After fits and starts, aggravated exchanges across the dais and ditching half the agenda, the Pulaski County Quorum Court's Budget Committee's Thursday meeting was defined by a whirlwind of confusion.
It was expected to be the committee's final meeting to finalize the county's roughly $70 million budget. But after frustration took hold of the body, several items on the agenda were postponed to an additional meeting to be held Nov. 3.
Halfway through the meeting, after a motion for early adjournment failed to pass and a five-minute recess was called to cool heads, two members of the eight-person committee -- Justice of the Peace Robert Green and Justice of the Peace Aaron Robinson -- had left the building.
But a quorum was still present to consider various pay raises or new positions. In total, the body had completed 10 of the 27 items for consideration after two hours.
Many of the personnel requests made by various department heads -- including the county clerk, treasurer, asessor and sheriff -- were for new IT positions or salary increases for IT employees. However the committee balked at many of these requests.
"We are in competition with the real world. These people are very specialized and very hard to find," said Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane, who had requested an $8,856 increase for his office's director of data processing.
County Assessor Janet Ward was also requesting a salary increase for a director of data processing, and told committee members that there had been 10,300 foreign hits, or potential cyberattacks, from foreign countries in the past two days.
"You got to have good people," Ward said.
"The salary we got for these IT people, you're not going to be able to fill [these positions] with anybody. Two people applied from outside, and they laughed when we told them what we paid," said Chief Deputy Michael Lowery of the sheriff's office. "They ran out the door so fast."
But by the time the committee considered salary increases for the sheriff's director of data processing position, the eight-member body had been reduced to six. The sheriff's request failed 2-3 with one abstention. Justice of the Peace Doug Reed, Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers and Justice of the Peace and committee Chairman Donna Massey voted against the measure.
The budget committee did approve a new bailiff position for the circuit court, two upgraded positions in the circuit court, and a treasury specialist position for the Pulaski County treasurer's office.
The committee voted against salary increases for three data processing director positions, a public defender position, an additional bailiff position, and a community liaison position for the treasurer's office.
Metro on 10/21/2016