JEFFERSON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark — Jefferson County officials now taking their issues to the state to plead for help.
For months, we have reported on issues within Jefferson County, including stalled paychecks and funding delays.
Now, county officials are being called out by the state to answer why they are in noncompliance.
Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson and other officials were notified that the county did not follow Arkansas law and were asked to answer to the Legislative Audit Committee.
According to a state audit, there were repeat findings of non-compliance, including a meeting in 2022 of going into executive session during a quorum court meeting to review the legislative audit. Then, the minutes did not reflect that session or the review.
"I understood afterwards that we should not have gone into an executive session," said Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson.
Jefferson County Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin said there is more to the story and the county hasn't publicly reviewed an audit report in years.
"Our hands are tied and we are making all the noise we can for someone to step in and shed light on this," said Franklin.
He said that to get the state's involvement this is the first step— getting a thorough audit of county expenditures to see if money has been misappropriated. Then, he hopes to get an investigation from the state police or the attorney general.
"So, we are in the process of working with our elected officials to compile a list of all the things that we believe are wrongdoings and we are going to present that to the legislative audit as well as the committee chairs," said Franklin.
We reached out to Judge Robinson to see if he would like to respond but he said he would wait to give a comment after the next legislative audit meeting, which will be in July.