by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Sheriff John Rutherford better pack his lunch when he appears before the City Council Finance Committee to explain his budget. At worst, he better bring a snack because it could be a long afternoon.
City Council member and Finance Chair Michael Corrigan promises the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office budget will not get a cursory once-over this year. In fact, Corrigan is setting aside an entire session to allow his seven-member committee to examine Rutherford’s proposed budget from every possible angle. Corrigan says he isn’t opposed to funding public safety, he just believes that given the size of the proposed JSO budget, it deserves more than 60 minutes of scrutiny.
When the budget hearings start in earnest Thursday morning, Corrigan says there will be plenty of chopping and assessing of Mayor John Peyton’s proposed $972 million 2008-09 budget. Throughout the process, Corrigan said his committee will focus on making sure the City is spending money on the right things and assuring the policies it sets ensure “fiscal responsibility” through the 2011 budget.
“This Finance Committee is not afraid to ask very difficult questions and it is not afraid to keep digging until it gets answers,” said Corrigan after Monday’s Finance Committee meeting.
Much of that scrutiny will involve the JSO budget. According to Corrigan, the JSO budget warrants a longer examination.
“We have a nearly $1 billion budget and the JSO portion of that is about $400 million,” he said. “The conversation stretched just past one for 40 percent of that budget. This year, we will spend the entire afternoon of the Aug. 28 session on the JSO budget.”
Corrigan also said his committee will look long and hard at the positions each of the City department heads are looking to fill; specifically the committee will focus on the vacancies within the departments.
“If they come to us with extended vacancies, they better come with some pretty good explanations,” he said.
Monday, the Finance Committee got warmed up as it spent nearly an hour discussing an ordinance that would use money in the Special Law Enforcement Trust Fund to pay for a variety of things including 500 tasers for correctional officers and bailiffs at a cost of $550,000. The rest of the $725,000 appropriation – which comes from forfeiture funds the JSO amasses through drug busts and other arrests – would have gone to Crimestoppers, the Justice Coalition, Metro Kids Connection and the Jacksonville Commitment. The Jacksonville Commitment, a $3 million plan that includes all of the area colleges working together to provide college scholarships to needy kids who meet academic entrance requirements, was the hot topic within the discussion and the one that ultimately fueled an amendment to the bill which was approved 4-3. However, the approved bill only provides for the funding for the tasers. Rutherford will have to come to the Finance Committee with a separate bill to get the money for the other items.
Finance member Clay Yarborough spearheaded the amended bill when he questioned the use of forfeiture funds for anything other than law enforcement. According to Cheryl Runyon of the JSO, the $75,000 earmarked in the bill would have gone to pay for a fifth counselor for the Jacksonville Commitment initiative.
“I am a little concerned that we are lumping these together,” said Yarborough.
Finance member Art Graham said he doesn’t see the forfeiture money as public funds and believes they should be used as Rutherford sees fit as long as it’s for crime prevention or law enforcement.
“This, in my opinion, is not public money. This is drug dealer money,” said Graham. “If this is where the sheriff wants to spend his money, I don’t see any reason to hold that back now.”
Committee member Daniel Davis said he supports law enforcement, but said the funds can be better spent.
“I would feel better about giving the money to kids than for a job,” said Davis, explaining he’d prefer to see the funds used for scholarships. “This entire (budget) session, we will talk about getting money on the streets (to fight crime) and not to some administrator. I want to see the money on the street and not spent on some employee.”
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