By Ray King
The Finance Committee and then the Jefferson County Quorum Court is scheduled to meet tonight but a majority of the justices of the peace may not show up.
The meeting was called to deal with appropriation requests from Judge Gerald Robinson that were rejected during the regular monthly meeting last week.
On Monday, Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin Jr., sent a message to Justice of the Peace Ted Harden, chairman of the finance committee saying that a majority of the other justices have decided to reschedule the Tuesday meeting to Wednesday.
The message went on to say that the decision to reschedule was made due to what Franklin termed insufficient notice and said the official vote to reschedule the meeting was collected by the County Clerk’s Office.
Harden has replied to that by saying the Finance Committee will not meet on a church night and Robinson said in a message that Franklin and other justices are superseding their authority and circumventing the committee process is not acceptable.
Robinson went on to say he found it strange that 8 “mostly opposing” members cannot show up for a special meeting called in adequate time (according to state law).”
He also rejected an agenda proposed by Franklin and some of the other justices that included appropriating money to hire an attorney for the quorum court to represent them in a lawsuit filed by Robinson, paying the Circuit Clerk a one-time sum for unused leave time and reinstating a position in the Tax Collectors Office.
On Tuesday, Harden said the meeting is still scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Quorum Courtroom.
