Care urged in use of relief funds in Pulaski County

JPs refuse to suspend rules to hear late-filed ordinance

FILE — The Pulaski County government office in downtown Little Rock is shown in this 2019 file photo.
FILE — The Pulaski County government office in downtown Little Rock is shown in this 2019 file photo.

Government in Pulaski County will in the coming weeks determine how millions in federal funding will be distributed.

Pulaski County received just over $76.1 million from the American Rescue Plan covid-19 federal aid funds.

At Tuesday's Pulaski County Quorum Court meeting, justices of the peace refused to suspend the rules to hear a late-filed ordinance allocating $765,000 of the funds for a one-time premium payment to essential county employees.

Some justices of the peace, such as Staci Medlock, raised concern about how late the ordinance was filed.

"I just hate that I haven't had time to look it over, so I'm going to have to say no," Medlock said when called upon to vote.

Ultimately the vote failed 8-2 with five abstentions.

Barry Hyde, county judge of Pulaski County, said he was upset that the Quorum Court missed an opportunity to give the payment to county workers.

"I was shocked," Hyde said. "I've been your county judge going on eight years now, and I can tell you in eight years I don't ever recall the Quorum Court failing to allow a late filing to be heard. All that means is that the ordinance was not put on the agenda one week in advance."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette received the ordinance at 5:15 p.m., 45 minutes before the meeting on Tuesday.

Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers said he received the ordinance late, saying that he was also concerned about the legislation being rushed.

"I believe it is obvious from the vote count that the majority of my colleagues agreed with me on this matter, that it was not good policy or stewardship of taxpayer money to spend close to $1 million on an item that was presented to the body less than an hour before the meeting and had not been vetted through committee," Stowers said.

While the sum was large by normal county standards, it barely scratched the multiple millions of dollars that was awarded to the county.

According to Hyde, the best way to use the funds is to be purposeful and target specific items that have bigger impact rather than spread out the funds to small projects here and there.

"This is more money that is coming into our region, our county than has ever just shown up and will probably never happen again in our lifetime," Hyde said. "We've got to be careful not to let that money get nickled and dimed away. In our business, it can happen because there are so many needs out there, and I don't think it's going to be the best service we can do to our community and our constituents if we allow that to happen."

According to Hyde, premium pay to first responders would be a good opportunity to thank those that worked on the front lines for the county during the pandemic.

"If we decide it's beneficial, we can do what the document refers to as premium pay for first responders and specifically law enforcement," Hyde said.

In his experience since the pandemic started, Hyde said just being a regular citizen not interacting with people daily introduces stress that could potentially multiply for first responders.

"I think it means the world," Hyde said. "I can tell you as just a citizen how much stress I felt over the course of those 14 months and I'll bet you did too, just having this dark cloud over us all the time of 'Am I gonna get sick or are my loved ones gonna get sick? If we get sick are we gonna die?'"

Upcoming Events