Sheriff asks to restore funding for deputy

Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers asked the county commissioners Monday to add more than $50,000 to the sheriff’s budget, most of which would be for a deputy’s salary.

At the end of last fall’s budgeting sessions by the commission, one deputy position was eliminated in cutback’s of the sheriff’s budget for 2014. Myers budget was cut $323,000 from his original budget proposal of $3.5 million.

Myers at the commission workshop session Monday said he has a deputy in training now, and he needs to know what the next step will be – to let the deputy go or to keep him and continue training him. The total amount Myers is asking for is $50,422.

“Of that amount, $44,000 would be used to maintain a current deputy sheriff position now held by Deputy Justin DeRosier,” Myers said in a formal letter. “Deputy DeRosier was hired last fall and started academy in early December 2013. In addition to his salary, there are additional costs associated with his position and other expenses such as uniform, protective equipment, overtime, technical supplies, fuel and training costs. Deputy DeRosier is critical to the staffing of our office, to maintain a safe level of responding officers and to maintain and honor certain contracts with other jurisdictions in our county.”

“Considering the size of our county, 2,200 square miles, we have a lot of roads to cover,” he said.

“Deputy DeRosier is half way through the academy and he’s an extra qualified candidate,” Myers said. “I don’t want to keep him in 2014 to let him go in 2015. I want to know if I can maintain staffing.”

“We have two town contracts, one with Albion and one with Tekoa, and in order to maintain the control we have, it’s going to be almost impossible to have additional contracts that may come up,” Myers said. “With 17 staff, it’s almost impossible to cover our highways.”

Commissioner Michael Largent addressed Myers almost immediately.

“I support this request,” he said.

Myers also told the commissioners the jail needs additional bunk space.

“In addition to this budget expense, our jail’s operational and maintenance costs were also cut back to minimal funding levels for 2014,” Myers said in his letter. “In the past three months, our jail has been housing approximately 50 inmates per day with as many as 58 during a couple of weekends in February. Our jail was originally designed for 44 total inmates, including the juvenile unit, allowing only 38 in the adult portion of the jail. Currently our facility has the capacity to hold 46 including the utilization of the juvenile unit.”

Myers’ letter said he’s received a $6,222 quote to increase the permanent beds to 64 including the juvenile part. The jail will then have 56 adult beds with an additional eight beds in juvenile for a total of 64. The jail currently houses adults in the juvenile portion of the jail.

“Much of the increase we have seen in the way of jail population is associated with the growth Whitman County has seen in recent years,” Myers wrote in his letter. “Our jail nets over $200,000 to hold on average eight federal inmates every day throughout the year. This has increased our average population by 15 to 20 percent on a permanent basis.”

Myers’ letter broke down the request: salaries, $32,000; medical, $6,000; insurance, $1,000; uniform and equipment, $1,000; fuel, $3,000; communications, $1,200; jail bed expansion, $6,222.73.

“This is an investment,” Myers told the board. “I’m not going to have him out on the road by himself until September because of training and I sure don’t want to tell him he doesn’t have a job in December.”

Commission Chairman Art Swannack asked if building projects in Pullman could supply $100,000 in additional funds for the county, but Administrative Director Gary Petrovich said he doubted that any taxes from construction would cover $100,000 in budget increases. Commissioners have aleady earmarked $40,000 to $45,000 for Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Center, although they haven’t signed an amended agreement.

Myers asked commissioners to indicate their support by March 24.

“I can’t guarantee anything for 2015,” Swannack said. “I would like to know the price of wheat for 2015, but I don’t.”