(The Arkansas Machine) Part 8: The Two Faces of the Association of Arkansas Counties
A political machine funded by your tax dollars
Full disclosure: I was the communications and legislative director for the Association of Arkansas Counties from 2011-17. What you’re about to read is not an op-ed. This is connective tissue journalism: six years inside the machine, cross-referenced against seven years of post-employment document analysis. Everything here is verifiable. Salaries are public record. AAC financials are filed with Legislative Audit. Board compositions are public. I am not here to settle scores. I am here to map the machine so that others can dismantle it. Please find my personal Substack for a “unredacted” more indepth dive from my first-person point of view.
CORRECTION (3/10/26): We incorrectly stated that 56 counties were in AAC’s Risk Management Fund and Workman’s Comp Trust. All 75 counties participate. We regret the error.
The Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC) presents itself as a membership organization. Dues-funded. Member-driven. A voluntary association of 75 counties pooling resources for mutual benefit: conferences, continuing education, advocacy.
This is the public face of the AAC.
Behind it operates a different beast: a permanent political machine funded from management fees for $60 million in trust assets, a standing army of high-salaried lobbyists, and a c/ore mission that serves a closed ecosystem of elected officials and connected contractors.
The citizen-taxpayer is not a stakeholder. You are merely the entity that funds it.
I know this because for six years I led the policy team inside that machine. I wrote the talking points. I defended the agenda. I was a true believer.
This briefing is what I failed to see for 13 years.
Follow the money. Follow the power. Follow the faces.
Membership Dues vs. the Real Money
According to audited financials filed with Arkansas Legislative Audit, the AAC spent $7,219,564 in 2024 — more than the annual budget of some rural counties it serves. The AAC’s revenues by the numbers:
Stream One: Membership Dues
By statute, counties may remit 1 percent of state turnback revenue as dues. Total from all 75 counties: $210,949.
That is less than 3 percent of the AAC’s expenses. It doesn’t cover four months of the top two executives’ combined salaries.
That’s a 97 percent funding gap.
Stream Two: The Trusts
The real money comes from two publicly-funded entities the AAC administers: the Workers’ Compensation Trust (WCT) and the Risk Management Fund (RMF), a dues-based risk pool that provides general liability and other protections normally covered by insurance.
Total participating counties: 75.
Participation is not a choice.This makes dissent financially suicidal. A county judge who questions the AAC’s lobbying isn’t just questioning an association — they’re questioning the vehicle that saves urban counties millions and provides the only coverage many rural counties can access.
The coalition holds. The money flows.
In 2024, the AAC received:
$1,598,901 from WCT
$3,743,413 from RMF
$1,268,891 in legal staff reimbursements
Total: $6,611,205 — 90 percent of AAC revenue.
These fees are set annually by the trust boards, which AAC board members dominate.
What the Trusts Hold, and What We Don’t Know
The trusts are separate entities. The AAC’s own audit notes that the trusts “meet the criteria for inclusion” in the association’s financial reporting under governmental accounting standards “due to the nature and significance” of the relationship. But management has elected not to include them, and they do not submit the trusts’ financials to Legislative Audit.
The only way to see the trusts’ financials is to ask the AAC for them.
The AAC’s audit does disclose this about the trusts in aggregate:
Total assets: $60,398,411
Total liabilities: $27,064,910
Net position: $33,333,501
Annual revenues: $31,774,440
Annual expenditures: $35,364,720
What we cannot see from the AAC’s audit:
How the $33 million net position is invested
Whether it generates returns
Whether those returns flow back to counties
How claims ratios compare to premiums
A consolidated audit would show the full picture in one place: the $60 million in assets, the $33 million surplus, the $6.6 million in fees, and the board overlaps that make this a related-party transaction. The decision to keep them separate is a choice, and it’s one that keeps the counties’ money in the dark.
The Boards: What the Audit Says Vs. What We Found
The 2024 AAC audit says: three WCT trustees serve on the AAC board.
The reality: four trustees serve on the AAC board (Debbie Wise, Debra Buckner, Brandon Ellison and Jimmy Hart).
The audit says: seven RMF trustees, all elected county officials.
The reality: three of them also sit on the AAC board (Ellison, Hart and John Montgomery). The audit does not disclose this.
What the Audit Does Not Disclose At All
Two individuals — Ellison and Hart — sit on all three boards.
They are present for every major financial decision the machine makes. They approve the trust fees on Tuesday and the AAC budget on Thursday. They are the human embodiment of the interlock.
The audit could disclose this. It could list board memberships in a footnote. Instead, it discloses the minimum. It uses vague language (”elected officials”). It omits the connections that would raise questions. It lets the reader assume independence where none exists.
What the Law Requires and What We Don’t Know
No statute explicitly requires trust board independence. But fiduciary duty — the oldest principle in trust law — requires those controlling others’ money to act in the beneficiaries’ interest.
When board members sit on both sides and approve fees paid from the trusts to the AAC, that is self-dealing.
The same people sit on both boards. The trust audits are not easily available. The fee-setting process happens behind closed doors.
This may not be illegal. But it is designed to function in the dark.
The War Chest: Lobbying Funded by Trust Dollars
Thanks to a January 2026 FOIA request, here are actual AAC salaries:
The Top Earners
Chris Villines, executive director: $350,000
Mark Whitmore, chief legal counsel: $307,200
Josh Curtis, government affairs director: $142,000
Villines’ perks include the same type of SUV used by the Arkansas State Police.
The Rest of the Policy Team
Colin Jorgenson, litigation counsel: $180,500
Lindsey Bailey French, legal counsel: $156,000
Taylor Handford, legal counsel: $99,800
Legislative consultant and expenses: $119,310
Total policy team expenses (all six positions plus consultant): $1,354,810.
Those six positions represent 33 percent of the AAC’s salary costs.
JCD Consulting, the Outside Lobbyist
In addition to using AAC lobbying staff, the County Judges Association (CJAA) uses public funds to pay Chase Dugger of JCD Consulting $72,000 a year as a lobbyist.
Curtis, the AAC’s governmental affairs director, was the AAC’s “liaison” for the CJAA who led the procurement process to select CJAA’s outside lobbyist. He is also a Saline County Justice of the Peace.
Dugger is Curtis’s paid campaign consultant.
When we requested records related to the CJAA board’s vote to select JCD as its lobbyist and its subsequent annual performance reviews of JCD Consulting, as required by the contract, the AAC responded that no such records existed.
Melissa Dugger (Chase’s wife) is an RMS litigation attorney and makes between $82,000 and $110,000.
Another Money Loop in the Arkansas Machine
Here is what the trust money actually buys:
The AAC policy team and outside lobbyists like JCD Consulting spend their time advocating for:
The Franklin County Prison Project (against the objections of Franklin County residents and officials)
Limiting the state Freedom of Information Act
Protecting elected officials’ powers
The trusts are paying for lobbying that has nothing to do with trust beneficiaries. Instead, the money they pay the AAC funds a political agenda that has everything to do with preserving the power of the people who control the money.
The Arkansas Machine is an investigative series documenting how a network of political dynasties, lobbyists and financiers has turned one of America's states into a private enterprise — where prisons are profit centers, elections are foregone conclusions, and you are the customer, not the citizen. This is the playbook for the hollowing out of American democracy, written in real time. Find the whole series here.
 | A guest post by
|
https://substack.com/@trackingarkansas/note/p-187472750?r=6ehvx2&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action