Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra
Tammy's views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy's neighbors, Earl Fisher, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, Rita Bernhard, her grand kids, Tony Hyde, Pat Robertson, Corsiglia's dog, or Claudia Eagle's Cat.
This Tammy's Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she wont' take crap off of anyone.
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The three commissioners getting ready to slash the Sheriff's budget



I would like to correct some information that I wrote about last week regarding the Sheriff's Office. First the "new cars that were purchased were "new used vehicles, vehicles with 60 thousand miles already on them and purchased for about $2,000.00. The information that I used was taken from Commissioner Tony Hyde and evidently was not totally clear, Hyde's statements have been found to be less than candid.


Now about the budget and the Sheriffs office

The commissioners have been crying the blues about the lack of money to run the county for months, so the county commissioners called a meeting and asked that ALL county departments figure their budget with an 8% reduction. When the numbers came back in none of the departments reduced their budgets by the 8% only the sheriff's department reduced their total budget by over 9%. The Sheriffs office complied with the three commissioners demands and then their budget was reduced even more. Why would the commissioners reduce the sheriffs' budget even more, after they had complied with the commissioner's demands?
What is really interesting is the other county departments actually received more money in their budgets, for example: the assessors' office that went from $1,108,210 in 2009 to $1,219,272 an increase of $111,062. Then we have the District attorneys office with an increase of $64,107. Land development services went up $217,534. Juvenile department went up $194,461. Emergency services went up over $79,000

THE SHERIFFS BUDGET WAS REDUCED BY
$736,671

The increases given to each department was nearly the amount taken from one department the Sheriffs department!

Why would the commissioners target the Sheriff's budget? The reduction in the sheriff's budget will reduce deputies by ten officers; the force of 13 will now become 3 later this summer. The public's safety should be the main concern of the commissioner; by reducing the sheriffs' budget so extreme the county commissioners have put the publics safety and well being in jeopardy. We have no river patrol; there will be only three people to cover Columbia County, so who do we call I suggest that we call the three county commissioners when ever we need a sheriff, maybe the commissioners will understand the need of our sheriffs department.
I bet if Tony Hyde stopped some of his travel outside of the county that would save $$$ in this hard economic times.
Another questionable action from the county commissioners, they are investigating an idea that every person in all departments take one day off a month with out pay that would be about 5% loss for all persons the only thing is the commissioners have decide not to take their raise which is 3%. Why does the commissioners expect everyone to lose 5% while they only lose 3%? After all the commissioner's receive in their package over $106,000.00 per year, Rita Bernhard says we all must feel the pain. I wish I hurt in my pocket book like the county commissioners.

In my opinion I think the county commissioners have screwed the sheriffs department. I believe that the commissioners should rethink their budget and reduce all departments by the 8%. Across the board, that would be fair to all departments. I also believe since the sheriff has done some smart moves in saving money that the sheriff should be able to carry that saving over to the next year and not have that money put back into the general fund or if allowed to keep the money saved, it should be added to the new budget on top of the following years budget income.

Note: The Sheriffs department is a department all its own except when it comes to receiving funds then they are at the mercy of the commissioners.


TAMMY

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