LITTLE ROCK — Lining one wall of the Pulaski County Quorum Court chamber are 18 group photographs of justices of the peace dating back to 1977.
Wilandra Dean is in 17 of them. In 13 of those photos, she is wearing her favorite color.
“I used to tell people that when you see something big and yellow coming down the street, it’s either me or a school bus,” she said. “For a few years, I gave out marigold seeds that had ‘Keep Pulaski County Beautiful’ printed on the package, so yes, yellow is my favorite color.”
Dean, 68, is the longest serving justice of the peace in the county’s history. But after a successful fight against breast cancer and brain surgery for an undisclosed ailment, she has decided not to run for reelection to her District 5 Quorum Court seat.
Along the opposite wall of the Quorum Court chamber, facing the group photos, are portraits of county judges, the top officials in the county. Elected in 1979, Dean has outlasted three of them and has been working with her fourth, Buddy Villines, since 1991.
Dean remembers when there was once about 500 justices of the peace and roll call at the annual meeting took almost half the day. A law change in the late 1970s reduced the number to the current 15-member Quorum Court.
“You went down there early in the morning and stayed until noon calling the roll,” she said. “Then we’d take a break, come back, call the roll again, vote on the budget, then go home and do the same thing again in a year.”
Such a big group - Villines said it “was the largest legislative body in the world” at the time - and was grossly ineffective, Dean remembers.
“I’m not sure we even knew what the budget was, that we even saw it,” she said. “We just voted yes, assuming that the county judge knew what he was doing.
“Then things changed and we had a county judge try to just push a budget through, and I said, ‘Excuse me. It doesn’t work that way anymore,’” she said. “So we have evolved to where now we see the budget and get to the point where we quibble over $200, which I guess is necessary.”
In her three decades on the Quorum Court, Dean said, the craziest thing she has seen was when Sheriff Tommy Robinson arrested County Judge William Beaumont and Comptroller Jo Growcock.
The sheriff and his deputies arrested and handcuffed Beaumont and Growcock on misdemeanor charges of obstructing governmental operations when they questioned the authorization for some expenditures for the sheriff’s office and refused to approve them.
“They could not get along,” she recalled.
The low point of her tenure, Dean said, was the county’s near-bankruptcy in 2005 after years of overspending based on faulty projections from the county’s comptroller.
As a result, the Quorum Court laid off 100 deputies, cut the amount of available jail space for inmates and slashed salaries by 10 percent. At the beginning of 2005, the county had about $78,000 in the bank.
“We didn’t have any money, and that was tough,” she said.
As Dean leaves the Quorum Court, the county is in the best financial shape it’s ever been in, she said, but now she has to make an important decision.
“I don’t know what I’ll do with myself on Tuesdays,” she said. “I may still go for a while. I just can’t keep from it.”
Vying in the May primary to fill Dean’s position will be three Democrats: Mary “Jill” Kennedy, Terri Hollingsworth and Lillie McMullen. The winner will face Republican Dante Shelton in November.
Dean said she doesn’t expect much contentious campaigning.
“Probably, the Lake Maumelle watershed will be mentioned a lot,” she said. “Beyond that, the jail seems to be taking care of itself now. I’d say it’s a pretty good time to come in quietly.”
District 6 Justice of the Peace Donna Massey said she hates to see her friend go. When Dean leaves, so will a lot of institutional knowledge, Massey said.
“That history is still pertinent to the decisions we make today,” she said.
She will also miss Dean’s wit, Massey said.
“She has a dry humor about her,” she said. “She’s just a good friend, and I’m definitely going to miss her. I’m just used to her sitting in that seat.”
Whoever wins Dean’s position on the Quorum Court has big shoes to fill, Massey said.
“I think she truly understands the needs of the community and she voted as such,” she said. “I just hope her successor is as concerned.”
Villines called Dean “steady.”
“We didn’t always agree, but she was a steady member,” he said. “She invested the time to learn about the issues. She was really sensitive to her district, but she also understood that in addition to representing her district, as a JP, you make decisions that affect the whole county and at some point you have to look at the good of the whole as well as the good of the few in your district, and she was able to do that.”
Dean said that’s one thing she will enjoy leaving behind.
“I will not miss having to make up my mind about things and decide: Is this really important? Why is it important and who do I need to talk to and convince that it’s important?” she said. “That’s really why we’re there.”
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 03/26/2012