The Columbia County Quorum Court will meet on next Monday, Oct. 9.
According to the agenda, the meeting will be held on the second-floor courtroom in the Columbia County Courthouse at 5 p.m.
On the agenda, this month is a rural fire grant, a police grant, a discussion on changes to recycling, increases of county employee salaries, transferring some tax duties from the county clerk to the collector office, repairing the Columbia County Health Unit roofs and filling the vacancy in the Circuit Clerk’s office.
The Village Fire Department is seeking a $5,000 Volunteer Fire Department Rural Aid Grant to perform maintenance on their trucks and for building repairs according to the grant request that was submitted to Judge Fields.
One ordinance, if passed, would appropriate $5,000 from the County General Fund to the Grants-in-aid – Law Enforcement Department fund to purchase supplies for the new K-9 units at the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department.
No exact information on the discussion of recycling was provided with the Quorum court Agenda, but in September Judge Doug Fields said that the county is also looking into taking over recycling and yard waste pickup and he is renegotiating the county’s contract with Green for Life, but he said he hopes by the end of the year to have a trailer-mounted disposal system with county-operated pickup starting in 2024.
“The way it’s supposed to work is that during trash pickup they run trucks to every house and the guys report back to El Dorado if you’ve got recycle cans setting out there; they’ll call back and say, ‘Okay this house number here has recyclables out front.’ Once you get a few of them, it might take a week, but then they will come out to get it. It’s not really feasible for them to send a truck with the regular trash trucks every week,” said Fields.
An ordinance sponsored by Justice of the Peace (JP) Sam Sharp and JP Annette Pate will increase elected official pay by 15% if passed and other county employees’ pay by 10% except for the sheriff’s deputies who already received a raise.
Fields said, “Our employees are an investment for our county. When we can retain employees long-term, we get trained employees and put out quality work that’s done right the first time, which saves the county money. Our employees are available assets to our county and I believe they are worth every bit of this increase. As for the elected officials, I believe these are respected jobs that require much knowledge and dedication. Our positions are 24/7 jobs. I’m asking for 15% for our elected officials because I believe these positions are also valuable assets to the county.”
JP Jeremy Langley said he agrees that raises for county workers are needed but questioned the funding for the increases.
“I think we’re going to be able to do a lot more down the road when that money rolls in. We don’t have that money right now. I’m not against raises at all. I just think 15% is out of line with my view of reality,” said Langley. “On the Quorum Court, I’ve had two issues that my phone has rang off the hook about. One was trash bags. The other was when the news stories came out about the requested 10 or 15 percent raises. I didn’t count, but this was the highest call volume I’ve gotten about issues and not a single one of them was positive.”
Multiple JPs said that if raises are approved, future raises should just be for cost of living adjustments.
JPs also agreed that they would not be included in the 15% raise.
“At the end of the day, we have to go back and face our constituents. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 23.2% of Columbia County lives in poverty. Some of them live in my district, and some of them live in your districts. Now we got to go back and look them in the eye when they can’t afford to buy their prescription medication. Now we’re telling them we’re giving a 15% pay raise to elected officials. Sorry you can’t afford to pay your bills, but we’re going to make sure they pay theirs. That’s why I will vote against it,” said Langley.
Some tax functions related to certifying current and delinquent taxes are still considered part of the County Clerk’s office according to the Columbia County code and a new ordinance seeks to change that by amending language in the law to say, “The Columbia County Collector is charged with preparing and certifying monthly and final distributions of all current and delinquent taxes collected by the county collector as prescribed by law.”
This will bring county code in line with the Acts of Arkansas No. 849 of 1993 which designates the aforementioned role as the duty of the county collector.
Fields has received $91,403.20 in insurance proceeds for roof and HVAC repairs to the Columbia County Health Unit building and an ordinance set for the agenda if passed will appropriate the money into the County Buildings Department Fund to allow repairs to be made.
Angela Keith, former Columbia County Circuit Clerk, resigned on Thursday. Columbia County Quorum Court will appoint a new Circuit Clerk.
The interim clerk would serve from Oct. 9 until Dec. 31, 2026, and would not be eligible to run for Circuit Clerk in the 2026 election.
On Sept. 29, Keith was found guilty of tampering with evidence, two counts of terroristic threatening and two counts of aggravated assault and received a sentence of one year in prison and five years suspended imposition of sentence, a form of probation, following her release.
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