Since at least 2019, Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde, the county’s chief administrative officer, has endeavored to take control of circuit court juvenile probation and intake officers.
The judges have objected, citing state law that puts judges in control of probation officers. Hyde has worked to change the law. In 2019. He said a county juvenile probation office would be more efficient than staffs divided among judges. He backed off a restructuring in 2020 after opposition from judges.
Probation officer staffing is apparently resurfacing as an issue at the courthouse.
Judge Wendell Griffen, who is not a juvenile judge but who has his own probation staff, writes on his blog that Hyde wants to “defund” his staff. Griffen again contends that the county is bound by law to pay his staff. Griffen is retiring and LaTonya Austin Honorable will succeed him in January. Griffen writes that he believes Hyde thinks he can get the Quorum Court to go along with stopping spending on his probation staff and there’d be no objection. Writes Griffen:
He is mistaken.
Judge-Elect Honorable and I know that state law obligates Pulaski County to fund salaries and benefits for probation positions in Fifth Division. We want Quorum Court members and the public to know the truth about that legal obligation, the truth about the good work done by probation officers, and the truth about the legal jeopardy Judge Hyde will subject the Quorum Court to by defaulting on its legal obligation to appropriate funds for the probation positions.
Griffen says the issue will come up before the county legislature, the Quorum Court, Nov. 15. He’ll be there.