Yearwood budget plan calls for cuts at SO and jail

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Yearwood budget plan calls for cuts at SO and jail

Posted by

Mike Buffington

in Top Stories & Breaking News

Thursday, September 10. 2009

Comments (6)

The numbers are on the table, but not everyone is happy.

After weeks of talking among public officials that led to little action, Barrow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Danny Yearwood put a specific FY2010 budget proposal on the table Tuesday night.

Yearwood’s plan for balancing the county budget, developed late last week with the finance staff, incorporates some of the cost-cutting ideas of commissioners Steve Worley and Larry Joe Wilburn.

The board did not vote on Yearwood’s budget proposal during the meeting. But he approached the commissioners afterwards to see if they would agree to let him schedule a public hearing on it in about a week. Yearwood’s proposal recommends a total of $1 million in cuts throughout the government and projects an additional $874,000 in revenue. Among the cuts is a proposal for cutting the Sheriff’s Office and Dention Center by $633,000,

Sheriff Jud Smith was not happy with that idea.

While the commissioners were discussing the proposal, Smith bounded up to the podium and demanded an explanation of the cuts.
He said he had not received an advance copy of the page of proposed cuts.

“I cannot operate with this,” he said.

Pointing out that no one other than Worley had contacted him personally to talk about his proposed budgets following a single meeting with the budget committee, the sheriff said, “Someone is going to have to discuss this with me.”

Yearwood then responded, “Jud, I would be happy to start with you at 8 in the morning.”

Then the chairman added: “I have not cut your budget one penny. In fact, I added to it.”

The Barrow County sheriff said there are some line items in his two budgets that he cannot cut.

“Repairs and maintenance… training… some of these I cannot go down on,” he said. “I have to have them.”

For the complete story on the county's proposed budget, see the September 9 issue of the Barrow Journal.

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#1 Anonymous on 09/09/09 at 12:21 PM [Reply]

I want to see a copy of the "proposed" budget. When will it be available to the public?

#2 about time on 09/09/09 at 12:54 PM [Reply]

This is the first sensible thing Yearwood has done. Good for him. Sure, Danny, talk it over with the sheriff. Negotiate. But find some cuts. Remember, this is the county officer who asked for substantial raises for his employees when the rest of the county was slicing jobs and pay.

Time to get real, Jud.

#2.1 WillD3 on 09/11/09 at 12:49 PM [Reply]

Well, I dont know any othe position in the county that requires you to wear a bullett proff vest, gun and work through the night to keep your little self happy. They do need to be paid on par with what's around them, or, face a longer wait when you call for help.
No one wants to face the music, but without some sort of balance in the county, higher fines etc, we are going to see stuff like this. The commisioners are the one's who lost $1million of our money to the state, not the department heads!

#2.2 Sad, sad, sad on 09/12/09 at 09:03 AM [Reply]

It's truly hard to blame Yearwood, or single out any county commissioner- or all of them as whole- when the trickle down theory in the State of Georgia stands as it is. Just like Emperor Sonny and the myriad of idiots that fill the General Assembly, the Barrow County government is only concerned with stopping the blood flow. They have little regard for future endeavors. For the past several years- at least eight in State Gov't- State employees have bore the burden of pitfalls in the budget. Instead of raising taxes, government spending has been cut- which translates into no pay increases, no new jobs, less training, poorer quality- and to some degree quantity- of services. The same would go for Barrow County government as well. Fearing they would not be re-elected, officals cut and cut and cut (and that's supposed to stop the bleeding?).

It's always interesting to see citizens respond to cutting public safety's budget. Just remember, you get what you pay for. Sure, take money from the jail, then spend more money housing inmates elsewhere, watch lawsuits rise from inadequate care for prisoners and prepare for that shocking story of horrible conditions in the Barrow County Jail on Fox 5. Better yet, let's not pay competetive salaries to our deputies so we can get the rejects from other departments, maybe we'll get lucky and get some corrupt ones! Or maybe we could cut their training budget, that way when we need their assistance we have a good chance our problem will never be solved.

And I guess that is what it really comes down to- most people don't need the police, so why in the world should we pay for it? It's not their loved ones who've been hurt, it's not their house that's been ransakced, it's not their kids buying weed. Start cutting public safety and rest assured it will be soon.

#3 Concerned Citizen on 09/10/09 at 04:26 PM [Reply]

Danny Boy's counting his eggs before they hatch, so to speak. Let's include in the budget $650,000 in unpaid taxes that we HOPE we can recoop. Yea - that makes good sense to me. When are auctions going to start? Every time I call the tax office to check - they've been pushed out a month or two.

And at the same time, lets take away the sheriff's operating expenses so he doesn't have the money to run the sheriff's office and jail.

I have a wonderful idea. Let's dump the prisoners off at Danny Boy's house. Let him worry about feeding, housing, and keeping his neighbors out of harms way.

You are a freak'n moron Danny Boy.

#3.1 MollyRose on 09/11/09 at 10:42 AM [Reply]

Every time I read comments like these, I cringe. Is there any wonder nobody wants to admit to living in Barrow County? None of these editorial comments make sense. We need to grow up and make real contributions and suggestions. I hope our elected officials will do the same.

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