Paulk and Pritchard wrapped up the budget hearing,
quite well, except at the very end,
when about 2 seconds were allowed for citizens to say they
wanted to speak before the hearing was ended.
So that’s two budget hearings with no citizen input:
the first one nobody knew about,
and this one where nobody was permitted to speak.
Chairman Ashley Paulk thanked county employees for their cooperation.
He noted that even the constitutional officers, who could appeal
their budgets, had not.
He noted the jail accounted for about half the sheriff’s budget,
calling it an expensive operation.
He said that his office had accounted for 3 of the 8 layoffs
last time, and fortunately there were no more this time.
He said:
