When Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson took office in 2019, there was $30,000 in the Jefferson County Reserve Fund. During his first year, the account increased to nearly $1 million, according to Robinson, but the money was hit by unforeseen expenses that occurred before his tenure as judge.
Two years later, after numerous floods and an epic pandemic, $627,449 sits in the county reserves.
In an effort to build on that figure and provide sustainability for Jefferson County, Robinson presented to the Quorum Court's justices of peace a continuation plan in a special-called Budget and Finance meeting on Wednesday evening.
"We are a whole lot better than we were last year, improving each year," said Robinson, who noted that the county was struggling to make payroll at the beginning of the year. "Progress is being made but sustainability is the goal."
In order to provide sustainability, Robinson said the county needs to keep the current hiring freeze in effect, cut personnel, cross-train employees, and automate county offices. By doing so, money saved would go in the Reserve Fund, which is set up for emergencies so the county can fund itself in times of emergencies instead of waiting months to receive federal funds.
Robinson said in most counties, reserve funds match about half of what the total revenue is.
"Running this county is a business," said Robinson. "We need about 15 employees less to be able to sustain for the future."
In reaching this conclusion, Robinson said he visited several top-class 6 and class 5 counties to compare those operations to that of Jefferson County, which is currently a class 6 county but will drop down to class 5 due to a decline in the population, which now sits at 66,824.
Class 6 counties that Robinson visited included Faulkner, Saline, and Craighead, which all had populations of more than 110,000, with no more than 300 county employees, compared to Jefferson County, which has 334 employees.
Class 5 counties included Lonoke, Crawford, and Crittenden, which had populations ranging from 47,000 to 73,000. None had more than 252 employees.
In comparison to Jefferson County, the top counties in each class were operating with fewer employees while Jefferson County had one of the lowest populations but operated with more employees than counties almost twice its size in population.
Reserves for those counties ranged from under $4 million to more than $7 million.
"They had struggling times too, but what they did is they reduced their personnel because they had to figure out a way to make it and employees were their biggest draw," said Robinson, who added that he had conversations with the other county judges.
Robinson said once Jefferson County drops to class 5 county, state turnback money, road funds, and tax collections will all drop.
"We knew what our biggest cost was...our employees," said Robinson. "It is tough. It is very tough to see anyone without a job."
Some of the JPs faulted the Quorum Court for allowing the county to end up in this position, blaming miscommunication between elected officials and themselves.
"In a hiring freeze, when someone leaves, that slot is eliminated," said Robinson, when questioned by the JPs about elected officials requesting to fill empty slots.
The JPs also said it was their fault for allowing empty slots to be filled because the hirings didn't affect the County General Fund. The reason for that was because elected officials were good at finding other ways to keep their employees paid.
"As long as it didn't hit County General, we didn't care how they kept that person," said Justice of the Peace Reginald Adams.
Slots have remained vacant throughout the pandemic due to the hiring freeze, and Robinson said that if a department has managed to operate without that employee, the department may not need that slot after all.
"There are areas in every department that we can take a look at," said Robinson, who said he plans to meet with department heads at a later date. "Let's automate our offices, let's cross-train."
Robinson said the Automation Fund is made available to automate offices to make them more efficient. That efficiency will eliminate the need for as many employees.
"If you have a person in that fund and you need to buy a program, you won't be able to do it," said Robinson. "If automating the office will help be more efficient, then that is what we need to do."
Justice of the Peace Dr. Conley Byrd Jr. asked if cutting personnel down by 15 employees would be enough in comparison to the other counties.
Byrd said it looked as if Jefferson County would need to cut at least 35 employees to be able to build up the reserves and continue to give salaries.
Though Robinson agreed, he said he didn't want to suggest making such a drastic cut. He also stated those slots that were still open and weren't classified as essential, according to the Hiring Freeze Ordinance, could be eliminated during the budget process.
"I know that we got revenue that is going to increase. I know that we got different things coming, so I'm trying to lessen the amount of people that we need to get down to," said Robinson. "Fifteen people will do it."
Robinson said if the county has the money and county employees are close to retirement, they could be offered some type of incentive package to resign.
"You may find some people that say, 'hey, that sounds pretty good. I'm ready to go,'" said Robinson. "That's what Faulkner County did."
Taking an in-depth look at the workflow in each county office, Robinson said there is some duplication of services and in order for the county to build reserves and sustain operations, changes are going to have to be made.
"We will look at the totality of our situation and make the decision based on that," said Robinson to the JPs, who would be tasked with the final decision making. "We know what we have to do. We just have to come up with ways on how to do it."