AAC
F a m i l y F r i e n d s
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Let’s look in the mirror for a moment
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Then it’s straight ahead for AAC
elieve it or not, back in the late 70s on the very spot where our current AAC building sits, there was an old rundown frame house with a pigpen in the back complete with pigs. Pigs! One block away and within sight of the State Capitol of Arkansas. The Association of Arkansas Counties is looking back for just a moment after the completion of the latest addition to the complex under the leadership of the current executive director, Chris Villines. Founded in 1968, the association has a long track record of achievement, from legislative advocacy to constituent services. Articles of Incorporation for the AAC were filed April 10, 1968. But how did AAC get its start? We’re going to tell that story from a 1993 interview conducted by AAC staff with Jim Pledger and A.A. “Shug” Banks. Pledger was Yell County treasurer for many years, charter board member of the AAC and long-time president of AAC. He served in several capacities in Gov. Bill Clinton’s administration, including director of the Department of Finance and Administration for several years. He later went on to serve as director of the Arkansas State Fair. Judge Banks served as Mississippi County Judge for 20 years (1961–1980), was a charter board member of the AAC and served as the first president of AAC from 1968 through 1980. Judge Banks died in 2001. Mr. Pledger died in 2006. In that 1993 interview, Jim Pledger said that the idea for the Association of Arkansas Counties was “born on the beaches of Hawaii.” In the mid-60s a national county government conference was held in Hawaii. In attendance were Judge A.A. “Shug” Banks of Mississippi County and several other Arkansas county officials. It was during this meeting that the idea and the determination to provide the officials of Arkansas with some kind of organizational structure was born. The first attempt to make this idea a reality came during the 1967 legislative session. However, it failed. As you might imagine, there was much opposition to the counties becoming organized and establishing an organization that would provide representation for all county officials statewide. This setback did not deter those county officials such as Judge Banks and Mr. Pledger who were determined to create a representative organization for county government. In 1969, Senate Bill 142 was filed by Sen. John Bearden and Sen. Olen Hendrix that would create the AAC. The legislation passed through the Senate, but was then held up in the House. It appeared that it would come down to a tie vote in the House and that the speaker would have to vote so as to determine the outcome of the legislation. It also was heard that the speaker’s support for the counties was wavering and that the vote might go against the county officials. A quick delegation of a couple of county judges was put together, and they paid a visit to the Speaker of the House — Judge Ray Sikes of Little River County — and Judge Banks. The story goes that the speaker at that time was rumored to be considering a run for the governor’s office. With this knowledge in hand, Judge Sikes reminded the speaker of a couple of facts. Those facts being that “a person who supports you might figure you have the election won and decide to stay home on election day and mow his yard instead of going to the polls to vote, but a person who opposes you will swim a river to vote against you.” Upon contemplating this sage advice, the speaker wisely voted for the legisla20
Seems To Me...
tion, and the rest is history. It became Act 92 of 1969 codified as ACA 1420-107. (Judge Ray Sikes died in 1989, just about a year before his grandson, Jeff Sikes, first came to work for AAC in 1990. Jeff most recently served as the legislative director for the AAC and is leaving the employ of AAC at the end of July for other opportunities.) Eddie A. Jones Most officials currently in office County Consultant would not recognize the AAC as it is now from the association of old. The association now has a nice headquarters and provides many services that it did not and could not provide in those early years. In the beginning, the association was primarily a lobbyist organization for county government with only three staff persons. It took several years to get the various member associations cohesive enough to even put on a successful conference. According to the ’93 Pledger interview the first convention in 1972 was “only somewhat successful.” The convention was a one-day affair at the old Lafayette Hotel in Little Rock (now transformed into upscale condominiums known as Lafayette Square). Seminars were held during the day, and a banquet was scheduled for that night. It seems that most of the county officials at that time were not used to overnight meetings in Little Rock, so they simply went home after the meeting was finished. The banquet was set up to accommodate about 200, but since most officials had already left for home, only 25 showed up. To make matters worse, U.S. Rep. Bill Alexander was the keynote speaker and had flown in from Washington specifically for the banquet. It may seem funny now, but it seemed quite a disaster at the time. This is a marked contrast from our annual conferences of today. It is worth noting that for the last dozen years or so AAC has had well over 500 county and district officials in attendance at the Annual AAC Conferences, which run from Wednesday through Friday morning. And in August 2013, the conference boasted an attendance of more than 700. The differences in the quality and attendance during the conferences are not the only differences between the AAC of old days and current days. In the beginning, as might be imagined, our lobbying efforts were nowhere near as successful as they are now. It took many years to bring all the different associations together and to get them to think in terms of solidarity among all county and district officials. It also took the legislature a few years to really recognize the AAC as the agreed upon representative for all of county government statewide. It took the passage of Amendment 55, landmark legislation that reorganized county government in Arkansas, to change the AAC into the organization it is now. Today, AAC represents almost 1,400 county and district officials and nine various associations all under one umbrella. After the passage of Amendment 55 in 1974 and the subsequent passage of the enacting legislation, Act 742 of 1977 as amended, county officials were thrust into a new and more complicated system of county government. Quorum courts had new roles and the various constitutional offices were modified to one degree or another. The old fee system of funding officials was COUNTY LINES, spring 2014
