The 20th Judicial District 2014 General Election.

That’s right, it’s time once again for the people of Faulkner County to once again go to the polls and vote for our government representatives. It’s a process that we should all know all too well but it shouldn’t be taken lightly. This year the people are ask to vote for 4 of the 5 Circuit Judge positions in the 20^th Judicial District and those races haven’t been without controversy. A Circuit Judge is a powerful position to hold in justice system. They are the judges that interact with the public in all types of cases and their rulings set presences that define how our laws are interrupted. So it’s important that the people we elect to this position a) see our laws as we see them and b) that they are above reproach. Sadly however things just don’t always turn out that way.

One of our long time circuit judges, Judge Mike Maggio, showed us how badly it can turn out with his racist, sexist, and homophobic comments in an online forum. But it doesn’t end there, the judge also admittedly gave details of a sealed adoption case he reportedly handled and he is currently under investigation for reducing a jury’s verdict in a case involving a contributor to his campaign for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Judge Maggio has resigned from the race for a Court of Appeals seat and has had his case load in the circuit court reassigned effectively leaving the good people of this district one judge short. You can read more about this at the Blue Hog Report. One does have to wonder how deep this rabbit hole goes when you think about the length of time Judge Maggio has been on the bench.

The end of Judge Maggio’s judicial career may have started with the stupid comments he made online but that kind of stupidity comes from an arrogant lack of character. A good judge needs to have the kind of integrity and responsibility that keeps them humble in their duty to uphold our laws. They are, after all, our representatives. Here are the choices before us this time around:

DIVISION 1 Candidates:

Judge Amy Brazil, current 5^th division judge

Mike Murphy, Conway City Attorney

DIVISION 2 Candidates:

Troy Braswell, Deputy Prosecutor

Joe Don Winningham

DIVISION 4 Candidates:

Judge David Clark, current 4^th division judge 

Angela Byrd, former Deputy Prosecutor

DIVISION 5 Candidates:

H.G. Foster, current 1^st division judge 

Doralee Chandler

The polls will close on the evening of May 20^th this year, early voting will begin on May 5^th. 

Spending is again a problem at the FCSO.

At the last F & A Committee meeting committee members met to start the budget process for next year's budgets just as they do every year at this time. This year however more problems arose when the committee reviewed spending at the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office.

Log Cabin Reporter Daniel Doyle reported that the F & A committee "grappled with the jail spending" once again. If you recall this is the department whose head, Kyle Kelley, resigned in the middle of an investigation into illegal spending. An investigation where a special prosecutor found what he called "egregious incidents of theft and fraud" but due to the limited scope of investigation issued by circuit Judge Charles Clawson, Jr. no charges were filed and no money was recovered.

This latest problem however is one of inadequate record keeping. Apparently members of the sheriff's staff hadn't calculated some of the November appropriations before presenting it to the committee. Doyle writes,

Secretary Mike Hutchens was so frustrated he called it "stupid" that sheriff's officials hadn't calculated certain FCSO appropriations for November's monthly finance ordinance.

"What we were supposed to be doing tonight were normal appropriations, like at any other F&A meeting," Hutchens said. "There's so much to go through, I'm not even sure right at the moment what to say as far as 'what went on.'

It is amazing that after more that 2 years of spending problems at the department they still cannot manage to balance their checkbook so to speak. We think this is one of the biggest problems that led to the theft of taxpayer's money, inadequate controls on spending.

We had a discussion with Chief Deputy Steve Wallace about the departments spending procedures shortly after the helicopter purchase was announced. We asked Wallace if it was a common practice to split purchases between two different departments and his reply was shocking to say the least.

According to Wallace the sheriff's office is in charge of seven different budgets with similar line item appropriations set up in each department. If they don't have enough money in one then they arbitrarily take money from another without any approval by the quorum court. According to the law this is illegal. The law states that all funds must be spent as they are appropriated, this means that if 5,000 is appropriated to the Emergency Squad for fuel it must be spent for fuel in that department. The only way for this money to be spent by other departments is by a re-appropriation by the court.

Wallace claims that his office has no other choice in the matter. We see this as wrong, their only legal choice is to go to the Finance committee, that meets once a month, and request more money. This is how the system is supposed to work. Judging by the lack of proper record keeping we say that they are not even aware of overspending until after the fact. This 'procedure' must change in order to protect us from misspending.

We had a talk with Sheriff-elect Karl Byrd who tells us one of his first priorities will be hiring a fiscal control officer whose job it will be to make sure spending is done properly. Byrd will be asking the Quorum Court for this officer as soon as he takes office. It is our hope that the JP's heed his request for the protection of our tax dollars.

The County pays a sheriff's deputy $6,200 for a vehicle in violation of the law.

The latest Legislative Audit report is finally published and it reveals another spending violation at the Sheriff's Office. Ark. Code Ann. § 14-14-1202 states that no officer or employee of county government shall be interested in any transaction made by the county unless the quorum court previously approved that purchase.

According to the report Deputy Jake (Jack?) Pike was paid $6,200 for a vehicle in apparent direct violation of this law. The Auditors recommend action be taken by the Prosecuting attorney's office.

