Madison Co. sheriff addresses budget overages

JACKSON, Tenn. — Over the last five years, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office budget has increased by $5.5 million. WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News reporter Julia Ewoldt looked at the numbers.

“When looking at these budgets, some would say the sheriff doesn’t know how to handle a budget. What would you say to that?” Ewoldt asked Madison County Sheriff John Mehr.

“We do. We’re within our budget. What’s created our problem is the jail,” Sheriff Mehr said.

In fact, the sheriff blamed most of his budget overages in the past several years on the jail, like overtime for deputies at the jail almost doubling in one year alone.

“Our overtime, what we’re doing, because we were short the fourteen officers, then we take the salary savings because we hadn’t filled those positions, we take that money and move it to overtime,” the sheriff said.

Other dramatic increases were not related to the jail:

From 2013 to 2018, the part-time personnel budget at the Sheriff’s Office increased 733%.

Plus, law enforcement supplies went from almost $40,000 to over $100,000 in two years.

“Overdoses. When you look at the equipment that goes with those, that’s costing more for people. There’s equipment that goes with the officers — you have bullet-proof vests, you have other things that come in, and all of that is law enforcement equipment,” he said.

In March’s County Commission meeting, the sheriff asked for more money, this time to feed prisoners.

“Last year, we budgeted for what we thought we would have to use, but we didn’t prepare for this drastic increase of inmates,” Sheriff Mehr said.

That is when the County Commission said they have had enough and denied his request.

“What we’re trying to do is send him a message,” Commissioner Doug Stephenson said. “And when I say send him a message, is let him know that we’ve got to get this, we’ve got to work on becoming more efficient.”

The request was ultimately approved. However, Commissioner Stephenson says it is not about the food.

“I like to use the work efficiency. We like to be as efficient as possible. Are we doing the best we can for medical? Are we doing the best we can for food?” Stephenson said. “Is he using it efficiently at this point? I’d say no.”

Even though spending at the jail has gone up consistently over the last five years, the sheriff says that number will go up even more when a new jail is built.

“Everything increases. Our budgets will reflect that,” the sheriff said, “So are you expecting the budget to go up even more when you get the new jail? Well when we get back to full staff, we’ll have to see how that goes. If we go in there and there’s more inmates than we expected, then yes that will go up.”

“Do you expect the County Commission to approve a higher budget once you get a new jail?” Ewoldt asked.

“That’s up to them, but the thing is we’re working on grants, working on programs, when people come in, to move them out,” Mehr said.

Commissioner Stephenson says he is prepared to make some changes.

“We’ve just gotten to the point where we’re just having to look at it and go we can’t continue down the sheet that I gave you, the 32% increase over the last five years,” Stephenson said.

The sheriff’s office has requested over $2 million more dollars be added to the budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. We find out if that gets approved in coming weeks.