PINE BLUFF -- Saying that the Jefferson County circuit clerk's office has enough people to do its job, a judge ruled Thursday that the county does not have to restore funding that was trimmed earlier this year in budget cuts.
Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Lafayette Woods Sr. had filed a lawsuit against County Judge Gerald Robinson to get $76,000 put back into his personnel budget. However, Judge David Laser, a special judge appointed to hear the case in Jefferson County Circuit Court, ruled that Woods' office had sufficient personnel to perform its constitutional duties.
Woods filed the lawsuit June 7 over an ordinance recommended by Robinson and approved by the Jefferson County Quorum Court on May 13. The recommendations called for cuts to the personnel budgets for most county offices.
Woods said in the lawsuit that the ordinance left the circuit clerk's office without enough money in its personnel budget to perform the duties of the office as mandated by the Arkansas Constitution. According to the complaint, Robinson represented the ordinance as cutting one position in the circuit clerk's office, but Woods said it cut three positions.
The ordinance authorized six positions for Woods' office, which, at the time, employed nine people who were paid out of county general funds, according to the lawsuit.
Twelve of the county's 13 justices of the peace were called to testify by Luther Sutter, Woods' attorney, who asked them about their familiarity with the functions of the office of circuit clerk and what level of knowledge they had about how many employees are required for the office to function properly. None of the justices of the peace claimed to have deep knowledge of how the office functions but said their responsibility was to make certain the county offices were operating within the constraints of the overall county budget.
Woods, who spent about a half-hour on the witness stand, said he was under the impression that his staff was being cut by one position, which he said he had no problem with. But he said he was out of town in May when the vote was taken and returned to find out that he had lost three positions.
"I would have protested because there's no way I could operate like that," Woods testified.
Ralph Ohm, representing Robinson, asked Woods if there was any animosity between him and the county judge, which Woods denied.
"This is not personal," Woods said. "This is about my job and being able to do my job. Cutting those three from my office is impeding, or stopping me from doing my job."
Woods said his office supports the six circuit court divisions, the prosecuting attorney's office, the sheriff's office, the general public and the juvenile detention center, among other duties.
"There's at least 26 functions in my office that we support, and we just can't do it," he said.
Robinson, under questioning by Sutter, said he had met with county officials in a "state of the county" meeting in January, in which he told them that he would need each of the elected officials to cut one position from their departments. However, he admitted that he had not met with Woods since that time to go over any of the specifics. At one point Sutter pointed out that Woods had called Robinson's office to request a meeting.
"Have you [met with Woods]?" Sutter asked.
"No," replied Robinson.
"Why?" asked Sutter
"At the particular time he called me, I had other duties that I was attending," Robinson said.
Robinson said he did not remember when Woods had called his office, but it was after the vote was taken in May to reduce the workforce. He added that he spoke with Woods by phone on two occasions to postpone planned meetings with him until the next day, but he said Woods never showed up.
Flora Bishop, the chief deputy circuit clerk, testified that although three positions were cut in the office, only two people were actually let go, because one of those positions had not been filled.
She said one of the people who was let go was the civil clerk, which made it necessary for Bishop to take over the civil filings in the office, which she said sometimes made it necessary for her to arrive early some days or stay late on others.
Bishop said she was not aware of any complaints regarding the performance of the office.
"Are there still jury trials going on in this building?" asked Ohm.
"Yes," responded Bishop.
"Are there still civil trials going on in this building?" asked Ohm.
"Yes," Bishop said.
Ohm asked if files requested by the circuit judges were being put in order and being delivered when they were requested.
"Yes, but if they call down and you know there's going to be a trial that day you're going to make sure the paperwork is in there," Bishop said.
Bishop said that even with the staffing shortages, the work that the office is supposed to perform gets done inside the framework of a 37.5-hour workweek.
When asked about Woods' attendance in the office, Bishop was evasive, but admitted that he averaged about three days a week in the office, but often only for a few hours a day.
"I've heard that elected officials only have to be here once a month anyway," she said.
In his ruling, Laser said that, in his travels around the state he has heard many of the same complaints of short-staffing.
"As Mr. Ohm pointed out, 37-and-a-half hours a week, sometimes having to be there and sometimes not having to be there," Laser said. "The general public, out and about, who punches a clock for a living and pays a lot of the taxes that we live on might not think that is being strapped to the point of not being able to do your work well."
After the judge's decision, Robinson said he felt vindicated by the verdict.
"I did what I felt was right for the county," he said. "Looking at the county's financial situation overall I knew that we had to make a reduction. Our workforce was greater than it was 20 years ago when we had more taxes. It was common sense that we had to do this."
State Desk on 08/23/2019