Members of the Mississippi County Quorum Court are now considering more serious measures in their attempt to obtain payment and communication from the Blytheville city government in the issue of their ongoing lawsuit over delinquent jail fees.
Legal action has been filed over a debt of approximately $600,000, which has likely grown closer to $700,000 by now, according to Justice Michael White. The city accrues a debt of around $40,000 per month in jail fees, all of which are currently going unpaid.
In a meeting with the court's sanitation committee Thursday, White said that he had consulted with county attorney Dan Ritchey, and had been informed of two options that the court could take to gain further leverage in the situation. The county has the legal option of denying the city any county services, and could cut the city off from the landfill until the jail fee issue is settled. The other and more extreme option would be to refuse to accept misdemeanor prisoners from Blytheville at the county jail. The facility is required by law to accept felony prisoners, but can deny the city their option to imprison misdemeanants. White said that he realizes this is a tough option, but he feels the city has left the court with little choice.
"They're continuing to accrue this debt every month," he said, "and up to this day they have not communicated with us. We cannot continue to lose $40,000 a month, we must do something to break this down. Maybe the municipal league attorneys advised Mayor Sanders not to talk to us, but that is not a legal requirement. We can legally continue to negotiate even though the lawsuit has been filed, and we could drop the lawsuit if they presented us with a reasonable plan to repay."
He added that both he and County Judge Randy Carney have attempted to contact Sanders both in person and by phone multiple times over the last several weeks, and have been unsuccessful.
"Our attorney feels that we could cut the city off from landfill or other county services," he said, "we are not obligated to offer them. They're current on the landfill payments but this is basically leverage to get them to negotiate. We could lose potential income, but we do have that as a tool. The other option is our jail. We must take felons, but we do not have to take misdemeanants. We may have to look at stopping this money blood flow by reducing our jail population to felons only. We would lose employees and it would also impact smaller towns, but not as much -- the majority our jail population is Blytheville misdemeanants. We can legally do it, it was done in Pulaski County. I'm not advocating this, but it is an option, and we have to push forward. Our attorney advises that the municipal league could push this for months or even years. We're not doing our jobs if we let this issue bankrupt us."
Justice Fred Fleeman said that the court should have a decision ready within the next two weeks, when Ritchey is expecting to hear back from Blytheville's municipal league attorney regarding their stance on the issue. All justices present agreed that while the options are grim, continued inaction could end up costing the county far more than it can afford.
The committee also discussed landfill business, including the recent construction of a new class four cell. Plans to construct a needed class one cell are currently on hold because of difficulties in obtaining a permit to start construction, and county officials are working with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to resolve the issue. Another money-raising option discussed was a yearly sale of used or discarded property, such as large equipment and tools, even tractors no longer used by the landfill or roads departments. More plans for this will be made by the court's property committee.
sharris@blythevillecourier.com