Jefferson County quorum court awaits judge’s decision on 2025 budget approval

PINE BLUFF, Ark. — It’s been nearly five months without a budget having been passed in the Jefferson County quorum court.

Meanwhile, disputes between members of the quorum court and County Judge Gerald Robinson shut down the government for weeks and even forced lawmakers to step in.

Earlier this year, Senate Bill 182 was passed during the legislative session which required a county that hadn’t passed a budget to pay their employees and to operate on the previous years budget.

Since the bill’s passing, Jefferson County has been operating off the 2024 budget.

Though now, things could be moving forward with one final signature.

“All those in favor of a motion. Signify by saying, aye,” said a member of the Jefferson County quorum court after a motion to pass the 2025 budget.

That vote had not been able to pass before Friday night, and because of that, the county has gone nearly months without a budget.

“We had a proposed budget that we had to have three readings to make it legal to proceed,” described Doc Victorino, the Justice of the Peace of District 11.

Victorino also explained that at the end of that third reading, the process is one step closer to being complete.

“Therefore, the county will officially have a budget. This is just an opportunity to move forward and start conducting county business,” he added.

Justice of the Peace for District 3, Reginald Johnson, said that while it has been a long process, there’s been a lot of back and forth between some of the justices and the judge, not just about the budget.

“We’ve gone round and round trying to get the procedural ordinance passed and the budget,” he said.

The budget now has to go to the desk of Judge Robinson who was not in attendance at the meeting to sign off on it. However, Johnson is still hopeful it will get signed. 

“We hope that he does not veto the budget, but, you know, we’ll take it one day at a time,” he said.

Victorino said that he wants to see the county move forward, which is something that Johnson echoed.

“Myself and the other seven JPS, we’re trying to move Jefferson County forward, and there is no agenda behind it other than to help the county,” Johnson added.

Justice of the Peace for District 1, Alfred Carroll, said that the meeting was allowed under the new procedural ordinance that was passed last month.

“Utilizing the clause in our new procedure ordinance that allows an ordinance to have a super majority or a super sponsorship of five justices to sponsor an ordinance, it may go directly to the quorum court agenda,” Carroll said.

All three justices of the peace explained how they are hoping that Judge Robinson signs the budget. Though if he doesn’t sign it within the next seven days, it still becomes law. 

Although he was unable to attend the meeting, Judge Robinson released the following statement in response: 

“An email was sent from the County Clerks office advising there would be a special called Quorum Court meeting this evening. These 8 JP’s have called 3 or 4 special meetings in the last month but failed to attend a regular scheduled meeting. I question the validity of the members coming together and deciding to have a meeting. As some of the members were not contacted as I was informed. These 8 members continue to violate statues regarding proper notice for the meeting! They have not properly passed a procedural ordinance as they believe they have. According to the County attorney are still operating in violation of Judge Wrights order. At least two previous meetings the press were not notified. Many of the Quorum court members as well as myself have previous scheduled events and not able to attend tonight’s meeting!”