LAWRENCE COUNTY Sheriff seeks solution to budget problems

Commissioners' attempt to cut a deputy position was foiled by a technicality.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- It appears Sheriff Robert Clark and Lawrence County commissioners may have solved their budget differences.
Clark has been battling commissioners since last month when he depleted his overtime budget. He had asked for a $10,000 transfer from the county contingency fund to cover overtime until year's end.
Commissioners are facing a $1.3 million deficit by year's end and have said they want all departments to find money within their own budgets to cover costs. Commissioners initially took money from Clark's travel and training budget and moved it to overtime to cover some costs. Clark has filed a mandamus action in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court to have commissioners provide him with the $10,000 for overtime.
Technicality
In their latest attempt to make the sheriff fund his office from within his own budget, commissioners attempted to eliminate a full-time deputy position Thursday. But they were foiled by a technicality.
Eliminating a position requires an act of the county salary board, which consists of the commissioners, controller and the elected official whose office is affected.
Commissioner Ed Fosnaught was not present at Wednesday's meeting that required the agenda be amended to include the resolution eliminating one full-time job.
Controller Mary Ann Reiter initially asked the board to postpone the meeting to allow all salary board members to attend. That motion died when the vote ended 2-2, with Reiter and Clark voting to delay the meeting and Commissioners Dan Vogler and Steve Craig voting to continue.
When it came time to amend the agenda to include the resolution that would eliminate the job, Reiter and Clark voted no and it wasn't added. Reiter again said she wanted the full salary board present to vote on the matter.
Alternative funding
After the meeting, Chief Deputy Sheriff Marcy Imhoff spoke to commissioners about alternative ways to fund overtime and the department's part-time budget, which will be depleted by next week.
Imhoff said a full-time deputy is quitting to take another job and they would consider not filling that position for the remainder of the year. That money can pay the department's three part-time deputies, she said.
Imhoff also noted that the county sheriff's office will be delivering papers for the annual tax claim sale later this month. They expect to bring in about $15,000 in fees.
Commissioner Steve Craig said the county, though required by law to serve these papers, had not done so when county Treasurer Gary Felasco was head of the county tax claim bureau. Felasco was removed as head of that department earlier this year when commissioners learned he had not paid property taxes on his own home for the past four years.
Craig said the sheriff's office had not budgeted those fees as a revenue. Craig said while that money goes into the general fund, he would not mind supplementing the sheriff's office budget with extra money for overtime if the county then gets equal revenue from the fees.
Craig and Vogler said it is unlikely they will set another salary board meeting to address the idea of eliminating a full-time deputy position since this other compromise was reached.
Clark said after the meeting that he will be off work for two weeks as ordered by his doctor because of high blood pressure.
cioffi@vindy.com