Excise Board’s 2018 meeting more tranquil

Unlike recent years, things went fairly smoothly at this year’s first meeting of the Custer County Excise Board to discuss the county budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
In fact, they went so well that the board went ahead and approved most estimates of need from county officers without change. That was in sharp contrast to recent years when it usually took more than one meeting to approve the sheriff’s estimate, and it was especially different from 2017 when the dissension continued on after a budget was adopted with Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell threatening in August to sue the Excise Board.
The sheriff didn’t necessarily like what happened last Wednesday, when this year’s estimates were approved, but he certainly seemed more amenable than a year ago. With good reason – the board cut his request for money from the county’s General Fund by only $10,000. That compared with a cut of nearly $354,000 from his initial request a year ago.
It probably helped at this year’s meeting, held last Wednesday, that Clinton accountant Russ Meacham was on hand to serve as a semi-spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office. After last year’s budgeting sessions the Excise Board suggested that Tidwell hire an accountant to look at the numbers before they were submitted, so he contacted Meacham whose firm was hired in October by county commissioners at a cost of $20,000 to serve as financial adviser to the sheriff. At last week’s meeting, Meacham took a very vocal role, answering many of the Excise Board’s questions.
The meeting ended with the board approving a General Fund budget of $1,055,472 for the Sheriff’s Office. That was only $9,982 less than Tidwell had requested.
The Sheriff’s Office is actually funded from three different sources. Besides the General Fund, which consists of property taxes, the sheriff also gets 30 percent of the county’s half-cent sales tax plus a share of money collected by the Court Clerk’s Office from people charged with crimes and traffic violations.
Tidwell’s total from the three sources this year will be $2,268,721, with $826,169 of that coming from the sales tax and $387,080 from the Sheriff’s Fee Account.
Despite the seemingly better bottom line, indications were the Sheriff’s Office still needs more money. Meacham, for example, said food costs in the jail three years ago were averaging $1.33 per meal. He said last year it was $1.18, and for the coming year it’s going to be $1.05.
He indicated the average daily count in the jail was 120 inmates which at $1.08 a meal would come out to approximately $145,000.
Tidwell said he still needs more employees too.
“On the deputy side and the jail side we’re at an absolute minimum to operate,” he said, adding that when those people take vacation or sick leave, there’s nobody to replace them.
“It takes somebody already working 40 hours a week,” he said, and that just builds up that person’s comp time. “Then we have to pay them in cash when they leave,” he said.
“The rest of the pieces are moving dollars around,” he continued, like from the General Fund to the Sheriff’s Fee and vice versa.
Excise Board Chairman Harold Gleason indicated one thing helping this year is a very good sales tax.
“Our great blessing now is the sales tax,” he said. “That’s an amazing number.”
The number he was referring to was more than $2.7 million, which is what the sales tax brought in for the whole county.
As previously noted, the sheriff’s estimate of needs was divided into three parts, one financed by the General Fund which consists of property taxes; one financed by the county sales tax; and one by fees earned by the Sheriff’s Office. Contrary to common perception, Meacham said 47 percent of the money coming into the Sheriff’s Fee Account is from felony court cases and is collected by the Court Clerk’s Office and only 8 percent is from serving legal papers for private attorneys. The source for most of the rest is split between misdemeanor criminal cases (20 percent) and traffic tickets (21 percent).
Told by Meacham that vehicle costs for the Sheriff’s Office are going to be significant this year with at least two new patrol units needed, Gleason wondered if the costs couldn’t be trimmed by moving equipment such as cameras from the old cars being retired to the new ones.
Tidwell said no. The cameras, he said, are getting so old they’re not salvageable and it gets to the point new ones must be bought.
He and Meacham talked about other needs of the Sheriff’s Office.
“My radio system needs repair,” said Tidwell, “but it will cost $80,000  to replace.” However, he admitted “that is a want.”
On the other hand, he said, “Technology has advanced a lot the last few years. Digital technology is a lot better than analog. . . . Right now I’ve got guys that can’t talk on hand-held radios from Clinton (and be heard at the Sheriff’s Office). That is an officer safety issue.”
Something called Policies and Procedures occupied a good deal of the discussion.
“You gotta have ’em,” said Tidwell, adding that they have to be written down so they can be cited in court.
“They’re one of the first things referred to in a lawsuit (against law enforcement and/or the county),” he said. “There’s a company that will create Policies and Procedures for jails and law enforcement. They’re constantly updated, and classes are documented. They’re highly important. I call them a piece of equipment.”
The Excise Board eventually agreed to take their $15,000 cost out of sales taxes.
Personnel costs were by far the largest item, though.
The combined budgets that were eventually adopted contained over $1.4 million for personnel. This included the sheriff, undersheriff, jail administrator, nine deputies, five dispatchers, three administrative assistants, one courthouse security person, and 19 jailers.
Excise Board members and county commissioners did get one thing this year they had wanted last year. The jail’s estimated $120,000 in utility costs will be paid during the coming year out of the General Fund rather than using money left in the Jail Trust Fund which is from bonds floated more than 10 years ago to build the jail.
That, though, is of course $120,000 Tidwell doesn’t have to spend on other things.
Commissioners and Excise Board members also don’t like spending the leftover trust funds for another reason; they want them kept in reserve to spend for major jail repairs, additions or replacement.