The Union County Quorum Court will meet this morning at 10 a.m. in the third-floor conference room at the county courthouse.
On the agenda this month are several appropriation ordinances which will make funds available for measures that were passed by the county governing body over the summer.
Two of the ordinances that will be under consideration today will appropriate funds for payroll bonuses and pay raises that the Quorum Court voted last month to provide to county employees.
On July 15, the Quorum Court voted to provide 3% raises to all county employees in good standing except two who were determined to be overpaid for their positions in a salary survey recently undertaken by the county.
According to the salary survey, which was commissioned by the Quorum Court in March and was performed by Fayetteville-based consultants The Johanson Group, 24 county employees were underpaid compared to those in similar positions in the region, both public and private.
Last month, the Quorum Court acted on the salary survey's findings by voting to provide the 3% raises, and Justices of the Peace additionally voted to provide bonuses of up to $2,400 to employees who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bonus ordinance stipulated that employees would receive a $10 bonus for every day they worked at their regular station between March 11, 2020 and April 8, 2021, the period when Arkansas was under a State of Emergency due to COVID-19.
JPs also voted to pay bonuses of $500 to four deputy coroners who worked part-time through the pandemic.
The county plans to pay for the bonuses with federal funds from the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package that passed March 11, 2021. Mike Dumas, chairman of the Quorum Court's Finance Committee and JP for District 1, said the funds for the raises will come out of the regular county budget.
In order to appropriate the funds for the bonuses, the Quorum Court will first have to add a budget line for the American Rescue Plan funds, another agenda item for today's meeting.
"Each time we appropriate any of those funds, it will be placed in that line item. So the money does not go into the budget until the (Quorum) Court appropriates it," Dumas explained in an email to the News-Times.
Another appropriation bonus on today's agenda will create a new line for money from the Union County jail budget for health care provider expenses.
In June, county Sheriff Ricky Roberts presented a proposal to the Quorum Court to switch health care providers, from "county doctor" Dr. Deanna Hopson, a position that has since been eliminated, to health care agency Turn Key Health, an Oklahoma-based company that provides health care services in jails throughout the region.
The contract with the Turn Key Health was still being negotiated when Roberts brought his proposal to the Quorum Court, but the annual cost for the contract would be around $220,524 depending on the number of inmates at the jail, he said.
On Wednesday, Roberts said the contract with Turn Key Health had gone into effect on August 1 and that he was happy with their services so far.
Also on the Quorum Court's agenda is the review of an ordinance appropriating money into the Circuit Court Automation Fund. District 3 JP Greg Harrison is slated to give an update on the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex and its financials as well.
Prior to the Quorum Court meeting, the body's Finance Committee will meet, starting at 9:30 a.m. in the courthouse's third-floor conference room.