Sheriff details funding, staffing issues

LITTLE ROCK — During a specially called meeting of the Pulaski County Quorum Court on Tuesday, Sheriff Eric Higgins revealed that his office faces a litany of financial and personnel issues.

The sheriff told justices of the peace that his office faces issues with outdated equipment and a lack of funding for upkeep of the Pulaski County jail, as well as a high turnover rate and several vacant positions at the jail.

Jail employees have been working on 12-plus-hour shifts, on lots of overtime and in “unsafe” environments with outdated and unreliable locks, nonworking door control panels and a severe lack of staff, Higgins said.

“Locks. Control board. Generator,” Higgins said. “When I took office, these things I inherited.”

The locks used inside the jail are no longer being made, and when refurbished ones were purchased via a contact made before Higgins took office, not a single one worked, the sheriff said, adding that he was not made aware of many of the additional issues within the jail until there were obvious problems.

“It was eight months,” Higgins said. “I’m pushing a button coming out of the detention center before I was told the control button didn’t work. The only reason they were able to open the door for me was because they saw me on camera.”

The generators that were supposed to be capable of running the whole building during a power outage were not powering the air conditioning and remained that way for two days during July 2019, he said.

The meeting was called by Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers to discuss the personnel and financial issues after reports of the office being over $1 million in debt, mostly because of body cameras bought from Axon.

According to Higgins, the sheriff’s office is in good standing with Axon, but that is not the only financial issue.

Justice of the Peace Paul Elliot asked the sheriff about a grant for $420,000 that has been in limbo.

“The previous people I had in there used the wrong account number and the reimbursement should have covered that account completely, and understand that there were things that weren’t done,” Higgins said. “There was a filing system that wasn’t quite right, and I wish I could tell you that everything was absolutely perfect right now, but we are working to correct the issue.”

Higgins said after the meeting that there had been changes to the office’s finance department.

The office’s “critical” problems, which according to Higgins are caused by a lack of funding, could result in situations in which the county could be held liable under some circumstances, according to county attorney Adam Fogelman.

“It all depends on the facts and circumstances, and I know that’s the most lawyer answer I could give,” Hatfield said. “But without a specific set of facts, I can’t tell you what the specific exposure to liability is.”

Justice of the Peace Barry Jefferson raised the idea of a sales tax to fund some of the necessary repairs to avoid being held liable because of malfunctioning equipment at the jail.

“That’s why I think we need to ask the citizens of Pulaski County to invest in a sales tax that could support the detention center and sheriff’s department,” Jefferson said.

Higgins also thinks that may be the only choice the county has.

“I think that may be our only option, the sales tax,” Higgins said. “[The University of Arkansas at Little Rock] did a study that addressed some of these issues with a sales tax to try to maintain the detention facility, so it’s not something new that we’re trying to deal with.”

Stowers was less enthusiastic about a sales tax, saying that voters rejected a sales tax the past three times it was voted on. He said Higgins has plenty in his maintenance and personnel budget to fund many of the repairs but wished that he could put that money into personnel.

“The sheriff has a significant amount of maintenance and operation budget really,” Stowers said.

The office has over 100 vacant positions between patrol deputies and the jail staff. According to Higgins, the sheriff’s office is struggling with a high turnover rate caused by better pay elsewhere and the long shifts.

“I knew when I took office that there is a problem with retention,” Higgins said. “It is an ongoing problem that we deal with. This is nothing new. You can look at the numbers today, and they’re bad. I agree with you.”

Stowers brought up early in the meeting that the sheriff’s office has had several Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints about leadership within the agency, but Higgins was reluctant to talk about it in an open meeting.

“I think it’s inappropriate, when you’re having a conversation about personnel issues, to have that conversation in the media,” Higgins said.

When asked about the EEOC complaints’ effects on the staffing numbers, Stowers said the biggest thing plaguing the personnel at the sheriff’s office is morale.

“I’ve talked to several [sheriff’s office employees] that were within 24 months of full retirement, and they left the sheriff’s office because of this reason: morale,” he said. “They couldn’t do it anymore. They could no longer stand it even though they were that close.”