TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2000
Commissioners trade jail salaries for used cruisers
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
The Seneca County sheriff doesn't want to swap salary money for used cars.
The County Commissioners Monday approved a resolution that would allow the purchase of three used cruisers for Sheriff's Office. They transferred $30,000 from the jail salaries budget to the sheriff's equipment account to pave the way for the purchase of the $12,000 cars.
Sheriff H. Weldin Neff called the transfer "unacceptable and unrealistic."
"I don't have the money to give away in my salary account," Neff said. The sheriff said he would be unable to hire replacements for the three employees who were fired during the last 10 days without those funds.
The $30,000 transfer would be combined with $6,000 already in the equipment account to purchase the vehicles.
"This isn't going to work," Neff said. "I'm kind of frustrated right now. I don't know what I'm going to do."
Commissioners Jeff Wagner and Ken Estep stood by their decision. Commissioner Janet Dell was not in attendance Monday.
"He has to balance the purchase of the cruisers with some of the other stuff," Estep said.
Wagner said the commissioners had met with Neff to discuss how to acquire replacements for the sheriff's aging fleet of vehicles.
"I thought we had agreed that some of the savings from the sheriff's new hires would go for vehicles," Wagner said. "We're working hard to get vehicles."
"We made it clear we would approach it in this manner," Estep said. "It's too bad he doesn't agree. That's the method we're using."
The transfer came three weeks after a delegation of deputies came in to discuss the cruisers, most of which have more than 100,000 miles on them. Lt. Jim Browning, the Ohio Patrolman's Benevolent Association representative in the Sheriff's Office, said the union was considering filing a grievance against the county for failing to provide adequate equipment.
"We were between a rock and a hard place," Estep said. "We told the road officers we would get them cars."
Although the purchase will have to be bid out because the total price is over $15,000, County Administrator Bob Anderson, said the proposal is based on cruisers available from the Middletown firm Police Cruisers Ltd.
"We can get three used cruisers for $36,000 or one-and-a-half new ones," Anderson said.
Estep, who had previously said he would never support the county purchasing used emergency vehicles, said the warranty offered and other terms of the sale changed his mind.
"It looks good on paper," he said.