County officials debate jail billing

In addition to proposing a budget and tax rate during the regular morning meeting on Aug. 27, Shackelford County commissioners met in special session a few hours later to try to hammer out a deal with Callahan County officials in a jail billing issue.

Both sides seemed to want to resolve the billing discrepancy, which has resulted because the standard jail accounting software is incapable of charging for what Sheriff Ed Miller calls “fictitious inmates.” 

Callahan County signed a contract with Shackelford County in 2012 to house inmates at a per diem rate of $45, depending on availability.

Then in August 2016, after Shackelford County’s new jail was completed, an addendum to the contract guaranteed 10 beds per day even if all the beds weren’t occupied.

At the time, Callahan County commissioners thought that their own 24-bed facility was going to be closed.

Although a system was developed in June 2018 to bill Callahan County for the contracted 10 beds at the LEC, even if the beds are not occupied, there were a number of months when Callahan County was only billed for beds that were occupied.

A list compiled by county treasurer Tammy Brown shows a total of $54,000 in “shortages” that didn’t get billed over 12 different months from the time the addendum was added in 2016. There were actually 10-plus inmates during the other months.

A similar list from the Callahan County sheriff’s office lists 10 months from just the current fiscal year and totals $30,420.

Commissioner Lanham Martin suggested that the two entities “meet somewhere in the middle,” and calculated a figure of $38,790.

However, Callahan chief deputy Rick Jowers contended that someone from the Shackelford County LEC had told them that they weren’t being billed for unused beds, and he also said that sometimes certain inmates were “turned down” by the Shackelford LEC.

Miller stated that he doesn’t “have the staff to take care of inmates in current mental health crisis,” and that Callahan County was told, in those cases, that they could instead substitute some of the population housed in their own jail.

Isolated maintenance problems at the LEC had also prevented the housing of outside prisoners at times, Miller said.

Further in the discussion, Jowers suggested that Callahan County pay $20,000. 

“We’ve had a hard year, and we’ve already paid you $109,000 in the last year,” he commented.

At little later, a $25,000 amount was mentioned. 

Callahan County judge Roger Corn said that he did not have the authority to accept any offers and that the issue would have to be discussed with his commissioners at their next meeting.

Also attending from Callahan County were sheriff Terry Joy, commissioner Brad Farmer, and jail administrator Julie Lemon.

After the Callahan officials left Monday’s meeting, Larry Cauble made a motion offering to settle at $25,000, seconded by Lanham Martin. Shackelford County judge Ross Montgomery also voted in favor, with Steve Riley against the motion. Cody Jordan was not able to attend the special session.

Montgomery will convey the settlement offer to judge Corn.

Miller then suggested that the current contract be terminated and a new one drawn up that does not include the “addendum” for 10 guaranteed beds.

The commissioners also wanted an expiration date and annual renewal added to the new contract.

Budget & Tax Rate

Working with the county’s effective tax rate of 61.51 cents per $100 valuation, the commissioners proposed a balanced budget of $4,184,823.

With no public hearings required for the effective tax rate, which was also proposed at the Aug. 27 session, commissioners plan to adopt the budget, then the tax rate, at their next regular meting on Sept. 10. In the meantime, the budget is available in the clerk’s office for the public to review.

The 61.51-cent rate includes the debt service of 8.84 cents for the Shackelford County Law Enforcement Center, which is in a separate I&S budget.

Because values are a little lower overall, the effective tax rate, calculated to bring in the same amount as last year’s actual rate, with adjustments for new properties, is almost four cents higher than the 57.58-cent rate adopted last year.

Budget Details

County commissioners and other department heads have met several times over the past few weeks to work on the budget.

The 2018-2019 proposed budget is about $122,000 more than the current adopted budget, and includes a five percent across-the-board salary increase.

Other significant increases were in the technology budget, which increased almost $93,000, basically double the current budget, despite the fact that commissioners decided to replace only about half of the equipment that IT consultant Sam Goldsmith had requested at the last meeting. Goldsmith had actually requested a budget of $226,527.

Also going up markedly are insurance costs for the next year.

The sheriff’s office budget went up $18,300, mostly because of salaries and related expenses, while the LEC numbers increased about $38,600. Again, much of that was for salary expenses, with $10,000 added for building and barn repair based on expenses so far this year.

The only other major department with a notable change was Precinct 3, with the commissioner adding a full-time road hand instead of contract labor, as well as $30,000 to replace a vehicle.

The $4,184,823 budget was proposed on a motion by Steve Riley, seconded by Cody Jordan, and passed unanimously.

The effective tax rate of 61.51 cents including the debt service passed without dissension on a motion by Lanham Martin, seconded by Jordan.