Jefferson County Faces Impasse as Budget Vote Fails After Marathon Meeting

SHARE NOW

By Ray King

A last ditch effort to approve a 2025 budget for Jefferson County in order to avoid seeing county government shut down failed Monday following a meeting that lasted four and-a-half hours.

With Justice of the Peace Roy Agee absent, seven members of the Quorum Court rejected the almost $35-million budget prepared by County Judge Gerald Robinson.

https://webuildpower.com/careers/

After the meeting, Robinson talked about the vote.

Casting no votes were Justices of the Peace Reginald Adams, Alfred Carroll, Melanie Dumas, Brenda Bishop Gaddy, Cedric Jackson, Reginald Johnson and Margarette Williams.

Voting to approve the budget were Justices of the Peace Dr. Conley Byrd, Jimmy Fisher, Ted Harden, Danny Holcomb and Patricia Royal Johnson.

Efforts to override the veto of a budget prepared by the seven justices who voted no, along with former member Lloyd Franklin Jr., failed as it took eight votes to override and there were only seven yes votes.

Robinson said he did not authorize that budget which included pay raises for the Chief Deputy Clerk, or second in command in the offices of the other elected officials. Pay raises for the second in charge in Robinson’s office and in Juvenile Court were approved last year.

Although he is no longer a member of the Quorum Court, Franklin was there, and he said this during debate on the budget.

According to Sheriff’s Maj. John Bean, who attended the meeting instead of Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., the budget proposed by Robinson would result in pay cuts for the IT Director, Technician, Sheriff’s Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, Corporals and most Deputies while other deputies would receive pay increases.

https://deltaplex.bigdealsmedia.net/business/2657/deal/3439

It would also eliminate the jail’s assistant administrator, and cut pay for a Jail Captain, Corporal, and Guard, eliminate one guard position, and increase the pay for Jail Lieutenants and Sergeants.

Cuts would also be made at the Juvenile Detention Center, including the jail’s Education Fund, which would be cut by 36 percent from the amount the state has agreed to pay.

The discussion of the budget followed a lengthy discussion about policies for the Quorum Court to use during regular and special meetings for the next two years. More on that on Deltaplex News later.