During a meeting with the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee in Little Rock on Thursday the Committee decided to send their findings concerning actions taken by Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson to the Arkansas Attorney General.
Initially the Committee voted to defer the findings until May, but after State Senator Kim Hammer of Benton asked to revisit the findings, the Committee voted to overturn their initial vote so they could take a look at the subject at hand.
It was noted that Robinson did not attend the meeting. However, Jefferson County Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin, Jr. was on hand to answer questions for the Committee regarding invoices and other matters regarding Robinson.
Franklin has been a critic of Robinson ever since he was elected to the Quorum Court in 2022. He lost a bid for reelection in the March Democratic primary.
According to the Committee several findings were found against Judge Gerald Robinson. Issues found include issues with solar panels that were to be purchased by the county but never installed, issues with equipment and vehicles, , proper bidding processes allegedly not being followed by Robinson, and invoices allegedly being illegally split up by Robinson.
Two other issues include back to back invoices for the trimming of trees in the amount of $22,000. The two invoices were issued one month apart in 2023.
There were also three invoices from 2024 for tree and stump removal at $22,833 each that were submitted on the same day, in addition to a $644,555 invoice for road equipment and an invoice for two John Deere tractors totaling $319,800 are also in question by the Committee.
There’s also an issue with 34 untraceable phone lines connected to the county road department that incurred costs of $19,760 from September 2023 through October 2024.
Other issues include records for lease equipment that were not properly maintained and time sheets for two county employees that were not properly submitted.
The Committee voted to send their findings to the State Attorney General for a review.
The Committee meeting can be viewed in its entirety in the video below:
