Court OKs 2019 Carryover, Election Pay Hike, COVID-19 Pay Measures

In about an hour, JPs at the March 17 Quorum Court meeting had approved the 2019 Carryover Ordinance, Election Commissioners Pay Ordinance, and the special COVID-19 Employee Pay Ordinance.

After he had questioned whether to even hold the meeting because of coronavirus concerns, Judge Jim Baker began quickly running through the March 17 meeting agenda, which included the last-minute addition of the COVID-19-related pay ordinance.

After zipping through routine agenda items (County officer reports and committee reports), approving the February Journal (Quorum Court minutes) and finding no old business, Baker moved to the proposed Ordinances on the agenda:

Ordinance 20-07, Amended Carryover

To clarify the numbers, JP Steve Goode (R, Dist. 3) asked County Treasurer Scott Sanson, “How did this end up, compared to where you thought it would be?”

Sanson indicated “Some over, some under….” and repeated the information he reported to the Budget & Finance Committee the week before: the 2019 final carryover is $2.8 million vs. the projected $2.2 million.

After the Court approved Ordinance 20-07 by unanimous roll call vote — with very little discussion — Baker commented, “I think it would be a good time to commend people that are responsible for managing the money they are assigned with — looks like they’ve done a good job.”

Ordinance 20-08, Election Commission Pay Hike

This proposed Ordinance increases the meeting pay for Faulkner County election commissioners from $50 to $100, “to bring our Election Commission up to be getting paid what we get reimbursed for in the primary, and what other counties are paying their election commission,” as Darter explained to the Budget & Finance Committee last week.

Goode, commenting “I know we want to get out of here early tonight,” said “We need to somehow figure out a way to put some caps or restrictions on this.”

He described an “issue in the County just north of us” where election commissioners “met to the tune of 22 times from January 1 through about mid-February … and basically spent their entire budget for the entire election year in about 6 weeks.” He added “Look, we’ve got great Commissioners currently.”

Baker reminded the Court that “the money we spend, up to $3,000,” is reimbursed by the State, and discussion with County Clerk Margaret Darter showed that “about five to six meetings” are needed per election — with more meetings needed “if there’s a dispute on an election.”

Item Already Budgeted, Says Darter

Further discussion with Darter showed that the item is already budgeted but the additional funds are not yet needed; she suggested that she would “submit a line item later,” when the additional money becomes necessary.

JP Randy Higgins (R, Dist. 2) remarked that the Court could pass the Ordinance “as it is now,” and “in April, do an amendment to place limits on the funding…. My expectation is that the Budget & Finance Committee look at a limitation to be presented next month.”

The Committee unanimously approved Ordinance 20-08 by roll call vote with no further discussion.

Ordinance 20-09, COVID-19 Employee Pay

JPs spent the remaining 40 minutes discussing Ordinance 20-09, which Darter distributed on Monday, March 16 after 5 pm, and deals with paying Faulkner County employees who are not able to go to work due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

Higgins moved to approve an amended Ordinance 20-09 that County Attorney Phil Murphy distributed at or immediately before the meeting; Murphy asked the Court to suspend the rules to allow its consideration, since “it was not delivered last week.”

After a unanimous voice vote approving the suspension, Murphy read the Ordinance, which provides “special pay” for County employees due to the public health emergency from COVID-19; it would become effective immediately and would expire on December 31, 2020.

Much of the discussion centered around whether the County should pay employees or should they be required to use accumulated paid leave when they are sent home from work due to coronavirus-related issues — whether they themselves are ill or are caring for someone who may be ill, or maybe they are unable to work because their workplace has been closed.

Murphy updated the JPs on developments in Congress dealing with COVID-19 and the Family Medical Leave Act, which would require Faulkner County to pay employees impacted by the virus anyway.

Further into the discussion, Murphy related that the Association of Arkansas Counties had sent out the proposed ordinance to all Arkansas counties “to help County Judges keep the employees they have to send home.” He added

There was no provision by statute or ordinance for employees to be paid simply to stay home, so AAC proposed this to all 75 counties to give County Judges an ability or mechanism to pay people beyond their sick and annual time…. I thought the AAC template needed a little more fine-tuning, so … our ordinance is not the same same as the AAC template.

Many Arkansas Counties Have Approved

When KP Kris Kendrick (R, Dist. 9) asked Murphy how many counties had adopted the proposal, Higgins responded, saying he’d talked with his co-representatives at the Association of Arkansas Counties, and “the majority of the counties are moving in that direction, and probably close to a dozen have already passed it.”

JP Jim Houston (R, Dist. 4) asked County Treasurer Sanson if he had any advisories on how the COVID-19 shutdowns will affect County finances, saying “I’m worried about the funding aspect of this if we don’t have any money coming in.”

Sanson replied, “Sales tax is not going to grow this year…. I don’t see that is going to throw us into recession. Sales tax collections? It’s all ‘wait and see’ right now. We’re not even seeing the economic impact yet … we’ll probably see that mid-summer.”

JP Tyler Pearson (D, Dist. 7) expressed his support, saying

Part of the reason why this is being created is that people are being sent home, not because they’re sick or because they can’t come to work because of their own health, but because we’re telling them to go home. So I see this as a tool for us to continue to pay those folks who are being sent home.

JP Tyler Lachowsky (R, Dist. 6) remarked, “It’s an unprecedented time, so we’ve go to do things in a little more different way than we’re used to doing” as he expressed support, as did JP Andy Shock.

When JP Jerry Boyer (R, Dist. 12) called for the vote, JPs unanimously approved the Ordinance.

The meeting was then quickly adjourned after a couple of announcements.

Videos edited from original video on Faulkner County’s website.)

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