JP Coger's Washington County UPdate 9/14/25
- Beth Coger
- Sep 14
- 4 min read
WASHINGTON COUNTY MEETINGS THIS WEEK:
➽ Washington County Election Commission meets Thursday morning, September 18, 2025, 9:00 AM, 2721 S. Brink Drive, Fayetteville. This meeting will be held in the “new” building in the Road Department parking lot a/k/a “the Old Recycling Building.” (Not the EOC building) Meetings are live streamed on the County Election Commission's YouTube Channel:
Here is the agenda.
Agenda Item 8 is “Secretary of State Training for Online Filing for Candidates” to be held September 24th and 25th. This will be helpful for candidates to learn about filing deadlines, procedures, etc. Our Election Coordinator does an excellent job of keeping us informed and up to date on new laws, rules and regulations.
➽ Washington County Quorum Court Regular Monthly Meeting Thursday, September 18, 2025, 6:00 PM, Washington County Courthouse, 280 N. College, Fayetteville, Arkansas. This is an in person meeting only. The meeting will be live streamed here on the county’s YouTube channel.
Here is the agenda.
➽ Item 5: Citizen’s Comments - Fifteen minutes for the public to address the court on any county issues or concerns. Three minutes per speaker, may be extended upon majority vote of the court.
Another 12-minute comment period occurs before we vote on any ordinance or resolution.
Item 8: An Ordinance amending the membership of the Washington County Planning Board. This ordinance, sponsored by JP Evelyn Rios Stafford, is on its third and final reading. This ordinance will increase the membership of the Washington County Planning Board from seven to nine members.
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THINGS TO KNOW:
Let’s recap last week’s Finance & Budget meeting:
Watch last week’s Finance & Budget meeting here:
💰 2026 Budget Process. The court heard budget presentations from the following departments:
Item 7: Prosecuting Attorney Office Starting at 23:19 in video Great budget information and justification by the PA Brandon Carter. Seeks addition of a position for investigator. Detailed cuts he had made since taking over in January as prosecutor. Here is his full presentation.
Item 8: IT Department Starting at 1:07:32 in video Here is the 2026 budget proposed by the IT Department. IT Director spoke about security needs and updates for the IT Department.
Item 9: Sheriff/Jail Starting at 1:23:17 in video Here is the Sheriff’s 2026 budget proposal (enforcement). Here is the Sheriff’s Jail Maintenance & Operations Budget for 2026. We were asked to submit questions in writing before the meeting. Here are questions submitted by JP Kyle Lyons, together with the sheriff’s responses. Here are the questions I submitted, together with the sheriff’s responses.
The M&O budget includes a request for eight (8) new corporal positions to man/staff the Community Rebuilding Initiative (CRI)located in the former Crisis Stabilization Unit building. The explanation given of “rollover positions” depends on the sheriff’s office detention department being “full staffed.” It has not been fully staffed since I have been attending quorum court and that was in 2019, so from experience, I am doubtful we're going to be fully staffed. We were down around 20 positions as of the last report. If these eight corporal positions are brought in at Grade 13, that’s $60,865.00 x 8 = $486,920.00; plus, one Transport Deputy at around $98,000.00 for the CRI.
Compare CRI With Pretrial Services:
The CRI program received a grant from the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners (Jail Based) in the amount of $355,455.74. Additionally, the quorum court appropriated $575,000.00 to the CRI. (The grant period ends 9/30/25). That $575K was to operate the program through the end of this year and to supplement the grant.
We could have a real pretrial services program in Washington County for half the cost of the CRI and it would benefit many more people. Here’s a breakdown on how that could work, with estimated costs.
These above CRI costs do not include overtime compensation and real time pay for sheriff office personnel staffing the CRI. Because I do not know what those costs are.
As a reminder, we had the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee until 10/12/2023 when Judge Deakins shut that down and disbanded the group. This was immediately after the CJCC voted to proceed with a pretrial services program.
There’s lots of research on the benefits of pretrial services, and here’s a very pertinent report from The Prison Policy Institute that gives us lots of information.
Item 10: Roads Department Starting at 1:53:59 2026 Road Department Budget Proposal The Road Department is requesting 13 new road graders (among other large ticket items). Here are the options that were given to us for financing the graders. This is a huge financial commitment.
Here is the link to the Master Budget 2026 that was provided to all JPs 8/15/25: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lthtvArR5NLbRd0rZk84Xti6ufMtt2gP/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103549546239687116712&rtpof=true&sd=true
(“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21)
I would love to hear your thoughts on the budget and what your priorities are.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY DETENTION CENTER:
As of 9/13/25, there were 727 individuals detained at the Washington County Detention Center. 93 of those are listed as either “homeless” or “1832 S School” the address of 7 Hills Homeless Shelter.
309 Prisoners: 41
ADC Commitments: 116
Failure to Appear: 177
Hold Other Departments: 195
Bonds of $5000K or Less: 117
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.
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County Bid Postings (as of 9/14/25)
No open bids this date. You can view the closed bids here.
View all RFQs and bids [here].
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County Job Openings (as of 9/14/25).
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 | $21.91 - $24.14 | |
Part Time | Open Until Filled | $16 | |
Full Time | Open Until Filled | $18 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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