🎃 It's Thursday — and October.

🌧️ Today's weather: Rain showers likely, with a high of 81 and a low of 67.

🗳️ We sat down with the Washington County judge candidates and are sharing what they said today.

Today’s newsletter is 1,151 words — a 4.5-minute read.

Washington County voters will decide between two candidates for a new county judge in November after voting out Patrick Deakins this spring after one term.

State of play: Democrat Dana Deree and Republican Tim Shepard will be on the ballot.

• Shepard won the Republican nomination after defeating Deakins in an April runoff election with about 77% of the vote. None of the three candidates in the March primary election secured enough votes to win. Shepard had the most votes with about 48%.
• Deree ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

How it works: County judges in Arkansas aren't exactly judges. They are the chief executive officers of the county government and preside over the elected quorum court, similar to how a mayor presides over a city council.

• The judge authorizes the disbursement of county funds, hires some county employees and oversees county roads as well as departments like emergency management, planning and juvenile detention, according to the county's website.
• They serve four-year terms. The salary in Washington County is about $170,000, according to the county budget.

Deree, 57, is a retired diplomat, Marine Corps veteran and former high school teacher. He also served as a Navy officer for 10 years and owned a business focused on staffing for farmers and seasonal work like landscaping. He has a master's degree from Harding University and lives in Fayetteville.

Shepard, 43, retired in June as a Fayetteville Police Department captain after 19 years with the department and more than 21 years in law enforcement. He earned a master's degree from the University of Arkansas and lives just outside of Fayetteville city limits.

What's next: Early voting starts Oct. 19, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

• The deadline to register to vote in the election is Oct. 5. Check your voter registration and polling places.

Democratic candidate Dana Deree emphasized practical solutions and told Axios he's running in part because he feels for vulnerable and working people.

Case in point: Deree wants to reinstate the Justice Coordination Committee, which has been defunct since 2023, on Day 1 to bring together criminal justice entities and stakeholders to come up with recommendations.

• He wants to collaborate with the quorum court, judges, sheriff and prosecutor to ensure public safety with a more humane approach, noting that people who aren't convicted of crimes are sleeping at the jail because they can't afford bail. Deree, who says he grew up poor and aged out of foster care before joining the military, added such practices perpetuate a cycle of poverty and detainees' children go into foster care.
• "For people who aren't motivated by the compassion, it costs upwards of $100 a day per detainee, and the money that we save can be used for other public safety measures and things like roads and bridges," he said.
• Deree would like to have programs similar to the former Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center, which provided treatment and counseling to women inmates, for men and women. He said the facility helped reduce recidivism rates, and the county should go through a formal process with the Justice Coordination Committee before entering partnerships with organizations to move programs forward.

Zoom in: Deree wants to hire more people in the county's planning department and says the county needs more land-use policy, taking into account property rights and housing affordability.

• "Specifically for data centers, I am in favor of ordinances that prevent any large-scale industrial operation that would threaten access to water for the community or drive up electric rates or otherwise negatively impact residents — lights, noise, etc.," Deree said.
• Deree wants to work with municipalities on regulating land uses immediately adjacent to cities, which he said cities should be in charge of, but he pointed to a 2025 law that strips their ability to do that.

The bottom line: The county has seen too much partisanship, Deree said. The county judge role is a practical one, and he's not concerned about professionals' politics as long as they're doing the people's business, he said. He also expressed a need for more transparency and better Freedom of Information Act training.

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Republican candidate Tim Shepard emphasized partnerships with community organizations in light of the county's limited budget, saying he won't raise taxes.

Case in point: The county needs to work better with local organizations like the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission to help get state and federal grants for infrastructure like roads, Shepard told Axios.

• He also called the University of Arkansas an "enormous asset" and said he'd want to work with its College of Engineering to assess the county's roads. Ultimately, he wants to have a published plan for road maintenance based on their public safety and traffic needs.

Flashback: Shepard built the Fayetteville Police Department crisis intervention response team that integrated social workers and worked closely with the county's crisis stabilization unit, which was part of a state pilot program intended to divert people experiencing mental health crises away from jail.

• The unit in the former home of the juvenile detention center in Fayetteville closed in 2024 after state funding cuts and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences no longer providing staff.

What they're saying: Shepard would like to reinstate a similar unit, this time attached to an existing medical facility because he says that would likely be more sustainable. This would also involve a partnership with a local health system.

• He'd also like to look into reopening a facility like the Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center for women, which provided treatment and counseling to inmates, until the county terminated the state's $1 per year lease on the Fayetteville building in 2024. Shepard said it had been "a really good re-entry program."

Zoom in: Shepard, who previously worked for the policy and accreditation unit at the Fayetteville Police Department, wants an office of performance, transparency and accountability.

• The goals are to make sure the county is following the Freedom of Information Act and applying human resource policies like performance evaluations or disciplinary actions fairly to all employees across departments.

Zoom out: Washington County needs a comprehensive land use plan, Shepard said. He supports broadening what property owners are allowed to build on their property without a permit, granted they meet updated infrastructure requirements and other regulations intended to protect neighbors.

• He said the county needs an ordinance regulating data centers, especially regarding their water and electricity use, noting he likes what Fayetteville has put in place.

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Thanks to Chloe Gonzales for editing this newsletter.

✈️ Alex is back from an Axios retreat in Atlanta. More later.

🏝️ Worth is on sabbatical, and everyone missed him in Atlanta.