The video of the meeting starts just after the opening prayers and pledge of allegiance and can be seen below this article.

Under the terms of the bonuses ordinance, full-time employees who have been with the county for six months as of December 1st will receive $1,000.  Part-time employees that have worked at least 20 hours per week and have been employed for six months as of December 1, 2025 will receive $500.  

Part-time employees that have not been employed for six months as of December 1, 2025 will receive $41.66 per month since they have been employed.  The funds to finance the bonuses were pieced together from a number of budget lines projected to show surpluses when the budget year expires December 31st.

The court also approved an ordinance using $12,740.65 in the voluntary tax deputy salary fund to provide bonuses to deputies in the Sheriff’s Office and another ordinance moving $3,000 from the $28,718.20 in the budget for judicial fines collections for use in Computer Services.

Another ordinance made an agreement with the City of Hope to split the share of proceeds from district court costs and filing fees 50-50 between the city and Hempstead County.  These funds can be used, according to Arkansas law, on the county and/or city’s law library, jails, the public defenders’ office or the victim witness services office.

Near the end of the meeting, Anthony Biddle, Arkansas Public Defender’s Commission Manager for the Eighth District North, rose to request that more funds be provided to public defenders to cover portions of the rent of their offices.  Since the county has—based on a legal opinion by Attorney General Tim Grifin--eliminated paying mileage on their vehicles for trips to courthouses to do their duties, Biddle reasoned that the amounts provided by counties for office rent should go up from $500 to $750 per month.  County Judge Jerry Crane said this would be considered in budget deliberations. 

Biddle was asked about a report of a part-time defender having resigned his position this week. He confirmed this and said he is looking for a replacement.

In remarks about the projected 2026 budget which had been distributed to the justices of the peace on the court, Ed Darling, head of the Budget Committee of the Quorum Court said “You’ve got your bedtime reading for the next few weeks.  We spent a lot of hours going through this. But. It’s a fairly aggressive budget. It's one that I think is highly achievable. It does include some raises for employees for next year in the Sheriff's Office, adjustments based on some folks [having] lines of authority that has exceeded what their salaries pay.” 

Darling cautioned his fellow JPs that because state law states that any conversation between two JPs constitutes a public meeting, he could not respond to questions by telephone, but that another meeting could be held for such questions between the meeting Thursday and the December regular meeting.

Commenting on health insurance premium increases, the largest cost increase the county budget accounts for, Darling said, “Strangely enough, [I received a ] dozen calls from different places around the state, and everybody is getting beat to death. We are semi self-insured, and our rates reflected primarily a couple of catastrophic case we had, but I had Sebastian County/Fort Smith folks, I had a conference call with them earlier this week. Their increases were in the neighborhood of 86 percent.”  Darling said this entity would likely be changing to a semi self-insured model.

Before adjournment, Hope-Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation Director Anna Powell announced the JPs and officials would be invited to a December 18th Christmas luncheon at Hempstead Hall to celebrate the county’s designation as a competitive community.  

“There are less than 12 communities in the state of Arkansas that have received this designation. We've been working on it at the office for a little over a year. It basically says that our county is ready for business. We have data. We have all of the geotechnical studies and phase ones, and our infrastructure is prepared in the industrial park, and in particular, in the entire region, to be ready and competitive to recruit industries and expand the existing industries that we have,” Powell said.

Adjournment occurred about 30 minutes after the meeting began.