In This Issue
State Auditor’s roots in county government.
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SPRING 2015
Features AAC Board honors Bear Chaney for service ..............................................................8
Columbia County Clerk’s office receives award .....................................................11 Arkansas County has history of dual seats .............................................................26
State Treasurer was a change maker while Saline County circuit clerk.
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Inside Look Sheriffs, jail administrators review legislation .......................................................41
AAC Safety Conference draws 73 .............................................................................42 Quorum Court Association holds annual meeting .................................................43 Collectors discuss counterfeit money ......................................................................44 Assessors gather in North Little Rock ......................................................................45 County Clerks visit state Capitol during session.....................................................46 New treasurers ask questions during meet and greet .........................................47 Circuit Clerks get a taste of state processes...........................................................48 Judges host governor during winter meeting .........................................................50 AAC staff profile: Riley Groover .................................................................................52
Departments From the Director’s Desk ..............................................................................................7
Judy Beth Hutcherson soars to top seat on AAC board.
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President›s Perspective ................................................................................................9 Attorney General Opinions .........................................................................................11 Legal Corner ..................................................................................................................12 From the Governor .......................................................................................................13 County Law Update ......................................................................................................14 Savings Times 2 ...........................................................................................................15 Research Corner ..........................................................................................................16 Legislative Lines ...........................................................................................................20 Seems to Me .................................................................................................................22
Cover Notes: Zinnia Mania
he National Weather Service (NWS) reported that this spring was the wettest spring on record since 1968, when 31.7 inches of rain fell. In fact, 34.63 inches of rain drenched the state from March 1 to May 31, 2015, causing flooding in several counties. But the rains also provide much-needed moisture for the flora across the state. In April, Frank Cusmano, a member of the state Capitol Facilities ground crew, could be seen planting zinnias and sunflowers in the promenade in front of the Capitol building. Their bright pinks and yellows lend a cheerful welcome to those who visit the Capitol grounds.
T COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2015 (Photo by Christy L. Smith)
“
No man can taste the fruits of the autumn while he is delighting his
scent with the flowers of spring. — Samuel Johnson
” 5
The U.S. flag encased in glass above state Auditor Andrea Lea’s desk is the one that draped her father’s casket when he was buried. He had served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2015 31
State Treasurer Dennis Milligan, who served as Saline County Circuit Clerk from 2011 to 2015, stands near the vault in his office at the Capitol.
A change maker
By State Treasurer’s Staff Proven innovator Dennis Milligan takes his ideas, philosophies to the Capitol
“that’s how we’ve always done it” as an excuse to block progress. Milligan, who served as circuit
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clerk from 2011 until 2015 when he became the Treasurer of State, made many changes that advanced his county office.
uring his time as Saline County
Dennis Milligan never accepted the
Circuit Clerk, phrase,
“It seemed like every time I came up with a better, more efficient way to conduct business, somebody would tell me we shouldn’t make a change be- cause ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’” Milligan said. “As a small business owner, I am always looking for an in- novative and more efficient way to do business. When you try to do that in government, people get upset at the idea of changes — even if it is change for the better.” During his time as a county official,
Milligan changed the way prospective jurors were notified when they needed to come to the courthouse for jury service. Te method being used when he took office involved jury panel members call- ing an answering machine on Monday nights to listen to a recorded message. If a jury trial was set for that week,
the recorded message told them when to come to court. In August 2011, only 19 people showed up for jury se- lection. Luckily, only 18 jurors were needed to fill the jury on that trial.
COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2015
PROFILE
Soaring to the top Clark County Treasurer Judy Beth Hutcherson ascends to AAC board presidency
By Kitty Chism For County Lines
Te 17 elected officials from around the state, who earlier
this year elected Judy Beth Hutcherson to be board president of the Association of Arkansas Counties, must have had in mind the old Ben Franklin adage “if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.” Hutcherson is the first new president of the board in 15
years. She succeeds Mike Jacobs, who retired as Johnson County judge last fall but now serves as a justice of the peace. Te AAC board presidency most often has gone to one of the state’s 75 county judges. Hutcherson is a county treasur- er, albeit a highly visible one as a three-term president of the 100-member Arkansas County Treasurer’s Association. She won the Clark County Treasurer’s seat in 1997 and has
been re-elected handily every two years since. Te job is to manage the three-person office that receives and monitors and makes public all the revenue the county collects —mostly in fees and taxes — and distributes for county operations. Tat means keeping track of 190 different accounts,
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Hutcherson says, and making sure that every one of those bal- ances at the end of each day. It’s detailed and demanding work that requires as much mastery of federal, state and local laws as it does agility with numbers. Hutcherson’s office is in the basement of the most beautiful building in the county — the Romanesque brick Clark Coun- ty Courthouse with its six-story clock tower in the center of Arkadelphia, built in 1899 and designed by Charles Tomp- son, that era’s most famous architect in the South. “I just love this job,” Hutcherson said in her signature alto
voice, her eyes crinkling into her just-as-customary smile as she speaks of the career niche she found quite by accident in life. “When I walk into this court house every day, I look up and just stand in awe. And I think how everything I do is for the good of the people who elected me.” She attributes her zest for public service to her father, a Bap- tist minister who grew up in Northwest Arkansas and for most of her growing-up years was a U.S. Army chaplain. Tat meant moving often — to Europe several times, but also to New Or- leans and Houston and Fort Smith so he could pursue his stud- ies in history, English and Latin and one day teach in the Bible
COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2015
AAC BOARD
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