JP Coger's Washington County UPdate 11/9/25
- Beth Coger
- Nov 9
- 6 min read
Week of November 9, 2025 Transparency • Accountability • Fiscal Responsibility
🟠 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:
🟠 Please be sure and watch the County Services meeting of 11/3/25. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/live/YJld8B_Fbds?si=4siNYbsIFR-LOhn-
More on that below and it is not good.
🟠 WASHINGTON COUNTY MEETINGS THIS WEEK: Two meetings this week – Finance & Budget on Wednesday and Election Commission on Thursday – details in newsletter.
Washington County Quorum Court Finance & Budget Committee meets Wednesday, 11/12/25, 6:00 PM, Washington County Courthouse. (Note that the day is different because Tuesday –normal meeting day– is Veteran’s Day) In person meeting only. The meeting will be livestreamed on the county’s YouTube Channel.
Read the Agenda here.
AGENDA ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:
Agenda Highlights:
➽ Item 4.1: Treasurer’s Report (10/1/25–10/31/25)
General Fund: $14,825,396.96 → $13,323,630.53
ARPA Revenue Replacement Fund: $7,226,549.42 → $6,616,861.44
American Rescue Plan Act: $5,960,000.42 → $4,913,657.87
Jail Maintenance & Operation: $8,352,295.70 → $7,586,653.13
Law Library Fund: $315,316.29 → $317,629.23
CRI Fund: $250,707.93 → $235,962.34
Property Taxes (October): $2,762,611.99 (YTD $13,937,225.37)
1¢ Sales Tax (October): $987,350.13 (+6.74% from October 2024) (YTD $9,483,047.08)
¼¢ Jail Sales Tax (October): $1,517,823.97 (+7.73% from October 2024) (YTD $14,549,393.02)
Agenda Items 8 & 9.1: Discussion and “AN ORDINANCE APPROPRIATING $121,138 FROM UNAPPROPRIATED RESERVES TO THE CHILDREN’S SAFETY CENTER OF WASHINGTON COUNTY.” This will include a presentation by CSC staff. See Pages 47 - 50 of agenda for details.
Agenda Item 10.1: An ordinance anticipating $284,090.76 in the Community Rebuilding Initiative Grant Fund and appropriating $94,696.92 to the RSAT Matching Grant 2025/2026 for 2025, to fulfill the grant required local match.
Agenda Item 11.1: An ordinance to receive a federal grant in the amount of $407,347.00 in the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program.
Agenda Item 12.1: An ordinance levying the county, municipal, and school district taxes for the year 2025. Ark. Code Ann. 14-14-904 provides that the “Quorum Court, at its regular meeting in November or December of each year, shall levy the county, municipal, and school taxes for the current year.”
Agenda Item 13.1: This ordinance moves $50,000 previously budgeted for “panic buttons for the courthouses” and charged as a capital outlay to the Building & Grounds Budget in the “Security Equipment Line Item” in that budget.
Agenda Item 14.1: This ordinance corrects an error in the 2025 personnel budget for the Treasurer’s Office wherein only one employee was accounted for the Health Insurance Matching Line Item, thus creating a budget shortage for 2025. This appropriates $9,984 from unappropriated reserves to the Health Insurance Matching Line Item to correct that.
Agenda Item 17.1: This ordinance will amend the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) budget for 2025 to transfer funds from various line items within that budget in order to use those funds to maintain appropriate staffing levels at the JDC. The appropriated amount is $17,444 to the Overtime/Other Premium Compensation for the JDC Budget 2025.
Agenda Item 18.1: This ordinance establishes the daily fee charged to municipalities for housing prisoners in the Washington County Detention Center. This ordinance sets that daily fee at $80.52 to be charged to each municipality and the University of Arkansas per prisoner housed in the WCDC for each day, or portion thereof, beginning 1/26/26.
This will be a lot of money for all cities, but especially Springdale and Fayetteville. As this spreadsheet shows, as of 11/7/25 Fayetteville is responsible for 164 bookings in the jail and Springdale 130.
