The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Layoffs could leave only one full-time deputy on the road




With county government’s latest budget cuts set to remain in place, the Letcher County Sheriff ’s Department is expected to reduce its on-the-road police force from as many as five deputies to only one full-time deputy.

The latest news concerning the expected layoffs came this week when Letcher County Sheriff Danny Webb and other members of his department spoke at the July meeting of the Letcher Fiscal Court, the governing body which has charge of Letcher County’s finances.

Sheriff ’s Lieutenant LaShawna Frazier, who handles the department’s accounting functions, told the fiscal court that cuts to the county’s budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year will result in the department’s road patrol personnel being cut to one full-time and one half-time patrol officer. The coming layoffs are the result of the cash-strapped county government’s decision to stop funding the sheriff ’s depart- ment’s hazardous duty retirement pay.

Frazier said the county’s portion of hazardous duty retirement pay for the seven officers who participate in it was $96,000 annually. She said if the court could restore $60,000 of the lost funding, the sheriff ’s office could find ways to pay for the other $36,000, which would allow the department to field three full-time deputies and one part-time deputy.

“You pulled all the money from us in the budget,” Frazier said. “It depends on what you want in a sheriff’s department.”

Letcher County Judge/ Executive Jim Ward told Frazier there is no extra money to put back into the budget.

“You’re trying to blame it on the fiscal court, but we don’t have the money,” Ward said.

“All we can use is the money that comes in from taxes and summons,” replied Frazier. “That will fund one full-time and one parttime officer.”

“The money is not there,” said Ward. “I don’t know it’s coming from. If we had money . . . but it’s not there.”

Two of the county’s five elected magistrates that serve on the fiscal court expressed concern over the cuts to the sheriff ’s department.

“Public protection is one of the duties we have,” said District Five Magistrate Wayne Fleming of Burdine. “If we have no law and order, I don’t know what will happen.”

“What is the price of public safety?” asked District Two Magistrate Terry Adams of Isom.

“What is the price of road work, or sanitation, or senior citizens?” Ward replied to Adams. “It will have to come out of something. Healthcare for other workers?”

District Four Magistrate Keith Adams said he is opposed to laying off any county workers. That brought a response from Terry Adams, who said the county government is in effect furloughing sheriff ’s department employees. Terry Adams said the court should take an entire day if necessary to meet and review the budget to find money to help the sheriff ’s department.

Keith Adams said the county has already cut staff by not filling slots left by workers who retired or otherwise left their jobs. Ward added all overtime for county employees has been stopped unless an emergency calls for it.

“All budgets are already cut to the bone,” said Ward. “It’s not that we don’t want to help the sheriff ’s department.”

Ward told Frazier that the court is already obligated to pay for six separate state-required audits for the sheriff ’s office that will cost a total of about $92,000.

Frazier explained how the audit fees added up over the last few years: “In February

2013, the courthouse had a waterline break which damaged the upstairs and part of downstairs. The paperwork for the audits were among the damage and the audit had to be placed on hold and did not resume for several months. When the auditors returned they had to research the previous work done on the audit so that it could be completed. However, it wasn’t completed this time either because this particular auditor left the employment of the auditor’s office. New auditors were then brought in to examine and research the previous auditor’s work and finally completed the audit.”

Sheriff Webb told the magistrates and Ward that the fiscal court was already paying the cost of hazardous duty retirement when he came into office in 2003.

“In 2009, the fiscal court advised me that the retirement system has raised the cost of the provider contribution, making it harder for (the county) to continue to pay because of the higher rate,” Webb said. “Since that time every officer that has been hired has been placed on regular retirement. We currently have seven officers that are on hazardous duty retirement.”

Webb said he was blindsided by the court’s decision to stop paying the retirement in the county’s 2015- 16 budget, which took effect July 1.

“I didn’t have a clue,” said Webb. “Never had a call or anything so I could prepare for it.”

He said if he had been notified of the court’s plan to stop the hazardous retirement pay in advance it might have been possible for the sheriff ’s office to come up with another plan.

“The action that the fiscal court took in the middle of my budget at a time that we do not have any tax money coming in and few fees that we collect makes it an impossible task,” Webb added. “Before this happened we were running under budget and were going to make it through the fiscal year without any problems.”

Webb said he has reduced his department’s budget by $186,446 since 2012, when he said Ward urged all agencies that receive money from the county to tighten their belts.

“Since personnel salaries make up 70 percent of my budget, it leaves me with no other option except to cut personnel,” Webb said. “This will cut much needed services to the citizens. Since becoming sheriff, I have made myself available to the citizens and did everything I could to provide programs that make this county a better and safer place to live.”

Ward said that since he has been judge, the court has paid $2.7 million to help the sheriff ’s department. Ward also asked County Treasurer Phillip Hampton where the money would have to come from if the court were to take funds from other county agencies to help. Hampton pointed to three funds — roads, senior citizens, and the local government economic assistance, all of which he said are budgeted at more than the current coal severance appropriations are projected to cover.

A major slump in the Central Appalachian coal industry has left Letcher County looking for ways to make up for the loss of $2.2 million in coal severance receipts this year alone. Letcher County’s annual budget used to easily top $11 million annually, but the one that took effect July 1 totals $9.56 million.

Hampton gave a gloomy forecast for future coal severance allocations as well and said if the county was able to come up with any money for the sheriff ’s department, it would have to come from other funds.

“It’s your all’s budget,” said Hampton. “All I want you all to do is tell me where you want to take it. We’ve made some cuts to the budget, and there are more to come. I don’t want to see a layoff.”

Ward said the other funds have already been “cut to the bone”.

“We didn’t cut Danny’s budget,” Ward said. “We don’t have the extra money to help them”

“We want to provide a service to the people,” said Webb. “If you find a way you can help, I’d appreciate it.”

Magistrate Fleming told Webb that if he had known how drastically the budget would affect the sheriff ’s department, he would not have voted to pass it, but added the department had to share some of the blame because there had been no department personnel present for either reading of the budget.

Both Webb and Deputy Frazier said one of the big problems in reconciling their office’s budget with the court’s is that the sheriff ’s office budget starts on January 1 and runs through December 31, while the court’s budget runs for the state fiscal year, from July 1 to June 30. That means that any county budget items that affect the sheriff’s office come in the middle of the sheriff ’s office budget year.

“In the future the sheriff ’s department budget will have to be made from the tax revenue and fees for services such as serving civil summonses,” said Webb. “That total is estimated to be $409,500, which is down $61,000 since 2012. To add to this, each year the tax revenue goes down because of the aging population causing tax bills to be exonerated from the tax rolls.”

In other business, the court heard from Whitesburg resident Dr. Kathleen Caizzi, concerning the Pascal Fields home located by the old Kirkland building that now houses the offices of HOMES Inc.

Caizzi said she had participated in the original acquisition of the house and the agreement stipulated the court would hold the deed. She asked that the court now turn the deed over to Letcher County CARES, which administers the domestic violence shelter located in the Kirkland building, but Judge Ward said there are a number of legal questions that must be decided before any action being taken.

Ward said it would not be possible for the court to take any action on the matter until after County Attorney Jamie Hatton has examined the deed and given an opinion.

Magistrate Fleming said he has no problem with transferring the deed, as long as it is legal to do so. He said he would be happy to make the motion to transfer the deed if Hatton agrees the court can do it.



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