Changes on way in county government
Posted on Friday, November 28, 2008
Major changes in county government are on the way in January, with five new faces on the Washington County Quorum Court and three highly experienced people being replaced in administration of new County Judge Marilyn Edwards.
The changes start with Edwards, who is serving out the rest of the year as state legislator for District 88 while running her transition at the county, replacing veteran County Judge Jerry Hunton.
This week, she named a new county administrator, Dan Short, retired from the Arkansas State Police, to replace Hunton’s administrator, John Gibson. Gibson, who has 15 years of experience working for the county, will stay on until April to train Short, who starts his duties Dec. 15.
The positions of executive secretary and comptroller will also need to be filled. Hunton’s executive secretary, Virginia Abel, is leaving at the end of the year, while Comptroller Boyd Darling announced last week that he is leaving the county after 18 years. He plans to stay through February and train his replacement as he closes out the budget.
Then there is the Quorum Court, where five new people will take their seats in January.
“We’re losing a lot of institutional memory on the court,” Justice of the Peace Steve Zega said. “It’s a pretty good turnover.”
One of his main concerns is losing longtime Finance Committee Chairman H.L. Goodwin Jr., who opted not to run again.
“As I said the other night, H.L. is a subject matter expert. He’s an economist. He’s got a great brain for those things,” Zega said. “I think we will be hurt somewhat without him at budget time next year.”
Zega also said he often wondered “how we’d get along” if Darling were not around.
“And we’re getting ready to find out,” he said.
Despite all the changes, Justice of the Peace Micah Neal and Zega say they believe the county will still be in good shape.
Neal says the county is in “really good shape right now” and spoke highly of the new court members he knows.
“I know three of the people coming on — Candy Clark, Gary Carnahan, Rex Bailey. All three have experience in committees with other cities. They’re not going to have a huge learning curve when they come on the court,” he said.
He said he did not know much about new justices of the peace Ken Firmin and Barbara Fitzpatrick.
Neal said it took him a full term, maybe a little bit more, “to really get comfortable and really kind of figure out what’s going on. It’s a tough job. I’m still learning, in my sixth year, what’s going on.”
He said the staff does a "great job” of answering questions.
Zega noted that Bailey and Fitzpatrick have come to “basically every budget meeting” before they take office. “I’m very encouraged by the fact that they’ve taken so much of an interest,” Zega said. “Budget time is probably the best possible time to do it."
New faces
• Fitzpatrick, a Democrat, will replace Bonnie Swayze in District 6 in Fayetteville. This district includes much of the northern and eastern parts of the city north of the downtown area.
• Firmin, a Democrat, will replace his wife, Nancy, who served three months to fill out court veteran Ken Kieklak’s unexpired term because he moved from District 7. Ken Firmin ran unopposed to replace Kieklak, who had intended to leave the district anyway and did not run for re-election. District 7 represents downtown Fayetteville.
• Clark, a Democrat, will replace longtime Justice of the Peace Jessie Bryant in District 5 in Fayetteville. Clark beat Republican Jim Reavis to take the seat. Bryant had opted not to run for re-election.
• Justice of the Peace David Daniel is being replaced by Carnahan, who ran unopposed, in District 3, which covers the northwest corner of Springdale. Daniel chose not to run for re-election.
• Bailey is replacing Goodwin in District 4. Bailey ran unopposed to fill the seat. The district covers the eastern part of Springdale.
Remaining members
• Zega will continue to represent District 8, which is the northeastern part of Fayetteville. He ran unopposed in the general election.
• Neal won the Republican primary, beating David Quin, and ran unopposed in the general election, so he will retain his District 2 seat. District 2 represents much of the main part of Springdale.
• Republican Tom Lundstrum survived a general election challenge from Sharon L. Green in District 1, which represents areas that include Tontitown, Elm Springs, Johnson and parts of Fayetteville and Springdale.
• Republican Butch Pond will continue to represent District 9, which includes the eastern and southern portions of the county, including Elkins, Goshen and Winslow. Pond ran unopposed in the primary and general elections.
• Democrat Jack Norton ran unopposed in the primary and general elections to keep the District 10 seat, which includes western and northern portions of the county, including areas west of Prairie Grove, Lincoln and those bordering Tontitown and Elm Springs in the northern part of the district.
• Republican Mary Ann Spears ran unopposed in the primary and general elections to keep the District 11 seat, which represents Farmington and its surrounding area.
• Democrat Ann Harbison survived a general election challenge from Robert Kenyon to keep the District 12 seat. District 12 represents southern portions of the county that include West Fork and Greenland. The district also includes Prairie Grove.
• Republican Joe Patterson beat Stacey Cavender in the primary and did not face any opposition in the general election to continue representing District 13, which covers the northeast corner of the county.
‘Wealth of knowledge’
Neal says he hates to lose Gibson, Darling and Goodwin.
“There’s just a wealth of knowledge right there,” he said.
“Those are three key individuals, but John and Boyd are going to stick around for a few months and help with the transition for some new people. ”
Neal said Edwards would “maybe bring in some new blood and new ideas, which isn’t a bad thing all of the time.”
While Lundstrum, entering his second term, acknowledged that “the Court’s going to be a lot less experienced that it has been,” he said he does not foresee any big issues.
But, like Zega and Neal, he is primarily concerned about losing some of the administration and Goodwin.
“He did a great job on Finance. I think that’s a very important committee,” Lundstrum said.
He said Darling “really knows that budget and the county finances.”
That is not to say there are accountants who cannot do the job, he said, but added, “that’s another one of those experience issues.”
Goodwin, Darling and Gibson, he said, “are the biggies right now” in terms of being able to replace them with anything like the level of expertise they have.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
