And on it goes. But quieter.
At this week’s special meeting of the Jefferson County Quorum Court, the end result was like every other meeting of the Quorum Court, that being that things went nowhere.
The difference was there was a lot less tension and noise. Is that a positive sign? It certainly would seem so.
That could have been because the state Legislature passed a bill that is now law that speaks to what was the Jefferson County problem of not being able to pass a budget. Without a budget, no one could get paid. Now that the bill has been signed into law and everyone is back to getting a paycheck, the drama is substantially diminished.
That, of course, doesn’t mean things are fixed. As we have opined before, this law may have created problems unnecessarily.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The issue at the meeting this week was one of communication. Certain department heads said they had not received information about the special meeting or the budget that was being put forth by County Judge Gerald Robinson. That should be an easy fix.
Yes, the Quorum Court still needs to pass a new budget for 2025. Until that happens, they are operating on last year’s budget. And until there’s a new budget passed, the county judge doesn’t get a paycheck. The justices of the peace also don’t get per diem pay, but that is apples and oranges in comparison to a county judge’s paycheck.
You can see where this is going. Let’s say more people on the Quorum Court dislike the county judge than like him. You could make the case that that is a true statement for Jefferson County. All they have to do to hurt the county judge is to continue not passing the budget. And even when and if they get over themselves and pass one, the judge does not get paid retroactively. So right now, Robinson has lost two months of pay. At another time and place, another disliked county judge could be run out of office if his Quorum Court refuses to pass a budget for the new year.
There’s also the continuing bickering over everything else the Quorum Court does, which is to lay out the procedures for how county government will operate. Without that bit of passed legislation, nothing much else happens. And it has been two years and more since such legislation was passed.
So the county judge and justices of the peace have a ways to go. Quieter meetings are a good place to start. At least they can hear each other talk, even if they mostly disagree with what they’re hearing. Now that the temperature is down a bit in the room, maybe they should all take a field trip to sit in on pretty much any other county’s Quorum Court meeting to remind themselves how people get along. Then it would just be a matter of copy, paste.