Pulaski County sheriff’s deputies have been busy recently, and that’s led to a significant shortfall in the department’s overtime budget. The county council voted Monday to transfer a total of $27,000 out of the deputy salary and part-time dispatcher salary line items, to fill the gap.
Chris Schramm with the Sheriff’s Department explained, “The reason for that is we’ve had a lot of call-outs, a high-profile apprehension, suicidal subjects, and some other things we got called out for and ended up with some overtime, vacations, et cetera, in the summertime.” Council members also agreed to transfer a total of $4,000 out of the dispatcher and chief dispatcher salary line items of the Special Purpose LIT Fund into dispatcher overtime.
In other business Monday, council members agreed to transfer the last $12,000 out of the Community Development Commission’s land acquisition line item to pay for additional fiscal planning work that had been authorized last month. “The county has exceeded the contract with Peters Municipal Consultants at that $24,000 rate,” CDC Executive Director Nathan Origer reminded council members, “and as I believe Ken [Boswell] brought to the council’s attention via email, he’s still willing to work with us but that money has to come from somewhere.”
The CDC had budgeted $50,000 for land acquisition, but without any major projects on the horizon, that line item has become a funding source for various uses. Through the use of budget transfers, land acquisition money has paid for the entire fiscal planning process and helped fund tourism advertising and a new van for Pulaski County Human Services.
