The Pulaski County Council took action Tuesday to fix shortfalls in a few departments’ overtime budgets. Council members agreed to transfer $45,000 out of the EMS Department’s staff line item to cover overtime expenses through the end of the year, at the request of EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo.
“We get quite a bit of overtime, with the 24-48-hour shift,” he explained, “and looking at the budget, it looks like our overtime line item went down over the last couple years.” He told council members that the issue has been corrected in the 2020 budget.
The council also approved almost $47,000 in budget transfers for the Sheriff’s Department, with most of those going to cover overtime. Sheriff Jeff Richwine told the county commissioners last week that he’s had to use more overtime, since one of his deputies is currently away serving in the military, while a jail employee is out with an injury.
Meanwhile, council members agreed to advertise an additional appropriation request of over $21,000 for overtime expenses in the Prosecutor’s Office. Council Member Kathi Thompson warned that the current rate of spending can’t continue, though. “We did tell the prosecutor that overtime should be used, so I don’t have a concern with the overtime as presented,” Thompson explained. “But we’re going to have budget issues next year, and we can’t be doing this next year.”
Council Member Ken Boswell wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting, but commented on the matter by phone. “We asked the Prosecutor’s Office to use overtime to catch things up, but at some point in time, the courts and the prosecutor should be caught up,” Boswell said. “I mean, it shouldn’t continually be growing.”
The additional appropriation will be up for final approval at a future meeting.
