By Ray King
What was supposed to be the regular monthly meeting of the Jefferson County Quorum Court Tuesday descended into chaos and before any of the 15 items on the agenda could be dealt with, County Judge Gerald Robinson banged his gavel and called for adjournment.
Robinson took the action after attempts to adopt an ordinance setting out procedures for the operation of the county’s legislative body failed to be approved.
After adjournment, there was a physical altercation between Alfred Carroll, a member of the Quorum Court and Floyd Donald, who is paid by the county to record the meetings on video. Witnesses said Carroll pushed Donald and county employees stepped between the two to prevent the incident from escalating.
Robinson was asked about his action and said this.
In January, an effort to adopt a procedures ordinance failed to win approval, resulting in Carroll and Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin Jr., moving to send it to the Judicial Committee where a new ordinance was drafted. Until that is approved, the court was working on the procedures approved for the 2022 session.
Justice of the Peace Melanie Dumas, who chairs the Judicial Committee tried to get a motion to continue to use those procedures but that failed by a vote of 7 no to 4 yes.
Justice of the Peace Ted Harden, the longest serving member of the Quorum Court and chairman of the Finance Committee was asked his thoughts on what happened.
