The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their final meeting of 2025 Thursday.
Hardin County Clerk Brian D. Smith recounted his office’s activities in 2025. Smith said his team put a lot of energy into election work.
“We made nearly 50 years of election recordings available online,” Smith said. “Our elections staff completed national training qualifications. I’m really, really appreciative of the hard work they put into those certifications. We held voter registration drives at ECTC, E-Town High, School, and John Hardin.”
The court approved the clerk’s office’s budget for calendar year 2026, which was requested at $2,565,919.46, which Smith said represents “a cumulative savings to the Hardin County taxpayers of over $169,000.”
A resolution approving the hiring of a GIS coordinator was removed from the consent agenda for more discussion. Some of the magistrates took issue with hiring a full-time employee when the county has a contract with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District for GIS services.
“My sense is let’s stop trying to bring somebody in and let the contract play out,” said Fifth District Magistrate Aaron Pennington. “If it’s advantageous to us, if we hit $85,000, okay, well, obviously we need to hire somebody because we’ve hit that mark, but if we haven’t hit the mark, our advantage is to go somewhere else.”
Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul said the GIS coordinator position is already budgeted, and he took issue with what he called the magistrates inserting themselves into operations that are under his office’s management.
“This is a budgeted position,” Taul said. “We’re filling it, and the only thing that is in the way of doing that are some folks that have decided to take it upon themselves to manage this government on a day-to-day basis instead of me, and it’s very upsetting.”
The vote tied at four yes, four no, and Magistrate E.G. Thompson abstained, meaning the resolution was voted down.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet January 13.
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