With the Jefferson County Quorum Court continuing to be at an impasse regarding the 2025 budget yet another meeting has been scheduled for Monday night at 5:30 p.m. to yet again attempt to pass a budget in order to get employees and other bills paid.
So far no employees nor any of the county bills have been paid for 2025 with the Quorum Court’s failure to come to terms on a budget that they all agree on.
A budget was passed by the Quorum Court before it was vetoed by Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson, helping to lead to the impasse. A second vote failed to pass on Jan. 13, leading to a very contentious meeting on Jan. 20 that saw Robinson adjourn the meeting following a failed vote. However, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter stated the meeting was not properly adjourned due to no vote to adjourn taking place, and that the justices could remain in the room to hash out a budget as long as nine members remained.
Justices Ted Hardin, Conley Byrd, Roy Agee, Jimmy Fisher, and Danny Holcomb all left the room. However, Holcomb and Agee remained behind with citizens asking them to return to the room to work with Justices Alfred Carroll, Reginald Adams, Reginald Johnson, Patricia Royal Johnson, Margarette Williams, and Brenda Bishop Gaddy to try to come to a resolution. After a few moments of discussion both Holcomb and Agee left the building without returning to the room.
One more meeting was held on Jan. 23, but that meeting did not have enough Justices show up to form a quorum, leading the meeting to quickly turn into a Q&A session between the Justices on hand, Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter, the media, and members of the public in attendance.
Rumors of a meeting scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. circulated, however no Justices nor County Judge Gerald Robinson could confirm any such meeting to Deltaplex News.
The Deltaplex News Facebook page has been inundated with comments from the public demanding a budget be passed since this entire fiasco began. Many essential workers from MECA and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office continue to work despite a lack of pay in over 25 days. However, MECA has also seen several employees walk off of the job according to Office of Emergency Management Director Karen Blevins.
Monday night’s meeting only has one budget on the agenda. It is a budget submitted by Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson that has been amended after it has failed to pass twice leading up to Monday night’s meeting. Justice Reginald Johnson has also submitted a budget, but it is currently not on the agenda for Monday night.
Both budgets are shared below, beginning with budget submitted by Robinson, followed by the budget submitted by Johnson.
Budget submitted by Justice Reginald Johnson
