What’s In A Name?

Nothing it seems….

Nine months into the year and the Infrastructure and Roads Committee didn’t meet again. Faulkner County announced Quorum Court Committee meetings for this week, and as usual there was no meeting scheduled for the Infrastructure and Roads Committee.

With the exception of the mandatory organizational meeting in January and one meeting to provide a proforma approval, this committee has not met this year.

The committee is comprised of Justin Knight – JP District 1 (Chair), Jonny Tyler – JP District 5, Nancy Graddy – JP District 11, Samuel Strain – JP District 4, and Jason Lyon – JP District 8.

Road Department activity, which this committee monitored in the past, has been ongoing all year without Quorum Court oversight. I’m sure there are questions the Road Supervisor would be happy to answer if he were asked.

And please don’t try to justify a lack of oversight by saying the County Judge heads the Road Department. If that were valid then the judge should be reporting to the committee, which is not only a problem but illegal, which is why the Road Supervisor is supposed to do it.

There are infrastructure projects throughout the county that were funded partially with County money. Have these funds been properly allocated and used? We won’t know if the Infrastructure and Roads committee doesn’t meet.

Members’ requests for Infrastructure and Road committee meetings have fallen on a Chair who is seemingly deaf. He will not call meetings. This is an issue that has several causes, none of them attractive.

The chair, Justin Knight, seems to see no reason for this committee to meet, even though there certainly is work for them to do and he has received requests from his committee to call a meeting.

In the past Mr. Knight had to recuse himself from some road issues because he had a family member working for the largest road contractor the county deals with. A recusal after spending a whole term actively chairing a committee sort of looks like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Why was he placed on Roads and Infrastructure for a second term given the history? Is his recalcitrance to meet a result of continued conflict of interest? We don’t know, but the county is not being well served by four Justices of the Peace not participating because the chair doesn’t want to be bothered.

Either the Chairman of the committee is resisting because he doesn’t care, or he has outside issues that prevent him from calling a meeting, or he has been directed by someone in county government to not have meetings. As a side note, Quorum Court committees do not report to the executive branch of county government. No matter the cause, this is an issue that should be resolved by the County Judge in his position as Chair of the Quorum Court (non-voting).

In any case, Infrastructure and Roads needs a new chairman.

— Reprinted with permission from Jack’s Substack.