Budget refuels election rivalry

CONWAY — Now that the anything-but-friendly race for 20th Judicial District prosecuting attorney is over, the aftershocks have begun.

The most noticeable one began when the proposed 2011 budget for the prosecutor’s office came up for review by the Faulkner County Quorum Court’s Finance and Administration Committee.

Budgets in tough economic times can always be tricky. Further, this one was prepared by Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden of Conway, a Democrat who one week earlier lost his reelection bid to Republican Cody Hiland. Contention quickly ensued.

It didn’t take Hiland or justices of the peace long to notice that after the election, Vaden had chopped the budget proposal he had submitted before the election by more than $275,000.

Vaden first proposed an increase from the 2010 budget of $683,772.43 to $787,977.88. His revised proposal, submitted after Nov. 2, was much leaner at $511,672.74. Last week, the committee recommended the approval of a third proposal, in which Hiland had input, for $776,977.88.

The full Quorum Court is scheduled to consider the issue Dec. 16.

Vaden said he submitted the revised proposal after a couple of county officials who work with the budget contacted him after the election.

“They said, ‘You’re familiar with this budget.

You’ve done this a long time. Are there things that can be cut from the budget that would help us kind of rein in the spending from county government?’” he said.

“I just said, ‘Yeah, I can cut some things,’” Vaden added.

He declined to identify the two officials.

Hiland countered that he believes Vaden’s action “has more to do with sour grapes and losing than it does [with] some legitimate budgetary rationale.”

“In trying to hurt us at this point, he’s really hurting the community,” Hiland said. “If we lose, the criminals win. And that’s unfortunate.”

Vaden said he figured all along that the Quorum Court would get Hiland’s input on the budget plan.

“He should be able to look at it,” Vaden said. “I’m not trying to be mean. ... I’m not laying bombs over here. This is the people’s office. .... This office is in really, really good shape financially and otherwise.”

Vaden said that when he submitted the first proposal, “it was with the idea of things I had plans to do with the drug task force and those sorts of things.”

Vaden said some people “didn’t feel like we needed to have investigators” in the prosecutor’s office. Further, he said, “My opponent apparently did not want to keep the drug task force.”

So, when Vaden began trimming, his proposed cuts included elimination of the office’s investigator and the drug task-force coordinator by cutting their salaries to zero.

Hiland, however, said Vaden’s action “has less to do with his opinions on what my take on the drug task force is and more to do with wanting to make it hard on us as we go into the new year.”

Vaden “has no idea what my position is” on the task force, Hiland said.

Asked if he did want to eliminate the task force, Hiland said he wants to see if it can be structured better. The task force “is too important to Van Buren County and Searcy County to get rid of it,” he said.

Those are the 20th Judicial District’s two other counties.

Finance and Administration Committee Chairman Randy Ingram could not be reached for comment because no one answered his home phone this week.

Dianna Kellar, a committee member and former chairman, said she did not view Vaden’s actions as malicious.

“I am afraid much ado has been made about nothing,” said Kellar, a Democrat who did not seek re-election.

Vaden’s first proposal “might have had some things that Cody didn’t want,” she said. “I did not take it as an affront. It would have been redone anyway” with the new prosecutor coming into office.

Committee member Jimmy Bryant, a Republican, said he did not know why Vaden cut the budget so much.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to him about it. What we suggested to Cody was that he go with the original budget [proposal] because I can’t explain the reduction in the one after the election.”