LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — As questions continue surrounding Pulaski County’s finances, candidates running for county judge said restoring trust and stabilizing the budget will be a major priority if they’re elected. Those concerns are taking center stage for them.
The following weeks saw public disagreements over budget shortfalls, reserve balances, and payroll concerns.
“Don’t promise what you can’t deliver,” Judge Wendell Griffen said.
“Make sure all the X’s and O’s are lined up properly,” Mike Rushin said.
Candidates Griffen and Rushin said voters want solutions, transparency, and accountability, and not finger-pointing.
“Communication and transparency is very important now, transparency, without proactive leadership, is just a fancy word. That’s what I’m going to bring to the table is proactiveness. I’m going to sit down, analyze this budget, make sure we’re doing this the right way because our fiduciary priority is to the taxpayers,” Rushin said.
“Trust us to be fair, accountable, inclusive, and transparent, and hold us accountable, and when we are, keep trusting us to help us grow,” Wendell said.
Candidates said they’ll make sure to fix the budget while making sure the county grows and that county employees won’t worry about whether they’ll be paid.
“They’ll never be worried about a tax dollar not coming in and a paycheck not going out. We have to make absolutely sure we’re doing our job,” Rushin said.
“I will make sure your paycheck is not a question mark in your mind because you provide the work, you provide the services, you deliver, we should pay,” Griffen said.
In an email from Pulaski County communications staff, they said county officials held a news conference last month addressing these questions and have taken steps to keep the public informed.
They aren’t issuing additional statements at this time, but add that Pulaski County remains committed to transparency, accountability, and maintaining the public’s trust.
The Pulaski County Treasurer’s Office said Treasurer Debrah Buckner is out of the office and unavailable for comment.
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