Committee Asks for Full Court Meeting After 2022 Budget Review
Now that the Budget & Finance Committee has completed its review of all the departmental budgets, County Judge Jim Baker will be asked to set a special Quorum Court meeting for Tuesday, December 14, to discuss the package, which includes a 12% “COLA” increase for some employees.
At the 45-minute Budget Committee meeting on December 9, JP Randy Higgins (R, Dist. 2) said
I’d like to suggest that we ask the Judge to have a full Court meeting to discuss, actually, the COLA, and let’s get that resolved before we carry this over into the full Court meeting the following week.
After a bit of discussion, the Committee voted to ask for a full Court meeting after the scheduled Budget & Finance Committee meeting on December 14 to discuss the proposed 2022 Budget.
At the December 9 meeting, Budget Committee members quickly went over departmental budgets for the Sheriff’s Department and County Jail — including various grant funds as well as the Criminal Justice Sales Tax fund — plus budgets for the District Court, Office of Emergency Management (OEM), 911/PSAP, Quorum Court, County Recorders Cost Fund, and Circuit Clerk.
As has been the case for several years, the Sheriff’s departmental budgets received the most scrutiny, as compared to other County budgets.
Sheriff’s Department Shifts Funds
Responding to a question from JP Matt Brown (R, Dist. 8), Fiscal Officer Angie Wooley of the Sheriff’s Department said the Department is “actually budgeting for the jail doctor contract out of a few different funding sources,” but did not go into detail.
Later, when answering a question from JP Tyler Pearson (D, Dist. 7), Wooley indicated that $405,000 in the Jail Operations & Maintenance budget is part of the “jail doctor contract.”
Noting the reduction of $375,000 for food for 2022 in the Jail Operations budget, she added, “We’re actually budgeting food out of the Criminal Justice fund instead … for next year.”
Discussion on a $32,000 addition under Hygiene in the County Detention Facility 2022 budget, Wooley said the Department moved that item — for hygiene products for prisoners — from the Criminal Justice fund to the County Detention Facility budget. She added, “We’re going to put our commissary expenses over in Criminal Justice….”
Mental Health Care from ARP Fund
In the County Jail budget, Wooley explained that they separated the mental health care portion of the health care contract for the jail and “We would like to request that that [mental health care contract portion of the health care contract] be paid out of the American Rescue fund… specific language within the American Rescue plan [that] outlines the advanced mental health care of the underprivileged population and so that’s why we believe it’s a very worthy expense.”
Wooley also confirmed that the $164,000 appropriation in the County Jail/American Rescue Plan fund represents the entire cost of the mental health portion of the jail medical contract and, responding to Brown, Wooley said the total cost of the medical services contract for 2022 is $629,000.
Pearson noted
Some might see this as an ongoing expense and some might not be inclined to use this [American Rescue Plan] money … this one-time money for an ongoing expense. But I don’t necessarily personally see it that way. We don’t have money for it, we don’t have to fund it.
I think we have an opportunity to fund it, it’s a legitimate need for these funds, and definitely a legitimate need for what I hear about what’s going on inside the jail. So, I just want to say, thank you all for finding a way to make this happen and I support it.
Wooley, answering a question from Higgins, also explained that the federal Drug Forfeiture fund is down about 70% (from $10,800 appropriated in 2020 to a proposed $3,035 budget for 2022) because it’s based on “our available fund” from drug forfeiture cases.
Most Fuel Budgets Up
As he did on other budgets, Higgins noted an $80,000 increase on fuel oil and lubricants, based on the rising cost of those items, and Wooley pointed out their fuel cost “has increased by about $5,000 a month” in 2021.
Referencing Ordinance 21-30, Wooley said the dispatcher salaries shown are “the amended numbers,” and explained those salaries are “the difference, so they’re not getting the full 12%; they’re getting the difference of what their original salary was, and the 12.”
When Higgins asked OEM Director Sheila Bellott about their “flat” fuel budget, she explained they “only use that for travel,” as their other fuel “comes from the shop.”
Bellott added that the $11,000 increase in Maintenance/Service Contracts is for a GIS services contract the office will bid out; she explained the contract is a replacement for a position that’s been vacant since the individual in the job left County employment “quite some time” ago.
Amended 911/PSAP Budget
Bellot pointed out that “this appropriation for 2022” shows two dispatcher positions “getting the full 12% and I don’t know if that needs to be adjusted or not.” After some discussion about the “typo,” the Committee voted to amend the 911/PSAP budget to reflect a salary “with the difference” of $34,822 for Dispatcher positions 1286 and 1287.
After discussing and voting on Higgins’ motion to set a Quorum Court meeting for December 14, the Budget & Finance Committee adjourned.
Videos edited from original video on Faulkner County’s YouTube channel.)
Visit Faulkner County Reports on YouTube for more videos and video excerpts from this and other County meetings.
