After 9 recusals in clerk’s suit, justice to pick judge

PINE BLUFF — Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Dan Kemp has been asked to appoint a judge to hear a lawsuit filed by Jefferson County’s circuit clerk against the county judge after nine judges in the county recused from the case.

The request was made in a letter from Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis, who said he was recusing to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Also recusing from the lawsuit were Circuit Judges Alex Guynn, Robert Wyatt, William Benton, Leon Jamison and Earnest Brown; Jefferson County District Judges John Kearney and Kim Bridgforth; and Lincoln County District Judge Phillip Green.

Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Lafayette Woods Sr. filed a lawsuit against Gerald Robinson, the county judge, regarding an ordinance passed by the Jefferson County Quorum Court on May 13 that dealt with workforce reduction recommendations made by Robinson.

The recommendations called for cuts to the personnel budgets for most county offices.

Woods contends in the lawsuit that the ordinance leaves the circuit clerk’s office without enough money in its personnel budget to perform the duties of the office as mandated by the Arkansas Constitution. Accord

ing to the complaint, Robinson represented the ordinance as cutting one position in the circuit clerk’s office, but Woods says it cut three positions.

The ordinance authorizes six positions for Woods’ office, which currently employs nine people, according to the complaint.

The complaint also says the ordinance was passed improperly by being read only once before it was voted on by Quorum Court members. Generally, ordinances must be read three times in three consecutive meetings before a final decision is made.

Exceptions are when the governing body suspends the rules to allow the second and third readings of an ordinance in a single meeting, or when it suspends the rules to allow a single reading.

According to court docket reports, no date has been scheduled for a hearing, and no judge has been appointed to hear the case.