Last week, the Sheriff's department mowed the large open area around the Senior Activity Center on South College Avenue.
That, of course, costs taxpayers money, but it happens to be county money spent to take the tops off the already short grass in the part of Walker Park where the center was built at city expense.
Did the County Judge or the Sheriff authorize that needless mowing of city property when fuel prices were at or above $3.50 per gallon?
Photo by Aubrey Shepherd
Please read the Washington County budget story in
The Morning News
County revenue lags behind rise in cost
Local News for Northwest Arkansas
Attorney Salaries' Raise Budget Questions
By Christopher Spencer
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- A request for a 67 percent raise for an attorney in the Washington County public defender's office led county leaders to ask Tuesday for list of all county-employed lawyers' salaries.
Jerry Paddock, chief deputy public defender, asked the county budget committee to finance a jump in one attorney's salary from $36,000 to $60,000 in 2009. A second attorney would have her salary raised from $36,000 to $44,000.
Committee chairman H.L. Goodwin said he couldn't support such a massive pay raise when other county employees were getting an average salary increase of 3 percent next year.
The county shares costs for the public defender's office with the state, explained Paddock. The county pays for two attorneys and the state pays for the other eight. The average salary of attorneys in the office is $60,000, he said.
Raising the two county-paid attorneys brings them more closer to the compensation received by the state-paid staff, Paddock said. It also helps the county retain qualified attorneys in those positions, he said.
Committee member Joe Patterson said he would have like to have known about the salary increases before $53,000 was approved earlier this month to redecorate the public defender's new offices in the Terminella building. Patterson said some of the money dedicated to new furniture could have been spent to bolster salaries.
The committee tabled Paddock's request and asked he work with other county staff to develop a list comparing responsibilities and salaries of all county-employed attorneys.
Other budgets requests were approved, including Paddock's request for about $12,000 for computers, a digital projector and other equipment. The prosecuting attorney's office received an additional $10,000 to replace aging computers.
Circuit Judge William Storey asked for and received $50,000 to pay for increasing jury fees because of an increase in multiday trials. He had to ask earlier this year for an additional $20,000 and said, with this request in the 2009 budget, he will not have to come back later to ask for money. Most of that money will be reimbursed by the state, he said.
About $54,000 was set aside for programs aimed at curbing crime and other behavioral problems among children. These diversion programs work with problem children, and often their families, to teach life skills.
The requests approved Monday leave the county's general fund $1.27 million in the red. County leaders say they will make the general fund balance before the end of the year.
All decisions by the budget committee are tentative pending final approval at the end of the year.
Committee Against Federal 'Bailout'
Washington County's budget committee approved a resolution Monday against the national economic 'bailout' plan in its current form.
County attorney George Butler said he will draft the resolution today and have the document sent to 3rd District John Boozman, R-Rogers, and U.S. Sens Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both D-Ark.
The resolution approved by the committee asks congressional delegates to incorporate the following points in any economic relief package:
• That market values reflect real worth, not bundled assets where high-risk loans are blended with more secure loans.
• Elimination or reduction of the capital gains tax
• Lowering the tax on corporations
• Use insurance policies and loans rather than financial gifts to aid economic recovery
• That no one should benefit financially from the economic problems
• Freeze mortgage foreclosures and try to aid homeowners in rehabilitating defaulted home loansSource: Staff Report
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