MOUNT VERNON — Despite heated words volleyed in the last week between the Knox County Commissioners and County Sheriff David Barber, Thursday’s face-to-face meeting was polite and subdued. The sparks began flying last Thursday, when the commissioners met with Assistant County Prosecutor Charles McConville to clarify on what grounds they could refuse budget transfers and extensions to the sheriff’s office 2008 budget. Barber responded Monday, saying that the commissioners had not made him aware there were any budget concerns before he read about it in the Mount Vernon News.
Commissioners’ President Robert Wise established the tone of the meeting from the outset.
“I want this to be a very factual meeting,” Wise said, “I want to keep it controlled.”
Barber said that it was his understanding that the reason he needed to be there was to discuss the budget because of a transfer request to move $40,000 from his budget line item for inmate care into other areas such as payroll and fuel/maintenance expenses.
“We don’t need to pound that, but our budget’s shorter, tighter than in the past, and so we’ve been concerned about that,” Wise said, who added that after review, the commissioners did indeed approve the transfer request.
Commissioner Allen Stockberger said that the primary concern is the end of the year budget, and that the commissioners hoped to avert any unplanned budget extensions this year, unlike the last few years.
Barber said that while end of the year figures are yet to be determined, he felt that the sheriff’s office will come close to balancing out this year. He said that money had been transferred out of inmate care simply because there was a surplus there.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Barber said, “[Jail Administrator] Penny [Lamp] and her staff have done an excellent job recouping a lot of health care bills for the inmates.” This refers to how the law changed this year, limiting charges on prisoner health care to Medicare rates. The sheriff’s office staff has been actively tracking down such charges to claim the savings. Barber said that his office recognizes the current economy, but that between the health care savings and the housing of excess prisoners from Fairfield County, they think they’ll at least come close to staying within budget. The Fairfield arrangement has already given $50,000 this year to help the jail’s costs.
Barber noted that overtime costs were up because the office had one deputy who was deployed to the Middle East. Instead of hiring a new person who would have to be laid off when the original deputy returns, they have opted to fill the gap with overtime work by the existing staff, thus putting them over-budget on payroll.
Another expense savings for the jail, according to Barber, is the exclusive arrangement the jail has with Foster’s Pharmacy, which allows the jail to return unused medicine blister-packs for credit. Energy savings, driven by the gasoline price-spikes earlier this year, include trying to make sure patrol cars are turned off 20 to 30 minutes every hour, and having two patrolmen double up in one car on weekdays. The sheriff’s office is also taking more non-emergency reports over the phone instead of sending a patrolman to collect the information in person.
Additional maintenance expenses have come from three new patrol cars in which the previous car security cages would not fit, nor could the cages be modified, due to the shape of the new vehicles. New cages had to be ordered, and new light bars are being ordered as planned to gradually upgrade county patrol vehicles’ lights.
Stockberger said he wanted to make sure and stress that the county was not anywhere near the sort of situation that Morrow County is currently in, laying off patrolmen and staffers, and going down to a skeleton crew to carry them through the end of the year. Barber noted that it was important to note that the Knox County Sheriff’s Office is still strong and functioning, ready to cope with a recent surge in crimes brought on by the economy. This surge has seen the county jail’s occupancy rate more than double in the last year.
The commissioners and the sheriff agreed to meet next month on Dec. 11 to review the sheriff’s office budget.
In other business, Knox County Wastewater Superintendent Ron Simpson met with the commissioners. Water quality monitors checking the outflow from Apple Valley recently reported an abrupt spike in copper emissions, something not easy to explain in terms of normal wear and tear of old copper pipes in homes in the development. Further investigations are under way in an attempt to discover the source of this odd spike. Simpson said that Sherry Loos of the Ohio Rural Community Assistance Program had reviewed Knox County’s water and sewer service rates and determined that the water rate was good, but that the charge for sewer service was lower than it should be.
Knox County’s claim of $71,571 to the Federal Emergency Management Authority will not be seen for a minimum of at least six months, and the most that FEMA will pay is 75 percent of the original request.
Other maintenance issues were discussed as well.
