The court met on December 30 during an emergency meeting to consider the measure that would allow Sheriff Les Burgett to meet his payroll demands for the first month of the year.
By law, the sheriff’s office basically begins each year with no money in the bank, Burgett explained to the court last week, and in order to be able to pay his deputies and office staff during the month of January he needed an infusion of $70,000 from the county budgeted for his office.
Perry County Judge Executive Denny Ray Noble noted that he and Burgett had already worked out a deal for a loan to the sheriff’s office, but was informed by the Department for Local Government that by himself he would not be able to sign off on the funds.
Burgett said he included $152,000 in his budget that he said was set aside by Scott Alexander while he was a state representative, and requested that the fiscal court sign over $70,000 of that money so he could make his payroll for the month.
“I don’t even have money to do my payroll today,” said Burgett on Thursday.
Noble advised the magistrates that signing over $70,000 to the sheriff’s office at present is a bit tricky, as by law one-third of the county’s budget must be in place by December due to the election year, and as of now he’s not sure where the county stands in terms of its budget.
“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in our budget,” said Noble. “Until we get everything squared away and know exactly where we’re at, I don’t know what we can do and what we can’t do.”
But Noble noted that he did make an agreement with Sheriff Burgett that the county could write a check for $40,000. He said he was set to cut the check when he was informed by the Department for Local Government that he could not write the check without the authority of the fiscal court.
Noble said at present he couldn’t say if the money budgeted for the sheriff’s office would be available, but once his office is able to determine that enough would be there he would ask the court to approve all of the funds.
“Like I told you when we passed your budget, if it’s not, I’m going to ask the court not to (approve the funds),” he continued. “I’ve got to leave one-third of my budget in there.”
Sheriff Burgett responded that the money was already budgeted for his office, but Judge Noble reiterated that a portion of his budget must be maintained in December. If the money is not available and the magistrates approve the funds anyway, it could mean layoffs for county employees, he added.
“If they choose to do that, that’s fine, but I’ll send people home,” he said.
Chief Deputy Tony Eversole told the court that $70,000 would get the sheriff’s office through January, adding that if the court approves a smaller amount Burgett would have to come before the court and request more funds before the month ends.
Magistrate Bubby Combs suggested that the court go ahead and give Burgett’s office the full $70,000 to get him through January rather than a smaller amount.
“If we’re going to have to argue over this again in two weeks it don’t make much sense,” Combs said.
Combs made a motion to approve the advance of $70,000 to the sheriff’s office from the county’s general fund as part of the sheriff’s 2010 budget. Magistrate Frank Hurley seconded the motion, which was approved by the court by a final vote of 3-0.
But Judge Noble cautioned that while the sheriff has an additional $82,000 slated to come from the county’s general fund in 2010, he is still unsure as to how much money the county will have to work with this year.
“Even though our budget’s where it’s at, and we’ve got (the money for the sheriff) in there, the state’s going to cut back again,” he said.
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