AAC County Lines


County Lines ([ISSN 2576-1137 (print) and ISSN 2576-1145 (online)] is the official publica- tion of the Association of Arkansas Counties. It is published quarterly. For advertising inquiries, subscriptions or other information, please con- tact Christy L. Smith at 501.372.7550.


Executive Director/Publisher Chris Villines


Communications Director/ Managing Editor Christy L. Smith


Communications Coordinator/ Editor


Holland Doran AAC Executive Board:


Debbie Wise – President Brandon Ellison – Vice President Rhonda Cole – Secretary-Treasurer


Jeanne Andrews Debra Buckner Kevin Cleghorn Debbie Cross Ellen Foote


Gerone Hobbs


John Montgomery David Thompson


Terri Harrison Sandra Cawyer Terry McNatt


Brenda DeShields Jimmy Hart


Marty Boyd Heather Stevens


National Association of Counties (NACo) Board Affiliations


Debbie Wise: NACo board member. She is the Randolph County Circuit Clerk and presi- dent of the AAC Board of Directors.


Brandon Ellison: NACo board member. He is the Pope County Judge and vice-president of the AAC Board of Directors.


Ted Harden: Finance & Intergovernmental Af- fairs Steering Committee. He serves on the Jefferson County Quorum Court.


David Hudson: Vice Chair of NACo’s Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He is the Sebastian County Judge and member of the Rural Action Caucus Steering Committee.


Barry Hyde: Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He is the Pulaski County Judge.


Gerone Hobbs: Membership Committee. He is the Pulaski County Coroner.


Kade Holliday: Arts and Culture Committee and International Economic Development Task Force. He is the Craighead County Clerk.


Paul Ellliot: Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee. He serves on the Pulaski County Quorum Court.


Ellen Foote: Community, Economic & Work- force Development Steering Committee. She is the Crittenden County Tax Collector.


Tawanna Brown: Telecommunications & Technol- ogy Steering Committe. She is the Crittenden County Chief Computer Operator.


COUNTY LINES, FALL 2018


DIRECTOR’S DESK


Welcome to the best government — county government


the first time, welcome to the adventure of county government. You bring fresh ideas and new approaches to your jobs and in time you will build new successes on the shoulders of those who preceded you. Here at the AAC we recently wrapped up meeting most of you in our newly elected official training classes over a two-week period in Little Rock. After meet- ing most of you I find myself hopeful for our future, based largely in the servant hearts you exhibited while here. County government, in its purest form, is simply about serving your constitu- ents the most effectively you can. And nobody is positioned better to know what needs to be done than all of you. I want to welcome you to the BEST level of government, I think you will find the work tireless but the reward incredible. My good friend, Gene Terry, recently retired as the Executive Director at the Texas Association of Counties. In his outgoing magazine column he penned the following:


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“…I realize that not much is wrong with counties. You govern well because you know how to do it right. You are so close to the people you serve you could not get away with doing it wrong, even if you tried. It’s time for your way to trickle up. Tink of it this way, you know personally a larger percentage of the voters who voted for and against you in the last election than does any state representative or senator and certainly than does any member of Congress. You know them by first name and they know you. Tey chose you because they know you by first name, too. Tat is something special.”


Gene articulated this point far better than I could. Te fact that you serve so closely to those you represent is a blessing for hard-working county and district officials who want to do right. Your days of going into a local business or church undisturbed are over, but if you care and it shows in your jobs you will find those public conversations often enjoyable and your work appreciated. With a looming legislative session, this statement also addresses some dangerous assumptions that will find their way into bills at a state level. Tat assumption is that local government isn’t responsive, isn’t transparent and isn’t accountable. My friend Gene would tell you in his Texas drawl that this is “hogwash.” Nonetheless, we are already hearing of bills that erode local control, but ironically our legislature is full of folks who championed local control when running for office. Te idea that at the county level you are incapable of making wise decisions that a parent- state would be better at would be laughable were it not a real danger. Tis is representative of a national pre-emption move that some other states have been dealing with. Some of the state-local wars in other states are epic, and the arguments over local control have ignited grass-roots fires where the people, who


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ounty culture is changing. Te delivery of this issue of County Lines is finding its way into the mailboxes of hundreds of new county and district officials. To those of you reading this magazine for


Chris Villines AAC


Executive Director


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