Sheriff: ‘I never said I would sue’

Barbour County Sheriff Leroy Upshaw stated on Monday that despite reports from the Clayton Record, he never said he intended to sue the Barbour County Commission for cutting back funding for the Sheriff’s Department.
“I don’t intend to cut services to the citizens of Barbour County,” said Upshaw in a telephone interview Monday morning. “By law, they have to provide adequate funding to the Sheriff’s Department, and if they don’t want to do that, I said I would have to consult an attorney to see what to do about it. I never said I was going to sue the commission.”
Talk of attorneys and budget cuts arose after the last Barbour County Commission meeting, where the members discussed cutbacks to several departments. The gas budget for the Sheriff’s department vehicles was included in that discussion.
“We don’t have any problems money can’t solve,” said Commission Chairman Earl Gilmore. Upshaw has often said the same thing about his department since coming into office in 2007.
“I asked for $100,000 for fuel in the budget,” said Upshaw. “I got $60,000, which doesn’t go far with gas prices going up the way they are.”
But the threat of a lawsuit, whether real or exaggerated, didn’t seem to faze Gilmore.
“He’s got to get in line,” said Gilmore referring to Sheriff Upshaw’s supposed threat to sue.
“He’s got the right to do what he wants, anybody does, but I don’t know where the money would come from for that either, when you just ain’t got the money.”
These cuts, said Gilmore, are not being made solely to the Sheriff’s department, but span across the board of services provided by the county.
“We’re trying to spread it out across the board,” said Gilmore. “The Sheriff’s department is no different. Everyone is going to have to face some cutbacks.”
He added that the failure of the proposed one-cent sales tax increase will impact next year’s budget significantly.
Gilmore commented that the Sheriff’s Department is already over budget in many areas besides fuel allowance.
“Everything has gone up, I know, and for things like gas with prices the way they are, there’s no real way to budget for it,” he added.
The sheriff gave a long list of reasons that they may be over budget besides escalating gas prices.
“We’re a large county,” he said. “Having to travel all over the county on calls burns up a lot of gas.”
Upshaw defended such things as the take-home program and the use of the newly purchased Dodge Chargers. He says that the department currently has two Chargers that they use and the rest are the standard Crown Victoria model patrol cars.
“They (the Chargers) aren’t any worse on gas than the Crown Vics,” he said. “We found out after purchasing them how much more expensive the tires are, but that’s the only way they cost more.”
As for the take-home program that allows officers to drive their vehicles out of county to their homes, Upshaw says it’s necessary to keep deputies.
“We’ve been doing the take-home program since before I was here (as a deputy),” he said, “and we still have trouble recruiting deputies because we can’t pay them as much.”
Upshaw cited other local law enforcement agencies such as the Eufaula Police Department, which also implemented a take-home project recently to help boost recruitment and officer retention.
“A lot of other agencies pay much more than we do but still need the take home program (as an incentive),” he said. “We have two deputies that live out of the county. And I try to tell them to get most of their work done at the office rather than out riding, which they can do because they are higher ranking deputies.”
Even so, Upshaw notes that there are two or three deputies who live inside the county but still need to fill up their vehicles everyday from traveling across the county on calls.
Despite the disagreement over budget, Upshaw was scheduled to meet with finance committee chairman Frank Straughn to take a close look at the department’s budget and seek solutions.
The commission will decide on a new budget for next year at their October meeting. Until then, Upshaw says he is looking for ways to conserve gas that don’t include taking deputies off the roads.
“I’m looking at things like turning the cars off rather than idling while their waiting for a call,” said Upshaw. “I’m not saying I would sue, but they are required to provide us with funding, and in my opinion, I don’t believe they are providing an adequate budget to us overall.”
For the 2009 budget, Gilmore says he’s not sure where they will need to make cuts or additions.
“We’re already robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak,” he said. “Half the budget already goes to the Sheriff’s Department and the jail, and we have to run the county on what’s left. We don’t have the money, and we don’t have any way to get it, either. So, we’ll see what this next budget looks like. I think that is where we’re going to be seeing a lot of problems.”