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Less administration could save money in sheriff’s office

Less administration could save money in sheriff’s office Less administration could save money in sheriff’s office

Taylor County could save money by having fewer supervisors in the sheriff’s department.

At Monday’s meeting of the budget review committee sheriff Larry Woebbeking suggested the county could save $22,350 a year by not promoting someone to a currently vacant patrol sergeant position.

He explained that they currently have a vacant sergeant position that he has been holding back on filling. “In all reality we can function fine without it,” Woebbeking said, explaining that the third sergeant position had been created under a previous sheriff and he did not think it was needed. He said the department has two road sergeants, two jail sergeants, the chief deputy and the sheriff to provide for administration.

Keeping the position unfilled will not change the overall number of staff in the department.

Woebbeking said the department has run lean, making it a challenge to find places to cut. “Where do you cut when you are lean?” Woebbeking said.

Another area that he said the county should look at is taking a look at the rent charged to the Medford Police Department for use of the courthouse space along with the services provided such as computer support from the county IT department. Woebbeking noted that currently the county does not charge the police department for that support.

He noted that without the support of the county the Medford police department would not be able to operate. “They are a city entity and not a county entity, they reap a lot of benefits from being in the courthouse,” he said.

He said he did not intend to be negative toward the police department, but noted the city is not paying for the computer support or the new phones and is just paying for the square footage of the space. “They are reaping a lot of benefits,” Woebbeking said.

Committee member Greg Knight, who also serves on the Medford city council, noted that city residents are also county taxpayers. He asked for a definition of “a lot” of services.

“If you took the county away from the city police department I don’t know that they could function,” Woebbeking said.

The budget review committee is seeking $500,000 in potential cuts across all the departments in the county. Committee members are working their way through the committees and at this point are compiling a spreadsheet with possible cost reductions.

In addition to the sheriff’s department, committee members met with District Attorney Kristi Tlusty, emergency management director Dan Gellert, County Clerk Andria Farrand and Jenn Viergutz of the Commission on Aging.

Tlusty explained that if they were looking for operational expenses to cut, the DA’s office would not make a drop in the bucket. She said they don’t have large expenses and have been whittling away things like subscriptions over the years as they have gone to more electronic media. She said that the use of electronic file sharing has cut down on the amount of postage her office has used.

She also noted that she has made a point of including into plea agreements to get the county reimbursed for costs such as when they have to get an offender from another area and bring them back to Taylor County.

There was a similar message from Viergutz, however she said with all the staff fairly new in the office they are making an effort to review things to make sure they are being done efficiently.

One area they have recently changed was in transportation to nutrition sites by creating more of a bus route with timed stops than individually scheduling. She said the change has saved $1,000 to $1,500 per month in transportation costs. She said they are also working to go more toward electronic communication with the newsletter. They had been producing and mailing 750 newsletters each month but are now down to 270. She said this a significant savings each month on postage alone.

Farrand noted that while a number of budgets fall under the county clerk, most to them, such as county board, are outside her control.

She noted that her office never has overtime and comp time is used sparingly typically in the busy period around the elections when her office is at its busiest. Committee members discussed the merits versus costs of going to conferences with county board chairman Jim Metz noting there is a lot of value in being able to interact with people from other counties and sharing ideas.

Discussion also touched on the county’s shared pool of vehicles which are scheduled out of the clerk’s office for departments to use. Human resources director Nicole Hager said she would get a list of all county vehicles for the committee to review.

Gellert addressed comments to the suggestion that his office could be reduced to part-time. The county is currently funded for more than 50% of his position cost through state grants. If the county were to cut the position’s hours the grant would likewise be reduced.

He said an hours reduction would make it difficult for the county to do the work required in the grant program and could lead to additional sanctions from the state including potentially not being eligible for emergency disaster recovery funds.

As far as places to cut or impose fiscal controls, Gellert suggested the county could impose rules that require direct authorization from committees before costs above a certain dollar amount could be made.

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