Craighead County Quorum Court begins 2016 budget talks, discusses courthouse issue

With seven weeks left in the year, Craighead County has collected about 75% of its revenues but are waiting on a key financial number before setting its 2016 budget. Craighead County Treasurer Terry McNatt said the $2.1 million settlement from the county collector’s office will help county officials plug in numbers for the budget.

The new budget takes effect Jan. 1, and officials are preparing their budgets. The final budget, with exact figures from county officials, has not been created. However, Justice Ken Stacks said the county will have $1 million collected from housing state prisoners in county jails, and another $200,000 collected by the county’s election commission on outstanding fees owed by cities on elections.

Typically, the budget is prepared during November and December with approval at the court’s last meeting of the year.

Justice Garry Meadows asked the justices about how line items in the budget are determined, with little information known about the process. Stacks said the funds, which may go to charitable groups and community organizations, is set by the budget committee and eventually by justices. The removal of the line items several years ago drew acrimony from the public, Stacks said.

But, Meadows said the increased number of line items in the budget creates confusion and questions. Stacks countered the line items are often added by new state laws by the legislature in Little Rock, adding to the confusion. Meadows said he believes officials need to be responsive to the needs of taxpayers, with explanations given on a line by line basis.

The Budget Committee will meet Thursday (Nov. 12) at 3 pm at the courthouse annex to start budget negotiations.

AUDIT, ROADS
Stacks also discussed the county’s audit from the Division of Legislative Audit for 2014.
The audit was relatively clean except for disbursement records for the circuit clerk’s office under former Circuit Clerk Ann Hudson.

The disbursement records, which were not done from June to December 2014, have since been remedied, Circuit Clerk Candace Edwards said. The audit will be discussed further at the court’s Nov. 23 meeting.

In other action, Justice Josh Longmire asked justices to do some work on Craighead 745 and 712. The roads near Sage Meadows, Longmire said, were filled full of potholes. However, Justice Ray Kidd said the roads were in no worse shape than several gravel roads in the county.
Kidd, who chairs the transportation committee, said he is willing to look at the two roads and what is needed. Meadows said he would like to see an overall look at the county road situation.

EAST/WEST

The Public Safety Committee also met Monday to discuss the operations of the eastern district courthouse in Lake City. At its October 26 meeting, justices heard from Circuit Clerk Candace Edwards and Justice Terry Couch about the issue.

Couch said he believed the eastern district was being taken advantage of, with the offices facing a constant fear of closing. Edwards has said she wants to combine the budgets for the eastern and western district circuit clerks, citing transparency and creating only one budget.

However, supporters in the eastern district have said the setup has worked well in the past. The county now operates two courthouses in Jonesboro and Lake City. The Lake City courthouse has sheriff’s and clerk’s offices, with employees working under the auspices of the sheriff and circuit clerks offices. Meadows said he is in support of keeping the Eastern District in place and that the issue needs to be clarified.

“I have gotten 50 phone calls in the past week, saying that I want to shut down the Lake City courthouse. That is, in no way, true,” Meadows said.