AAC
County Lines County Lines [(ISSN 2576-1137 (print) and ISSN 2576-1145 (online)] is the official publication of the AAC. It is published quarterly. For advertising inquiries, subscriptions or other information, please contact Christy L. Smith at 501.372.7550. Executive Director/Publisher Chris Villines Communications Director/ Managing Editor Christy L. Smith Communications Coordinator/ Editor Caitlin Brown
AAC Executive Board: Debbie Wise – President Brandon Ellison – Vice President Jimmy Hart – Secretary-Treasurer Tommy Young Deanna Sivley Debra Buckner Dana Baker Kevin Cleghorn Terry McNatt Debbie Cross Brenda DeShields Ellen Foote Doug Curtis Gerone Hobbs Marty Boyd John Montgomery Heather Stevens Randy Higgins National Association of Counties (NACo) Board Affiliations Debbie Wise: NACo board member. She is Randolph County Circuit Clerk and president of the AAC Board of Directors. Brandon Ellison: NACo board member. He is Polk County Judge and vice-president of the AAC Board of Directors. Ted Harden: Finance & Intergovernmental Affairs Steering Committee. He is a member of the Jefferson County Quorum Court. David Hudson: Vice-Chair of Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He is Sebastian Co. Judge and member of Rural Action Caucus Steering Committee and IT Standing Committee. Barry Hyde: Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He is the Pulaski County Judge. Rusty McMillon: Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He is Greene County Judge Joseph Wood: Community, Economic and Workforce Development Steering Committee. He is Washington County Judge. Kevin Smith: IT Standing Committee. He is the Sebastian County Director of Information Technology Services. Gerone Hobbs: Membership Committee. He is the Pulaski County Coroner. Paul Elliott: Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee, vice-chair of law enforcement subcommittee. He is a member of the Pulaski County Quorum Court. Ellen Foote: Community, Economic & Workforce Development Steering Committee. She is the Crittenden County Tax Collector. Tawanna Brown:Telecommunications & Technology Steering Committee. She is Crittenden County Chief Computer Operator.
COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2022
DIRECTOR’S DESK
A hat tip to county and state officials for their dedication
A
s I write this, our world is lurching back to life. The COVID pandemic, while not over, has hopefully seen its highest tide and will ebb and Chris Villines AAC flow lightly until it becomes similar to an outExecutive Director break of colds or disappears altogether. But getting to that point may prove to be more awkward to our strained society than the rapid ramp up to masking and thermometers was on the front end. In the span of the last 72 hours, I went to an airport and boarded a plane on the first day of no mask requirements, then returned to the AAC offices only to find an employee has tested positive and masks were in order again within our building. We’ve shelved our thermometer but may need it again. I suspect all of you in courthouses around the state will be experiencing this same type of sputtering return to life that we are. Of course, I wish, as do all of you, that we could snap our fingers and this would be all over like a bad dream. This has been a difficult time and in its wake is a new world, with good people gone, work from home a new normal, a worn-out workforce and inflationary pressures, which concern me for our county government. We will see a record number of newly elected officials this year and, in my opinion, this stems from two specific factors: First, we are for the first time nearing the end of a four-year term. It is logical that the turnover would double compared to our historical two-year terms. Second, managing offices of people during the covid pandemic has been extremely difficult — I say especially so in county government. I’ve written about this before, but it is worth mentioning again … county offices (and all front-facing government for that matter) were in the unenviable position of not being able to work from home during the pandemic. We provide necessary, not optional, services to the public and most of these services simply cannot be performed remotely. Furthermore, the need for these services may have slowed during the pandemic, but they never ceased. My hat is tipped to all of you for making this somehow work even during our scariest days of virus spread and hospitalizations. As we move into the new future, we face a workforce that is now accustomed to being able to work from home in many jobs in the private sector. This will make it difficult for counties to recruit and retain employees. As if this pressure wasn’t enough, add in the inflationary issues and rising wages, which the private sector can adjust to quickly. County governments are funded through very slow to change mechanisms such as sales taxes and property taxes. Meanwhile we will have to hire from a pool of workers now seeing four-figure sign-on bonuses from our labor competitors. The CARES Act and ARP money has proven helpful for many of our counties to provide one-time payments, but I’m afraid two or three years down the road, if wage inflation doesn’t subside, we will be looking at the south end of a northbound train. I urge all of you to look at our wages and constantly compare them to the private sector in your county, remembering all the while that our >>> 7
