The Mason County Sheriff’s Office suggested the Mason County Commissioners take over the budget for the Mason County Jail. The recommendation from Sheriff Casey Salisbury was spelled out in a memo to the Commission on July 1st. Monday, Sheriff’s Command Staff discussed the concept with the Commissioners during a briefing.
Under the proposal, the Sheriff’s Office would return control of what is know as “non-debatable budget lines” (which includes outsourcing, medical, dental, vision, pharmaceutical, nursing services, food/clothing, and facility maintenance) to the Commission and the County’s budget manager. The Sheriff’s Office would continue to administer the portion of the budget for custody of inmates through staff, training, equipment, hiring, salary/benefits, overtime etc. and verify that bills received reflect actual costs prior to submission for payment.
According to the Sheriff, these types of costs are difficult to budget and every year result in large supplemental budget requests that “created unnecessary turmoil and public confusion”. This “direct budget control” would eliminate this.
The Commissioners were not in favor of the concept and decided not to move ahead with the suggested change.