Faulkner County Quorum Court members approved the county sheriff's budgets after a night of detailed questions about overtime, staffing and contracted jail medical services.

The court put Fund 1000.0400 (County Sheriff) on the table for discussion and ultimately voted to pass the county‑general sheriff budget after the administration trimmed an $80,000 overtime request. Presiding justice (chair) explained the decision as part of a countywide effort to keep expenditures within available appropriations while considering personnel and one‑time capital needs.

Chief Deputy Willie, speaking for the sheriff's office, told the court the overtime increase originally presented was reduced: “Originally, we had added, I believe, 10,000 to the sheriff department… but we took that out. So it's we balanced it even. We didn't ask for any additional funds.” She clarified that Fund O400 in county general pays only salaries and benefits and that a transferred clerk position is an existing vacancy moved from the jail department for administrative alignment.

Justices pressed officials on retention and pay competitiveness. Chief Deputy Willie said the office uses the AAC salary survey and opted to align pay requests with a countywide 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) rather than submit separate salary‑survey increases for many titles. She told the court that adding 10 detention officers would carry a personnel cost “over $600,000” with salaries and benefits, and she gave an example per‑deputy estimate: “For just salary and benefits, their salary for a deputy right now… would be approximately 48,000. And then the benefits and everything altogether, it's right over $71,000.”

The court also debated contractual jail medical services. The county budgets approximately $758,000 next year for medical services and roughly $197,000 for mental‑health services, Chief Deputy Willie said, for a combined total “956 and change.” She said the county budgets 8.5 months of medical in the county‑general jail budget and pays the remainder from a special jail operations fund. The sheriff's office described the vendor as Turnkey Medical and said Turnkey covers daily nursing and physician oversight; the county used an RFQ process and received limited interest from individual medical practices.

Deputy Boyle described the contribution of the volunteer reserve officer program to patrol coverage and events, saying that, at a recent event, “there was 14 out each night” working voluntarily. Justices asked whether reserves cost the county directly; Boyle said the county does not fund them but has occasionally supported them with equipment or a vehicle.

The chair closed the sheriff and jail budget discussion by noting the court passed Fund 1000.0400 and Fund 1000.0418 after the exchanges; no roll‑call tallies were recorded in the transcript. The court also discussed capital‑improvement reserves (a recurring $1 million annual millage allocation) that officials said will be a significant source of funding for a planned jail project.

Next steps: the court tabled three budgets for follow‑up at a scheduled Thursday meeting and will continue budget line‑item reconciliations. The presiding justice set the next meeting for Thursday at 6:30 p.m.