In reading this report we have a few questions and concerns about it. First it was dated August 31, 2006 yet it was not made public until recently. What is the reason for this delay? Secondly is an investigation ongoing into this misspending? Or will this just me another case where the law will be overlooked for another member of the good old boy system.

With Sheriff Montgomery's time in office quickly coming to an end we the citizens of this county must wonder how much more misspending will be uncovered. We also have to wonder how much more misspending is yet to come as his term ends.

The citizens of this state desperately need better laws that will punish these offenses, we need to make these kinds of crimes a felony that are prosecutable at the state level. But what can we do about it you ask? You can call or write your local State Senator or Representative and ask them to sponsor a drafted bill, MBM516, that will make the misspending of public money a felony. As we see it this is our only chance of preventing further misspending.

Byrd is the word!

There is going to be a new sheriff in town and there is every indication he is going to be a good one. State Police Investigator Karl Byrd defeated Ret. State Police Major Jim Elliott last night by an unofficial margin on 3174 votes.

We had a chance to catch up to sheriff elect Byrd at his watch party last night and he told us he’s looking forward for the opportunity to make the sheriff’s office a more progressive law enforcement agency.

Byrd also took the opportunity to introduce us to who he will be naming Chief Deputy once he takes office, Ret. State Police Lt. Jerry Gross of Conway.

We must say that we too are looking forward to the changes Byrd has in store for the people of Faulkner County. Who knows with a lot of hard work and a lot dedication Karl Byrd just might succeed in making a department that even we’d be proud of…

Good Luck Karl.

Get out and vote

Today is the day for many important races in this county. We will be at the Karl Byrd / Preston Scroggin watch party tonight after 8:00 pm. We will hopefully be updating the results in these races at our site. Visit our election page for these results.

The future of this county is now in your hands, please get out and vote if you have not already done so.

Do the math. . .

There has been a lot of talk in the county about the delinquent fines and how to collect them. So much so that it has become a campaign issue for the candidates for sheriff, Democrat Karl Byrd and Republican Jim Elliott.

At a recent political forum hosted by the Faulkner County Leadership Institute and the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce these candidate squared off on this issue. David Keith, moderator the event, asked both candidates what they would do to collect outstanding fines and debts owed to the county. Log Cabin reporter Rachel Parker, who covered the event, wrote this about they responses:

Elliott said he wants to address the issue immediately and begin serving arrest warrants, now that the new jail is finished. Once the county begins arresting people for unpaid fines, others may come forward voluntarily to pay, he said.

Byrd said he would look at other options besides incarcerating the offenders because jail space is needed for violent offenders. He said he would work with judges and attorneys to look into putting liens on offenders' property and garnishing their paychecks.

Now before we examine these approaches to the problem lets see how bad the problem really is. Currently there are 3,437 people owing a total of $10,004,416 in delinquent fines. If that wasn't enough we also have to consider the 11,287 outstanding misdemeanor warrants and 6,437 outstanding felony warrants. To say the least we are way behind. Criminals in this county seem to have the upper hand while our law enforcement and judicial officials are drowning in this sea of growing numbers. Clearly something must be done to alleviate this problem.

Now let's look at the candidates solutions to this growing problem. Elliott says he wants to immediately start incarcerating these delinquent offenders for non-compliance and hope others come forward and pay. While this idea sounds reasonable at first, let's just put 'em in jail, that'll learn 'em, but considering the limited jail space this idea has many faults. Besides shaming them into compliance by publishing their names hasn't worked, scaring them into compliance will not work either. Wishing and hoping has already been done with very poor results, Elliott really missed the mark on this one.

Byrd's idea however shows some real promise. Byrd wants the county to hire an attorney on salary who does nothing more than go after these delinquents by attaching liens to their properties, garnishing wages, and garnishing tax returns. While this idea sounds like what Within Sight Collections was trying to do however it differs in one very important way, all the money collected will go to the county rather than a percentage of it. The law says that a portion of all fines must go to the court and that portion cannot be used for any other purpose. This means that a collection agency cannot claim any part of the court's money.

In Byrd's plan all the money goes to it's rightful place while the county pays only for the attorney's salary, additional court costs and fees would be attached to the fine holder's balance. Another advantage to this plan would be it does not put any extra burden on the jails helping them remain open, the last thing we need is to fill them up once again with non-compliant fine holders. Byrd wins this one with some creative thinking.

Deputy Stabbed, Suspect Shot

Breaking News: A Faulkner County Deputy was transported by helicopter to a Little Rock Hospital after being stabbed several times while serving court papers to a Conway man. Donald Jones, who is alleged to have caused several knife wounds to the Deputy, was shot during the altercation.

The condition of both men remains unclear at the time of this post. We will update you when information becomes available.

Update: Faulkner County Sheriff's Deputy Dalton Elliott and his unidentified partner were serving suspect 21 year-old Donald Jones with an order to go before a judge for a psychological evaluation when Jones allegedly attack them. Deputy Elliott reportedly received several knife wounds before his partner was able to shoot Jones. Both the suspect and deputy Elliott are in stable condition.

Elliot has been at the sheriff’s office for 6 years. We all wish him a fast recovery.

* Photo courtesy of the Log Cabin Democrat.