twelve minute public comment period before we vote on any ordinance or resolution in all meetings.
If you saw last week’s update, you know that newly elected County Services Committee chair JP David Wilson refused to allow public comment time before we voted on two ordinances. If you did not read last week’s newsletter, you can do so here for more background: https://www.bethcoger.com/post/jp-coger-s-washington-county-update-2-9-25.
Elected officials should never limit or attempt to suppress public participation in governmental meetings. Transparency is so important to develop trust and buy-in from the community. When community members make the effort to come to our meetings and want to speak to us, sacrificing family time and peace to do so, they should always be able to do that. We should want to hear from our constituents. That's how we learn things.
Below is a letter that attorney Steve Zega sent the county attorney, Brian Lester, at my request, (after he [Lester] ignored my letter) to put the county on notice that we will not sit back and allow this to happen and that we will take legal action if necessary. See that letter and Mr. Lester’s “response” below:
Here's Attorney Lester response to the above letter.
Here’s how you can contact your county officials. (New JP contacts are now available) We need to hear from you!!
Here’s the link to watch the County Services meeting where we did not have public comments before we voted.
At last week’s Finance & Budget meeting we elected JP Kyle Lyons as Chair and JP Willie Leming as Vice Chair. JP Lyons allowed the public comment periods as required by county ordinances and state statute, even apologizing when he failed once to do so. JP Lyons has told me that he will continue to do so.
You can watch the F&B meeting in two parts, here and here. There was some technical issue during the meeting, thus two videos.
The next County Services Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:00 PM, Monday, 3/3/25 at the Washington County Courthouse. We'll know then if our letters have made a difference. This is one of those "hills that I will die on."
TWO MEETINGS FOR THIS WEEK 2/16/25
🌟WASHINGTON COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION MEETS Tuesday, 2/18/25, 9:00 AM, Washington County Road Department, 2615 S. Brink Drive, Fayetteville. This is an in person meeting only. Meetings are live-streamed on the County Election Commission’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpX-GrzfCvEF0PszfEr6V3Q
The agenda includes: Approval of prior minutes; legislative request (interesting); legislative update (always interesting); new building update and other business.
🌟WASHINGTON COUNTY REGULAR QUORUM COURT MEETING Thursday, 2/20/25, 6:00 PM, Washington County Courthouse. This is an in person meeting only. The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s YouTube channel.
AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS PER JP BETH COGER:
Item 8. AN ORDINANCE CREATING THE COMMUNITY REBUILDING INITIATIVE GRANT FUND, AND FOR OTHER MATTERS PERTAINING THERETO. This item not only creates the CRI fund and accepts a grant of $355,455.74, which is great, but it also takes $575,000 from the county’s General Reserves Fund (1001) as additional funding to run the program through 2025. The county plans to use the former Crisis Stabilization Unit building to house individuals in the program. At this time the program is limited to men only and to individuals arrested for nonviolent crimes with $10,000 bond or less.
I am thankful for the grant, but I do not believe we should take the $575,000 out of savings to further fund a project when we have a grant of $355,455.74 which will serve as a pilot to see if it works and at what cost. Additionally, the Criminal Justice Assessment Study of 2020 sets out very specific steps we should take to address jail overcrowding. That report, which you can read here, is the result of a study conducted in 2020 by the National Center of State Courts of Washington County’s entire justice system. For that same amount, or less, we could fund a real "robust pretrial services program."
Item 9.1 AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING PAY FOR JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
This ordinance will set compensation for Justices of the Peace at the maximum amount. Currently JPs make $200.00 per meeting (I thought it was $300 starting 1/1/25 but apparently not). JPs cannot be paid a monthly salary. A.C.A. 14-14-1205 says JPs are compensated “per diem,” or “by the day.”
The maximum amounts of per diem compensation per calendar year are set according to the size of the County by state law. That’s currently $19,118 for counties with a population of over 200,000, which are Benton, Pulaski, and Washington counties.
For JPs to be paid the maximum amount under state law will cost the county about $76,000 more than originally budgeted for 2025.
When I first saw this ordinance on the agenda, I was very much against it. A pay increase of 165% for JPs?! Then, during the F&B meeting, some of my colleagues, especially JP Rios Stafford, JP Shawndra Washington and JP Vladimir Lopez spoke and their comments made me see this from a different perspective. They brought up that better compensation might be incentive to get more people to run for JP and that would be a good thing, I think. It would be great to also have more young people serving on the quorum court.
All other elected officials in Washington County, including the sheriff, county clerk, circuit clerk, assessor, tax collector, and the county judge, already receive compensation at the maximum rate set by law. (Read more below)
I would love to hear from the Washington County people about how they feel about this matter.
MEETINGS TO WATCH FROM LAST WEEK
Washington County Quorum Court Finance & Budget Committee met Tuesday 2/11/25 and can be viewed in two parts, here and here.
The main thing to come out of that meeting was the pay increase for JPs that I’ve already mentioned above.
Judge Deakins chastised the court for voting for a per diem compensation increase for itself and said that the court has a “poor reputation around the county.” Here’s a very rough transcript of what he said (and I have added my own comments there) so you can read it for yourself.
🌟 DETENTION CENTER INFORMATION 2/16/25
As of 2/15/25, there are at least 746 people locked in our Washington County Detention Center. This is from information on the public facing dashboard. There are likely more than this considering that the sheriff’s office does not post so-called “restrictive bookings” online. Those such postings have been estimated to be 80 - 100 at any time. That’s one of the highest numbers I can remember.
73 of the detainees list addresses as either “homeless” or “1832 S School Street - the address of Seven Hills Homeless Shelter.
Here’s a population statistics breakdown as of Friday, 2/14/25 which has a lot of information on our jail population.
Here’s the link to the Detailed Charge Report:
You can check the “Calls for Service” board here.
Here’s a list in alphabetical order to search for people.
READ AND STUDY THE 2020 CRIMINAL JUSTICE ASSESSMENT STUDY PREPARED BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS HERE. READ AND LEARN WHY WE DO NOT NEED TO SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON JAIL EXPANSIONS TO KEEP OUR COMMUNITIES SAFE!
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COUNTY BID POSTINGS 2/16/25
🌟 New bid listing for “Department of Emergency Management Fleet.” Posted 2/10//25. Bid requests for interpretations due by 2:00 PM 2/18/25. Bids due by 4:00 PM 2/24/25. Bids opened 2/25/25 at 9:00 AM. This is for one Non-Pursuit Rated 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe LS - 4WD models equipped with a 5.3L V8 engine and one 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 - 4WD model with tow package.
🌟 New bid posting for Drug Court, Drug Testing Service. Posted 2/3/25. Bids due 3/3/25 at 4:00 PM and bid opening will be 3/4/25, 9:00 o’clock a.m.
Below is the link to current RFQs and bids:
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COUNTY JOB OPENINGS THIS WEEK (2/16/25)
🌟 Part time law clerk (prosecutor’s office), three positions. Salary $16/hr.
Below is the link for all posted job openings in Washington County. The road department and sheriff’s offices are almost always hiring. The road department is 479-444-1610. The sheriff’s office is 479-444-5700.
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