LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

Sheriff’s Response to “budget woes”

The Sheriff’s Office has received a lot of criticism in the last
several months. It appears to be the fashionable thing these days
and an easy target. Sheriff Prine did not receive an invitation to

the Chairman’s personal property
for a review of the county’s budget
and criticism of the Sheriff’s budget in particular. There are some
facts that have not been reported

by the Valdosta Daily Times,
which may or may not have been provided.

First it should be noted that the Sheriff’s Office general fund
budget was reduced from last year’s budget by $171,306.

This was
before another $130,492 was taken away in August as a result of
shift in

traffic citation processing
responsibilities

to the Clerk’s Office.

A closer look at some of the specific line items targeted for
criticism will show that those line items cannot be judged without
further information. The DARE supplies line item is at 99%. Supplies
for the DARE program are bought before the school year begins in
August. Yes that line is expended with no further expenditures
expected in this fiscal budget. Education and Training is another
line item where expenditures are encumbered at the time that the
training is scheduled — not when the training event actually
happens which may be months later. This is $11,500 budgeted for
training for the entire Sheriff’s Office. “Rent/lease” is an $8,000
line item; but 87.73% sounds better for the critics. Again this is
another line item that has contracts that are paid yearly—not
monthly. “Subscriptions”—a $1500 line item that refers to
directories and legal organs that are resources for the Sheriff’s
Office to effectively function.

The “Sheriff’s Enforcement budget” is at 36.78%. Not exactly what we
would consider as being “worse” than any other part of the larger
budget.

The Jail is not a “department”; it is actually a significant part of
what the Sheriff’s constitutional responsibility is. It actually has
three (3) budgets. The General Fund—Jail budget is $6,486,397.
This is where the salaries of over 100 employees is budgeted as well
as a large part of the cost of the more than 600 inmates that are
housed, fed and receive basic medical care is accounted for. The
Commissary budget is a revenue generating account and has a budget
of $624,924. The Jail Operations Fund is another revenue generating
account that has a budget of $660,193.

Currently the whole Sheriff’s Office budget expenditures for FY 2014
are at 37%. With two weeks into November it is exactly where it is
expected to be.

Now also consider that the Sheriff’s Office also generates some
revenue. Bond forfeitures are returned to the general fund of the
county. All funds generated from inmate commissary sales are
returned to the jail fund that helps off-set some of the cost of
inmate housing as well as inmate housing fees charged to other
agencies. Charges for the service of civil papers are returned to
the general fund of the county. The actual cost to taxpayers is less
than the $17,138,334 that is budgeted to provide all of these
services.

The budget process is more than just picking and choosing a few line
items to look at. It is a complex and evolving tool used to measure
the expenditures and revenues of the cost of providing services.

The Sheriff’s Office budget has been impacted like all businesses
have with rising costs of health care which has had a significant
increase over the last several fiscal years. As a result, other line
items have been reduced to unreasonable expectations. And the county
governing authority still refuses to budget one penny for the
operations cost of the Regional Crime Lab that the City of Valdosta
allows the Sheriff’s Office to utilize and that all citizens benefit
from.

It is a shame that this has been made an issue by those who wish to
discredit Sheriff Prine for the sake of political change. The
Sheriff’s Office has certain responsibilities and mandates that have
to be financed. A jail that averages more than 600 inmates per day;
that these inmates are fed, housed, clothed and provided basic
medical care. The Sheriff maintains a Patrol Division that responds
to more than 2000 calls per month. There are criminal investigators,
narcotics investigators and court services that serve all of Lowndes
County. The Sheriff has committed to making sure that every county
school has a school resource officer. There are over 200 employees
who give their days, nights, weekends and holidays to serve this
community in an agency that processes an average of 18,000 subpoenas
and 4,000 arrest warrants annually. When one stops to consider that
the Sheriff maintains all of these services and more, you have to
value that service from a larger picture.

Don’t let the rhetoric fool you. The public has been given a
one-sided view of a much bigger picture. There is a tremendous
amount of accountability that goes into every dollar spent and the
county finance director and county manager is a large part of that
process.

The Sheriff’s Office expects to receive all blame for a pending
increase in your taxes. But the truth is much broader than one
agency’s budget.

-Sheriff Chris Prine