A deafening silence from the elected members of the Washington County Quorum Court, or just a news slant that ignores their opinions? Last week, lame duck County Judge Jerry Hunton issued a fatwah against the City of Fayetteville, throwing a tantrum of poor judgment and threatening to cease all cooperative projects unless he got his way. In this case, Jerry insisted on forcing the city to join and subsidize the interlocal ambulance agreement and give a no-bid monopoly to a board headed by one of his employees.
Jerry Hunton is a bully, but he is not yet a dictator. The state constitution still says that the Quorum Court has some say in matters, but their voices have been absent from the conversation. Will all of the JPs from Springdale and Tontitown insist that Fayetteville capitulate to Hunton's demands, while Springdale gets to sit it out? Are they such hypocrites? What about the four JPs from Fayetteville? Will Zega, Kieklak, Bryant, and Swayze sit silently while Hunton threatens to void every joint project with the county to punish their constituents?
The local reporters are so prescient that they can invoke the FOIA to receive letters from Hunton and his vassal Dan Coody before the ink is even dry. With such superior investigative reporting skills, you would think they might have enough sense to ask a couple of Quorum Court members whether they support their constituents or stand with Jerry Hunton's absurd threats.
But why should the citizens and our elected JPs have to wait for some reporter to ask their opinion? We didn't elect them to sit silent in the face of such nonsense.
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