Judge’s staff logs 1,400 monument letters

EL DORADO — The office staff of Union County’s county judge, Mike Loftin, was busy Friday preparing letters sent regarding the Confederate monument on county courthouse grounds to be presented to Quorum Court members for a discussion planned for Thursday’s meeting.

Jody Cunningham, Loftin’s executive assistant, said she had logged 1,400 letters by 3:10 p.m. Friday and was still working on it.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that it is just Union County residents,” she said, noting records from the county tax assessor and clerk’s offices are being used to help verify writers reside in the county. “It’s a process.”

Some of the submissions were distributed to Quorum Court members Friday around noon, District 5 Justice of the Peace Carolyn Jones, who was appointed to the body’s Monument Committee in June, said. She hadn’t had a chance to go through them yet when the News-Times spoke with her, but noted that some letters had been sent to her home directly.

“I don’t want to speculate [which way public opinion leaned], because I would want to be able to look at all of them,” Jones said. “I didn’t have enough that were sent to my house to formulate opinions so far.” Justice of the Peace Mike Dumas said its possible the Quorum Court will go ahead and vote on the issue Thursday.

Jones noted justices of the peace can move to vote on anything at any time during a meeting.

“There’s nothing to preclude a member from making a motion on the issue,” she said.

“Any member can place a motion at any time, so that’s certainly a possibility. … I haven’t had a conversation with any of the JPs about that.” Cunningham said all the letters and petitions that hadn’t been distributed Friday would likely reach the Quorum Court on Thursday when they meet.

A discussion on the monument isn’t listed on the Quorum Court’s agenda for July, but Jones, Dumas, Cunningham and Jeffery Rogers, prosecutor for the 13th Judicial District and the county’s lawyer, said they expect it to come up.

Rogers said because of his position as the county’s lawyer, he couldn’t discuss any findings on the legalities of the potential moving or removal of the monument before Thursday’s meeting.

“Some of the issues will be discussed at the Quorum Court meeting [this] week, but right now, I can’t comment on any of that,” Rogers said.

Gary Burbank, an attorney who represents Loftin in his capacity as county judge and who has also been researching the monument issue, wasn’t able to be reached nor was Loftin.

Dumas said he plans to wait until the county’s attorneys have presented their findings before making his determination on how he’ll vote, but said most of the letters he’d received from the courthouse by Friday were in favor of keeping the monument.

The Quorum Court is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Thursday on the third floor of the courthouse in downtown El Dorado.

Cunningham said social-distancing guidelines will be enforced at the meeting and masks are recommended. She said seats will be blocked off to maintain social distance, with approximately two seats marked off between attendees. Overflow crowds will be permitted to sit or stand in the lobby outside the courtroom and the courtroom doors will remain open.