By Ray King
A proposed 2025 Jefferson County budget that was prepared by eight members of the Quorum Court will not be considered when the county’s legislative body meets next Monday.
During committee meetings Tuesday, the court’s Finance Committee considered two budgets, one prepared by County Judge Gerald Robinson and the other by those eight JP’s.
Members of that committee, Justices Roy Agee, Conley Byrd, Jimmy Fisher, Patricia Royal Johnson and Ted Harden, who chaired the committee voted for the judge’s proposed budget and said no to the other one.
After the meeting, Robinson talked about the JP’s actions.
In that letter, Robinson said the pay increases to some county employees affected 43 people and totaled approximately $410,000. He said they were executed by County Clerk Shawndra Taggart without a signed ordinance from his office or the quorum court and said he submitted a court order to reduce payroll to the original amount which Taggart directly defied.
The JP’s proposal also added a position in the Tax Collector’s Office despite a hiring freeze and approved a position in the Assessor’s Office for the daughter of the elected Assessor, a violation of the county’s Nepotism Ordinance.
The Quorum Court is scheduled to meet on Monday with one of the items on the agenda a vote to override Robinson’s veto of a policies and procedures ordinance passed by the eight JP’s last month.
With that veto, the county currently does not have a policies and procedures ordinance and without one, no action can be taken on any legislation.
