Click here to read the Arkansas Democrat/Gazette (Northwest Arkansas Edition) March 19, 2008 news article.

Progress with the Pulaski County Jail is well under way with the ordinance passage of the contract with Siemens Inc to repair all the mechanical and fixtures in all county owned buildings starting with the detention center. The Sheriff has been appropriated funds to repair the roof over the old section of pods A and B. In the next 30 days, the prisoner work center will be vacant and ready for non-violent offenders, such as burglars and car thieves.

Unfortunately, even with all the progress the county has made in the past year the City of Little Rock is still threatening a lawsuit against the county. But, the good news is, after some meetings with a few of the city board members, a solution may be reachable. The city attorney and the county attorney along with a third party lawyer will meet to arbitrate the issues in question by the city. I have great hopes that, with both parties sitting down at the table, both views can be heard and we can come to a reasonable solution.

I would be in favor of throwing out the current inter-local agreement between the county and the cities and re-writing an agreement that makes sense for all the citizens of Pulaski county, one that will keep us safe.

Click on the link below to read the entire Local Legislative Newsletter which was mailed to District 32 residents.
LRN_News_20080227_web.pdf

When you elected me at the end of 2006, the county was almost 5 million dollars in the red because of poor budgeting, based on inflated revenue figures. Well, the County has finally closed the books on 2007 and the final figures are in! When the books were closed on February 1st and all of the 2007 bills were paid, we carried over a balance of $4,698,164 into 2008! This number is a turnaround of almost $10 million in just one year!

Now that the finances and budget are under control, our most important task and goal for 2008 is the county jail expansion. First, we needed a plan for the future of the jail that we can get started on today. As the budget chair, I joined with other members of the Quorum Court to request that Sheriff Doc Holiday develop a plan to immediately increase the number of jail beds and begin construction on a new wing of the detention center. Once the new facility is completed, the number of beds will increase from the current 880 to a total of 1,530. You may remember reading that this was the number of beds suggested in the UALR task force study of the detention center.

In 2006, thousands of Pulaski County citizens spoke loudly by voting against a jail tax. The current plans to fund the construction of a new jail, WITHOUT RAISING YOUR TAXES, demonstrate what government can do when it puts needs before wants. Working within our means is something every citizen has to do, why should government be any different?

There continues to be talk from the City of Little Rock about suing Pulaski County. As budget chair, I have offered to meet with our city board leaders and work through the issues. The voters and taxpayers of Pulaski County expect that their leaders work together for their best interest. It helps no one when government spends taxpayers dollars to sue itself! We must resolve issues without waste of time, money and resources.

Now that we have the funds, we will go forward with the full audit of the county finances. This audit will be done on an annual basis and will play a vital role in preventing any more wrong-doing like that of the previous county comptroller Ron Quillon. These audits will insure that the future county finances are clean and transparent to the public.

In November of 2005, Pulaski County was, for all practical purposes, bankrupt. Today, the county is recovering and moving into a new year with over $4.7 million that can be used to lock criminals away and make our county a safer place for all of our families.