One of my Primary goals when I took office as a county Quorum court member was to make sure that the taxpayers money was properly managed. The problem was that there were so many people responsible for the county funds that it was hard to know if each department was handling the money in a way that would most benefit the people of Pulaski County. For this reason I sponsored and passed an ordinance that would require an annual audit of the entire county and ALL of its books and financial records. This to be done in addition to the annual Legislative audit mandated by the state.

This month, I am pleased to report that there is not one audit being performed but there are in fact a total of FOUR audits in progress. They are the state mandated legislative audit, and a separate audit of all the grant funds and accounts, the 9-1-1 audit and finally the County audit that was just recently mandated by the Quorum Court.

Four audits in all, which now makes Pulaski County the most audited and monitored county government in Arkansas. These annual audits will help prevent funds belonging to the people of Pulaski county ending up in the wrong hands or being used for any other purpose than what the taxpayers have expected them to be used for.

Allen Kerr

Plans are going forward to increase the space at the County Jail and are on schedule. Currently the first two phases of the County Sheriffs four step plan are under way. The first phase (to repair the roof over pods A & B of the old jail building) is almost complete and bids have gone out to repair the heat and air units for those sections.

Phase 2 has begun (to build a new 200 bed warehouse style unit inside the perimeter of the security fence) and is well under way. This unit will be for non-violent offenders only. The architects plans have been approved by the state board of corrections and is moving into the finance process. It is projected that this section will cost approximately 4.7 million dollars to complete. This is a vast contrast to the 800,000 it would have cost to build the same building in 2001. Once the funds are secured by either sale of bonds or by securing a building loan we can proceed with the bid process to find a construction company to do the work.

Phase 3 is to re-open the work center. Soon we will increase our bed capacity, as the prisoners now being held in the work center can be moved back to pods A & B which will free up 250 beds in the work center for misdemeanor criminals.

Finally, phase 4 will be the construction of a 200 hard bed facility to hold the most violent of criminals. We are predicting this cost will be in excess of 8 million dollars. In all, when all four phases are completed, the jail will house 1530 beds. This is close to the number of beds suggested by the UALR task force study of the county and the jail last fall.

I am happy to report that our resolution to require Pulaski County J P's to attend continuing education classes passed with a unanimous vote through both committees and will go to the full Quorum Court this Tuesday evening. The next step is to begin working out the details of what is needed to build a course curriculum that will benefit the Quorum Court members present and future. I hope this will be the beginning of a model for all Arkansas Counties and their Quorum Court members.

The April Quorum Court meetings will bring new, ground-breaking legislation for education. Not education for our children and young people, but education for our elected officials!

The UALR task force study (Part 10, recommendation 4) brought up many issues, not only about finances for the county and evaluation of the jail population, but it also pointed out that elected officials for the county and city governments may not possess or be getting the education and knowledge needed to perform their duties. In this study, it was pointed out that just because a person is elected to an office, while they may have many other talents and experience, it does not mean that they have the knowledge they need to make the proper decisions the taxpayers expect in performance of their office.

That is why UALR has graciously offered their services to implement a continuing education (CE) program to fill in the gaps where needed. As a result of this, I have written and sponsored Resolution #08-I-51 for county elected officials to attend finance classes sponsored by UALR each year.

In the business world, it is very common for professionals to be required to attend continuing education classes in their field. Professionals such as Insurance agents, CPAs, attorneys, securities professionals and even health care professionals are required to attend continuing education classes in their fields in order to stay abreast of constant changes in their industries so that they may give the public the best service possible. It is only natural that this same practice be expected of those who make vital decisions with our tax dollars every day.

Allen Kerr

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