BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Another well-attended meeting on Bradford County’s budget Sept. 23 began with a pledge that there will be no more business as usual when it comes to spending taxpayers’ dollars.
The room and viewers at home — thanks to a live social media feed provided by the sheriff’s office — watched as their chief law enforcement officer fought for and won salary increases for his employees.
The commission also decided to set the property tax rate to 10 mills in an effort to preserve some unreserved funding in the general fund.
Cuts both large and small — from office supplies to new equipment — resulted in a nearly $2 million spending reduction from the $70 million budget presented to the commission last week. Attorney Will Sexton said finance followed commissioners’ directive to rollback all unnecessary spending increases, including removing funding for a new peak hour ambulance crew and a pay raise for county employees.
The commission thanked administration and finance for identifying the cuts.
“Being that we are a community that does not experience a lot of growth, a lot of economic development, it makes it really tough without a tax base to be able to pay for a lot of these things that we’d like to be able to pay for,” Commission Chairman Chris Dougherty said.
However, there was no going back for Sheriff Gordon Smith, who held onto his proposed increases — including a 3% raise for rank-and-file employees — when the commission agreed to transfer $1 million out of inmate housing revenue out of a set-aside fund to cover those costs as well as planned facility upgrades.
Because money was cut from the budget to provide a pay raise to all board employees, Commissioner Diane Andrews raised the question of fairness in giving a raise to the sheriff’s employees alone.
“It breaks my heart not to be able to do it for everyone, not just a certain group. You’ve all worked very hard, every single one of you. A great number of you, fire rescue, law enforcement, medical, you put your lives on the line every day for the county, and we understand. It doesn’t go unnoticed,” she said. “But, folks, we are in a bad way right now with money, and at some point, we have got to stop the bleeding.”
If they held off this year, she said, then maybe everyone could receive more compensation next year.
“It can’t just be one department or one group of people. It has to be everybody. Everybody working together, pulling together, pull tight, and let us get this thing back under control.”
Andrews also had her eye on the nearly $3 million in inmate housing revenue that has been set aside and could be used elsewhere to fund county expenses.
Sheriff Smith said those funds have done a lot for the board over the years, including paying for facility upgrades, purchasing radios for all law enforcement, fire and EMS employees, and even providing living quarters for fire rescue. Using 50% of the money raised through housing has kept him from coming to the board with budget increases, he said. What is not spent is given back, and the fund has grown.
“We won’t spend what we don’t need, but I’m going to spend whatever it takes to keep my community safe,” he said.
A pay raise for employees has become critical for Smith because of the high rate of employee turnover. They leave for other agencies where they can make more money. His employees have gone without while other county employees were receiving more. When he tried to get more for his employees, he said he was told to be a team player, just like Andrews had said.
“Apparently, I’m the only one playing on the team. And these men and women, to tell me they don’t deserve parity or equality to their counterparts,” he said, getting into an exchange with Andrews about an email in which she expressed the need to fund fire rescue services. Their constitutional obligation is to fund law enforcement, and his employees deserve to make as much as the county’s other public safety employees, he said.
The failure to try and keep up with other agencies has created the turnover problem they have now, he said. They are six employees down, having just lost three that week. The same agencies they are competing with will be increasing their budgets next year, placing Bradford even further behind. Smith called it an “insult.”
Dougherty denied it was an insult. When they are being asked to fund increases, he said it was fair to ask questions.
Smith had requested an additional $500,000 to fund raises and other increased costs. Dougherty suggested it come from a transfer of $1 million in inmate housing revenue from the set aside fund. This would also help pay for facility upgrades and repairs, vehicle and equipment purchases, and the cost of working toward state accreditation.
The sheriff said that would be gracious of the commission and said they have raised more than $1 million more this year that will be turned over on Oct. 1.
Sexton told the board that going forward there will be no last-minute wrestling with the budget or unplanned expenditures that aren’t absolutely necessary.
“We’ve met with the finance department, and we’ve laid the foundation to begin a brand-new budget process for Fiscal Year 22-23 starting October 1. I can commit to the board tonight that I’m going to change the financial narrative for the board’s departments moving forward,” he said.
“We’re going to change our culture of spending while working hand-in-hand with the clerk’s finance department to completely revamp our procurement policies and procedures. We’re going to bring more purchases to the board for approval, even when our policy allows for department heads or administrators to approve the purchases. And again, we’re going to start the budget process for next year right now, throwing out the antiquated ways of doing things. I commit to you that ‘the way we’ve always done things’ will no longer be an acceptable justification for the way we do business.”
The need to work earlier and as a team was further emphasized during the final budget hearing on Sept. 27 when a last-minute raise for all board employees didn’t include some other constitutional officers’ employees. (See related story.)