Agenda Item 19.1: This ordinance establishes the county’s budget for 2026. These are your taxpayer dollars. Here’s a link to the 2026 budget with justification letters, notes from the comptroller, and more: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XyL4gqRDH2BAafs_54y_TZDKhN-xuKIV/view?usp=sharing
🟠 The Washington County Election Commission meets 11/13/25 at 9:00 AM, 2721 S. Brink Drive, Fayetteville, Arkansas. This meeting is open to the public. Any person may join this meeting in-person or by teleconference using the information below.
Meeting ID: 814 2172 5679Passcode: 502453
I appreciate the Election Commission making this meeting accessible via Zoom. That is a great example of transparency.
The agenda includes review of political practice pledges: county and school; ballot layout; early vote sites and dates; and election day sites.
Meetings from last week:
Here is the link to Monday’s County Services meeting 11/3/25. This meeting was chaotic with many violations of Robert’s Rules and some very disappointing outcomes. I urge you to watch the entire meeting, but here are some things I want to highlight:
→ Starting at 1:00:11 in the video: The RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF AN ORDER BY THE COUNTY COURT TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO OZARKS ELECTRIC ET AL passed. Only two “NO” votes: JP Massingill and JP Coger. While I can get on board with the expansion of transmission lines, I am not convinced it is a good deal for Washington County taxpayers to pay for a $20M+ office building in Springdale and I am concerned that the assessor has not been involved in negotiations for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement.
→ Starting at 2:54:42 in the video: The Resolution by JP Rivera Lopez to Address the Ongoing Issue of Housing Federal Inmates in the Washington County Detention Center failed. Read the resolution here.
At 3:30:48 in the video I tried to make a motion to extend time so that community members who had been sitting in the audience for 3.5 hours could be heard. Chair JP Lisa Ecke said I was out of order because I didn’t have the floor or wasn’t recognized. I then asked to be recognized and she refused to recognize me. This was disgraceful. The people who came to speak to us deserved to be heard. They were asking for their two to three minutes to address the court and the chair refused to allow everyone who came to be heard. Here’s a short clip of JP Ecke saying, “I am the people” in response to audience comments objecting to her refusal to allow them to speak.
🔵 DETENTION CENTER SNAPSHOT
Incarcerated People as of 11/5/25 @ 10:09 AM: 723
Pretrial: 400
Listed as “homeless”: 81 (11/7/25)
Sleeping on Floor: 133 (11/3/25)
Covid Numbers: 0
Women in Jail: 123
Federal Prisoners: 67
Year to Date Bookings: 9045
State Prisoners 11/5/25: 162
Average Prior Bookings: 6.91
More information on people incarcerated in our jail: Detainee Summary and Inmate Population Analysis
County Job Openings (as of 11/9/25).
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.
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $21.91 / HR | |
Temporary | Open Until Filled | 14/Hr | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $21.25 - $23.42/hr | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $21.25 - $23.42/hr | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $21.25 - $23.42/hr | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $23.71 - $26.13 | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $21.91 - $24.14 | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $18hr |
County Bid Postings (as of 11/9/25)
Bid 2025-16 RFP for “Painting Service” Exterior at 100 N. College Avenue. The site of the former women’s prison. Due date: 11/10/25 at 4:00 PM. Opening date 11/12/25 at 9:00 AM.
Bid 2025-13 Bid for “Five (5) Rooftop Units” at Washington County Sheriff’s Department. Due date: 11/24/25 at 4:00 PM. Bids will be opened 11/25/25 at 9:00 AM.
Bid 2025-15 This is actually seven solicitations for various categories, materials, services, hardware, all at the 100 N. College Address. Responses are due 11/13/25 at 4:00 PM. Opening date 11/14/25 at 9:00 AM.
Extensive renovations have already begun on the former women’s prison. Where is that money coming from?
You can view the closed bids here.
View all RFQs and bids [here].
⚫ FINAL THOUGHT
Transparency isn’t just about access to information — it’s about using that information to make better decisions for our residents. As always, thank you for staying informed and engaged.
— Beth Coger Washington County Justice of the Peace, District 9 📧ejcoger@gmail.com| 💻 bethcoger.com
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