Good to be da judge

Some stories just beg to be told. You likely have missed the uproar in Yellville ever since Springfield, Mo.-based KY3’s Caitlin Sinett’s extensive reporting revealed the outgoing Marion County judge paid thousands from the tax-supported road improvement budget to a Little Rock law firm to cover his appeal of a $250 fine for an ethics violation.

It’s been baffling for me to hear County Judge Terry Ott’s justifications to the reporter, especially since his county’s notoriously bad roads are in such dire need of repair. The ethics matter is only one question Ott has faced about his performance in office, including why he would use a county crew and equipment to improve the county road behind a locked gate feeding into property owned by his nephew.

That’s a question specifically raised by John Massey, the county-judge elect who defeated Ott in the primary election, as reported by Sinett, whose work has been a fine example of First Amendment reporting.

Ott’s also been accused by some quorum court members of misusing the public’s road funds to cover his legal fees incurred by a citizen’s successful ethics complaint over allowing the now-former road foreman to hire his own firm to haul fill materials to the local fairgrounds, and who also cut $250 checks each to Ott’s wife and sister-in-law.

Marion County Justice of the Peace Mike Scrima told Sinett that people come to the meetings and complain about the roads only to be told there is little if any money in the road department, “yet the county judge spends $25,000 to defend a $250 fine. That just doesn’t make sense to myself. And I think some of the JPs when the question come up for more money, they were saying no.”

Charlie Itzig, a resident along County Road 7006, told the reporter a lack of funds is the standard reason given for not being able to repair the road, although county money is being spent on a variety of other projects.

Wayne Templet, who lives on crumbling Thousand Oaks road (not county-owned but reportedly repaired by the county in years past), filed the successful complaint with the ethics commission in 2016. The commission agreed with the complaint and fined Ott $250.

Ott appealed, maintaining he did nothing wrong.

“The facts that have been stated, part of the facts are true. But what they are talking about they have no idea. That’s why I’m contesting this,” Ott told Sinett, adding that, as county judge, he’s legally allowed to use road funds to fight the ethics decision, and a lawyer with the Association of Arkansas Counties agrees.

Over two years, Ott’s payments from public coffers have amounted to about 100 times the ethics fine itself. Ott is further quoted: “Those are going to keep coming. You could ruin any public official because you have to fight those with attorney fees.”

Oh, really? Why would they keep coming?

Ott told Sinett: “Let’s say you pay the $100 fine. They will tell you that you’re not possibly guilty, but it goes on your permanent record with the state forever. In other words, it leaves the impression, yeah, I did it, I can get out of this for $100.”

You as confused as I am, valued reader? The final decision on Ott’s appeal is expected in December.

Back on the county’s terrible road conditions, Sinett quoted Templet saying he was upset that after years of seeking relief, his road hadn’t been properly repaired. He also questioned where money for road repairs is going. “It’d be great if it went to any road in the county,” he said.

Documents show Ott legally lineitem-transferred thousands into the road department’s special legal fund beginning in 2016. It was within his purview to decide which county roads to repair and ignore, Sinett reported.

Most recently, however, Ott told the quorum court that administers the county’s public funds that the road department funds have run low and he needed another $150,000 for repairs and to keep them clear over the winter.

After an initial denial and concerns over how Ott might also transfer some of those funds, a majority of the court members reconsidered and wound up allowing $73,000 to be used specifically for fuel, oil and lube, and moving another $80,000 from one category in the department’s budget to allow those funds to be used for unrestricted maintenance, although it was earmarked for tires, tubes and batteries.

I’m no gub’ment official, but coughing up $153,000 (after Ott requested $150,000) sounds like several dump-truck loads of batteries, fuel, lube and tires.

As for locked County Road 6003 leading to his nephew’s property and a private cemetery, incoming County Judge Massey said his problem is with using county resources behind locked gates on a road that serves one family.

KY3 also reported Massey saying people live on some roads “so eroded and rough that people have a hard time getting to their homes. Some of that gravel could have been used to improve those roads.” Ott told the KY3 reporter his office did not keep records to document the costs or maintenance of Road 6003.

This study in questionable county management techniques reminds me of actor Mel Brook’s comment in his 1981 comedy, History of the World, Part I, when he stared into the camera with a wry smile and deadpanned: “It’s good to be the king!”