Dear Quorum Court JPs,
Well, that called Special Quorum Court Meeting sure was interesting. It certainly didn’t go any where near the way that I thought it would.
I prepared for way more than I could give in two minutes. When Judge Cross said that more time would be available at the end, I said that I thought I would just send my comment as an open letter to the JPs. I was going to do that anyway.
Some of ya’ll certainly have misconceptions on how things went in 2019. I already see some more open letters in the future.
Since I (almost) never get any responses to my open letters, I wasn’t sure if anyone was reading them. I was assured by several people that night that they were.
I applaud the two JPs who signed the document calling for the special Quorum Court meeting and showed up to face the public and the media. Needless to say, comments on social media have not been overly kind concerning those who did not show up.
The comments below were written based, in part, on the agenda that was published for the meeting.
Thank you,
Mike Goad (Dover out voting precinct.)
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- On February 24, 2020, eight Pope County candidates got $2,500 each from PACs established by a Little Rock firm that lobbies for Choctaw Nation.
- Defense of FOIA PAC
- Honesty in Government PAC
- Citizens for the Protection of FOIA PAC
- Citizens Against Corruption PAC
- None of the PACs contributed money to anyone else and all terminated after the primary.
- Six of the candidates are currently serving on the Quorum Court.
- I wonder, just how was that money delivered to each of them?
- I just shared specifics of this on Pope County Majority and in an open email to all JPs (December 16th, 5:30 PM)
- Perception is everything.
Moving on
- The Quorum Court passed a resolution last February that says, in part, “Voters… oppose their elected officials giving support to a casino applicant.”
- Does this statement NOT apply for you anymore?
- In another resolution that same meeting, you encouraged the County Judge not to issue any further letter(s) of support for any casino applicant, unless directed to do so by a vote of the people of Pope County.
- Does this sentiment of the Quorum Court not also apply TO the Quorum Court?
- The ordinance that you’ve been beating like a dead horse for almost all of 2021 says that there has to be a vote before the “Quorum Court issues a resolution or substantially gives similar approval or support for any casino applicants.”
- This is your proposed ordinance.
- Are you just paying lip service to your commitment now?
- Will you vote it down on January 6th?
- The Racing Commission closed the application process on July 21, 2020.
- Do you believe that either Gulfside Casino Partnership or Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma would be able to provide sufficient “good cause shown” to reopen the application process when there is an operator with a valid license?
- Does the Casino Gaming Rules even allow for reopening the application process when a license has been issued?
- Some think that any resolution supporting Choctaw and or Gulfside would be for the purpose of giving them standing in current litigation. They also think that any such resolution would be rescinded before new application could occur. Seems to me that would open up the county and/or individuals for more lawsuits.
- Who called whom to get enough support for this meeting?
- What’s the emergency?
- Why couldn’t this wait until January 6th.
- Who has seen the resolutions before this meeting?
- Who drafted the resolutions?
- What have you seen from Choctaw that warrants a resolution of support for them?
- What have you seen from Gulfside that warrants a resolution of support that you haven’t seen before?
- You’ve been trying to get through an ordinance – or at least making the motions to – that requires a vote of the people and now it seems as though you are wanting to consider pushing through a resolution or two without any significant opportunity for community input.
- If any of this is true, is it not hypocritical when compared to your previous stances on casinos?
- If these resolutions are supposed to give standing to Gulfside and/or Choctaw, what good would that do when Judge Fox’s deadline for submitting motions was TODAY? (December 16th)
- On the proposed ordinance that was first introduced last February,
- Have you asked the Secretary of State’s office whether a vote on authorizing county officials to provide support documents is even feasible under state election laws?
- Have you asked the Arkansas Election Commission?
- Did you confer with the county attorney on the legalities of this ordinance?
- Have you conferred with the prosecuting attorney’s office on the legalities and constitutionality of the ordinance?
- Almost 3 years ago, during the public comment period on the Casino Gaming Rules in early 2019, one Pope County citizen wrote:
- “It is worth noting, the opposition of this is the same small group of people that have tried to stop all progress in our city for many years. The lawsuit filed against our current elected officials is a good example of the years and years of this same type of effort to keep Russellville a small town. This same small group of people have also tried to stop construction of our Walmart Neighborhood Market, Arbors Assisted Living Facility, Red Lobster, Casey’s General Store and Arkansas Nuclear One.
- “They will always work to get certain church groups excited and file bogus lawsuits in order to create a mirage that the masses are behind them, when, in fact, a very small amount of people agree with them, but given the large outcry on social media and local media outlets, it’s very apparent that a very large majority disagrees and wants the casino here and the progress it will bring.”
- Perception is everything.
- Last July, the “casino support” ordinance died for lack of support for it to be tabled a 4th Some of the JP’s comments:
- “I think this is an opportunity to represent the voters of the county and carry forward with the wishes of the people,” JP Alan George said.
- “I think this could put us at risk for a liability,” JP Roy Reaves said. “We cannot legally restrict the powers of elected officials.”
- “We don’t want to unnecessarily get into any more lawsuits,” JP Lane Scott added.
- The March 2020 primary elections that resulted in so many of the JPs on this court being elected included an unnecessarily complex set of bond issues. Could it be that many of the votes that came your way were influenced by your stance on the bond issue rather than your stance on the casino?
- If Judge Cross and the 2019 Quorum Court had not provided a letter of support to Cherokee Nation Businesses, Judge Fox’s Orders on March 24, 2020 – assuming no other differences – would not have been appealed by the Racing Commission. Gulfside would have been issued a license and built something on Bradley Cove Road far less than what they later promised. The first phase of that facility would be built and be in operation. Who knows if they would ever have built any other phases.