We’re somewhere between “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night, Holy Night.” We have faith that Special Judge Randy Wright will put an end to the squabbling on the Jefferson County Quorum Court and, with peace at hand, we look forward to a time when the Quorum Court meetings are calm, rather forgettable affairs.
Thursday was the culmination of a lawsuit filed by County Judge Gerald Robinson against all of the justices of the peace. The suit goes back to a time more than a year ago when a few quorum court members, led by JP Lloyd Franklin II, decided they would attempt to wrest control of the Quorum Court by not even agreeing on how the meetings should be handled. The reasons do get a little fuzzy, considering the length of time this has been going on and the fact that these issues are so meaningless.
None of that has seemed to matter to the ‘aginners’ as they, month after month, keep gumming up the works.
Across the entire landscape of public entities in Jefferson County, there isn’t another elected or appointed body that has been as dysfunctional as the relationship is between the county judge and the Quorum Court — to the point that vendors had to come to the meetings to beg to be paid. The thanks they got for their efforts, however, was to be derided by elected officials. It was and continues to be quite ugly.
Perhaps we are asking too much of the good judge to come to Jefferson County and fix what’s wrong with the governing structure. Like sending a lone police officer into a fighting mob to get to the bottom of the brawl.
But it’s the Christmas season so there’s no harm in wishing for that — even if, in our heart, we know Santa’s sleigh is likely incapable of handling such convoluted and testy matters.
The judge said he would make a ruling by way of a written response. We don’t blame him for that; the less time face to face with these cranky people the better. Perhaps he will study the matter and find an omnibus ruling (we made that up) that will bring a calm over the county and its elected officials. It would be nice, in the end, to be humming some of the “Hallelujah Chorus” when this is all over.