He is looking to the
In his budget request for the coming fiscal year, which starts in October, the sheriff asked for a $907,468 increase over last year’s budget to pay for 30 new patrol cars, a 3 percent pay increase for employees and nine more detention officers for the county jail.
The sheriff has requested a budget of about $34.8 million compared to last year’s budget of about $33.9 million.
Other constitutional officers are asking for either no increase or smaller increases in their budgets, primarily to cover additional health insurance and state retirement contribution costs.
McKeithen said before employees got a $1,000 lump-sum bonus last year, the Sheriff’s Office and employees at the jail, which BCSO operates, had gone without pay increases for more than five years as their health insurance and retirement plan contributions increased.
“Everything went up except their check,” he said.
Also, in recent years, employees have done everything they could do to help make sure no one had to be laid off as county revenues declined, McKeithen said.
“Everything we’ve asked them to do, such as furloughs, there has been no arguing or complaining,” he said. “They knew something had to be done to keep people from being laid off.”
McKeithen said his department also has done everything it could to repair aging vehicles in recent years and it’s necessary to get new ones for safety reasons. He’s requested a lease-to-own package that he said would cost less than buying the 30 vehicles outright.
“Last year, our four-wheel drive vehicles were so rusted out to the point that the frames were breaking on them. They were not safe,” he said.
McKeithen said the department needs more deputies but has decided to ask for more correctional officers at the jail because the need is greater.
“We had to juggle the importance and the most dangerous” situation, he said.
The detention officers for the jail, which houses 950 inmates, are sorely needed for safety of the employees and inmates, he said, noting that more people than ever are being jailed with mental illnesses and medical issues.
“With the number of people we have right now, if someone is out of work, we’re down” below needed staff, he said. “If we call someone in, we have to pay overtime.”
He said running the jail is almost like running small city.
“It’s gotten to the point we’ve actually created a mental-health type housing unit,” he said.
Other offices
“Being sensitive to the current economic environment, each expenditure has been reviewed to ensure that only essential items have been included,” he said in a letter to the
“We run a very tight ship here,” he said. “There is no fluff in any of our budgets.”
Supervisor of Elections Mark Andersen has requested a $1.36 million budget, an increase over $1.28 million last year. The $79,753 increase is due to higher insurance and retirement contributions, training requirements for replacement of staff and pay for precinct elections officials, he said.
Andersen said this budget request doesn’t reflect it, but the county soon will have to spend as much as $1.5 million for new election equipment, as the current system is at the end of its life cycle for vendor support.
He said the state won’t allow the current election equipment to be used after the 2016 elections.
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