By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
Justice of the Peace Michael Ankton wants someone to take charge of a service to live-stream meetings of the Clark County Quorum Court, but finding an elected official willing to manage it seems to be the challenge.
Ankton proposed the idea of a livestream service in early 2023, soon after he swore the oath of office. A year and a half later, the egg is still incubating.
The holdup appears to be that providing such a service requires an employee, and because the Quorum Court body doesn’t have any employees, it falls back on a county office that does.
Since Ankton proposed his idea, county Judge Troy Tucker has fought Ankton’s notion that the judge take on the role of managing the as-yet-unnamed part-time employee who would sit behind the camera, stream the meetings and upload them to an online platform such as YouTube.
Ankton, an Arkadelphia Democrat, says he’s not asking for a Hollywood production — just someone to man the camera and record what goes on at the meetings. Some of the preparatory legwork has been settled in a committee devoted to the livestream. That panel is recommending a simple setup of a tablet on a tripod, and they’re OK with expending $1,650 to get the service started; after that, it would cost taxpayers $40 to live-stream each monthly meeting.
Ankton’s livestream ordinance sat seemingly idle for several months, but like a brood of cicadas, the idea has re-emerged and is again making some noise.
The ordinance, accompanied by five pages of supporting documents, now makes the county clerk responsible for providing the service.
Ankton contends that, because the county clerk serves as the Quorum Court’s secretary, the responsibility falls on that office. Justice Jenna Scott (R-Joan) agreed with Ankton on that point, saying other counties that provide a live-stream service require the clerk to manage the service; she named Washington, Benton and Sevier as counties that provide the service.
But like the judge, county Clerk Tracy Rider isn’t OK with managing the employee who would stream the meetings. At Monday’s meeting, dialogue between Rider and Ankton grew somewhat tense as she questioned who would be responsible for the service if the hired person was a no-show. Rider’s fiancé, James Pruitt, is challenging Ankton’s seat on the court as a Republican candidate.
Justice Jimmy King (R-Arkadelphia) argued that Ankton’s ordinance wasn’t ready for approval from the full court’s approval, as the Budget Committee has yet to recommend where the funding would come from. Ultimately, it would be fellow Democrat JP Zach Bledsoe’s motion to refer the matter to the budget panel for that purpose. The committee is expected to meet prior to the June meeting to consider how to fund the livestream service.