Arkansas Blog: Junket payment nixed UPDATE

I've posted on our website a new report by David Koon on more funny business from Circuit Judge Willard Proctor's court. With a new man in charge in the county comptroller's office, Proctor (pictured at right) has been denied payments he's received in years past to take his entire staff to another state for a training retreat. The comptroller suggested he could hold the meeting more cheaply in Little Rock than in a Dallas hotel.

These retreats have been partially sponsored in the past by Proctor's personally created probation program, Cycle Breakers, which made headlines after a tough state audit found it in violation of a number of financial procedures. A related nonprofit he helped establish also was left holding the bag on a former school building it purchased for the program.

There's more. Proctor fired his court reporter, Neva Warford, when she said a back problem made it impossible for her to make the trip to the retreat. . (According to a program we received, the meetings begin each day with a prayer.) We've heard, too, about an interesting wrinkle in Proctor's probation program -- required book reports from a reading list that includes works of Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's been hard to fully report these stories because Proctor has so far not returned calls.

Comments

Though the list is a bit limited in terms of historical period and nationality, at least the judge is assigning good authors (assuming that "Thomas Wolfe" is Thomas Wolfe and not hacky Tom "I Am Charlotte Simmons" Wolfe, in which case you can strike this comment altogether). It doesn't count for much, but it's better than nothing.

Posted by: Gaddis | November 29, 2007 06:19 PM

Hey, Proctor can't be all bad if he's into Thomas Wolfe, Bill Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald!

Posted by: durangokid | November 29, 2007 06:31 PM

Soon as he adds Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer I'll vote for him for relevance.

Posted by: eLwood | November 29, 2007 08:28 PM

Businesses plan retreats in out-of-state locations for a lot of different reasons. Relief from home distractions, novelty, entertainment and other intangible factors that make the job and office relationship memorable and desirable.

If you live in Arkansas, you don't find many of these "intangibles" here. Just as if you lived in Dallas, you wouldn't find many of these intangibles in Dallas - you would get away and go somewhere else.

If cheap is the goal, why not schedule the meeting in a Motel6 or a La Quinta downtown somewhere? That should really make Proctor's staff excited and enhance their spirit of team-building and camaraderie.

Pick on him all you want if you don't like the training materials, but, unless his retreats are somewhere like a Tunica casino/hotel or unless some regulation prohibits out-of-state travel, I don't think it should be a problem as long as the cost is reasonable.

Posted by: Don Keyhotay | November 30, 2007 08:34 AM

Last sentence should have read "as long as the cost is reasonable and it complies with the the county's purchasing policies and procedures".

Posted by: Don Keyhotay | November 30, 2007 08:38 AM

"Relief from home distractions, novelty, entertainment and other intangible factors that make the job and office relationship memorable and desirable."
Uh huh.
My vote would be for no nonsense, no frills training sessions AT WORK and let the folks go home at the end of the day for their own choice of distractions, novelty and entertainment.
BTW, Dallas???? Not my choice of a novel and entertaining destination.

Posted by: Doigotta | November 30, 2007 09:01 AM

BTW, Dallas???? Not my choice of a novel and entertaining destination.-Posted by: Doigotta
********
Keep in mind that the comparison is Dallas to . . . central Arkansas? I love my home state but, my gosh, where do you go for something interesting? Join the gray-hairs at Hot Springs? Sashay with a bodyguard in the River Market? Dance in the Delta?

The folks in Proctor's office may be gubment types, but, where's the love?

Posted by: Don Keyhotay | November 30, 2007 12:28 PM

Arkansas Blog

Junket payment nixed UPDATE

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