Budget control ordinance gets OK

FAYETTEVILLE — After an hour of discussion and disagreement left Washington County’s Finance and Budget Committee evenly split, Ann Harbison, chairwoman of the committee, cast her vote to adopt an ordinance calling for the county to budget by percentages from a fixed pool of general fund money.

The ordinance directs the Quorum Court to divide $30,049,422 in general fund money by percentages, based on the 2021 requests of elected officials. The Sheriff’s Office is allocated 32.5% of that total and the county judge’s office is allocated 29.2%. The assessor is slated to receive 13.7%, the circuit clerk 1.9%, the circuit courts 5.8%, the county collector 3.6%, the prosecutor 5.1%, the county clerk 1.8%, the public defender 2.5%, the Election Commission 1.1%, the county coroner 1.5%, the county treasurer 0.7% and the Quorum Court 0.6%

The initial committee vote on the ordinance ended with six justices of the peace in favor and six against, with Willie Leming abstaining from the vote. Patrick Deakins, Lisa Ecke, Sam Duncan, Butch Pond, Lance Johnson and Susan Cunningham voted in favor of the budget ordinance. Shawndra Washington, Eva Madison, Andrea Jenkins, Suki Highers, Sue Madison and Judith Yanez voted against the ordinance.

“I’m going to break the tie and vote yes so we can move on with this process,” Harbison said after the votes were counted.

The justices of the peace spent some time discussing an amendment to the ordinance requiring elected officials to provide employee raises from the initial percentage allotments. Several officials said they hadn’t been told of the proposal and their budget requests didn’t include money for raises.

“I wasn’t aware of it,” Prosecutor Matt Durrett told the committee. “I don’t know what kind of effect it’s going to have on my budget.”

“I didn’t know about it,” Treasurer Bobby Hill said. “For myself and the collector, our general fund budgets are personnel only so there’s no room for raises in this scenario.”

Hill said his office and that of collector Angela Wood both use the automation funds to cover office expenses since the money is restricted in what they can be used for.

“I’m taking everything out of my automation fund that I possibly can,” Wood said.

The proposed amendment regarding employee raises was rejected by 6-7 vote with Deakins, Ecke, Duncan, Leming, Johnson and Cunningham voting for it and Washington, Eva Madison, Sue Madison, Jenkins, Highers, Pond and Yanez voting against it.

The budget ordinance as passed generated disagreement over what effect it will have on the budget process. Duncan, who proposed the ordinance, said he wanted to grow the reserve while giving elected officials more flexibility within their budgets.

The ordinance includes a clause saying the Quorum Court will increase the general fund reserve to $5 million prior to any appropriation for 2021.

Eva Madison said the reserve already exceeds $5 million, saying the reserve was put at about $5.9 million last month.

“We’re not saving through this ordinance,” Madison said.

Madison also said the ordinance is flawed in the percentages it sets. She said her review of the budgets indicates the percentages in the ordinance are rounded up or down, so some budgets are reduced and some increased.