FAYETTEVILLE — How many justices of the peace does it take to run a county? And how many is too many?

Once upon a time, Arkansas’ quorum courts - the legislative bodies of our counties - were packed with justices of the peace.

Pulaski County, for example, once had more than 100. Just fitting everyone in the same room was achallenge.

Things changed 35 years ago this week when voters approved Amendment 55 to the state constitution, which established that every quorum court would have between nine and 15 justices of the peace. Follow-up legislationin 1977 determined the exact number of justices of the peace each county should have based on its population.

Both Benton and Washington counties currently have 13 justices of the peace. But it’s a good bet that the 2010 Census will show that both counties have surpassed 200,000 residents - the magic number for conversion to a quorum court of 15 members.

(Pulaski is currently the only county with 15.) That means that before the 2012 elections, Benton and Washington likely will have to redraw their quorum court districts and add two more.

Bill Williams, chairman of the Benton County Election Commission, puts an optimistic spin on this development: “The good news is you have got two more bright minds coming in with new solutions,” Williams told the Benton County Quorum Court at a meeting last week. And Justice of the Peace Robert Stephenson said he looks forward to it: “More districts means that the JPs can be better acquainted with their constituents.”

We would add that if you’re the superstitious type, you probably believe that 13 justices of the peace is an undesirable number.

Beyond that, however, it’s hard to conjure much enthusiasm for more legislators. Are we to believe that 15 justices of the peace will be more productive than 13?

True, as Williams said, new faces can bring fresh ideas. Lord knows that we could use one of those every once in a while.

Then again, not all fresh ideas are good ones, and we don’t want the quorum courts getting bogged down in trivial matters.

Thirteen should be enough, shouldn’t it? Ask around (actually, sometimes you don’t even have to ask), and you’re bound to find quite a few people who think there should be fewer justices of the peace, not more.

Also, these justices of the peace don’t work for free.

In Benton County, justices of the peace earn about $550 per month for the various meetings they attend.

In Washington County, they earn $125 per meeting.

Though these costs are not crippling to the counties, every dime of taxpayers’ money deserves to be

spent wisely. Should residents have to pay for more

legislators when more legislators aren’t needed?

Instead of pouring money into additional justices

of the peace, it might be smarter to increase the pay

for the existing justice of the peace positions. That

would make it a more desirable job and perhaps

draw more qualified people. When it comes to

legislators, quality beats quantity.

We’re glad that we have a lot fewer justices of the

peace than we once had. We just can’t help feeling

that we could get along with even fewer.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/04/2009

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