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Commissioners increase West’s budget by $500K

The Lowndes County Commissioners met for their regular fourth-Monday meeting Nov. 25 and in a motion approved, 4-1, just before adjourning, approved a measure to increase Sheriff Chris West’s budget by $500,000.

The vote supersedes the commissions’ Sept. 23 decision to cut West’s requested budget by $500,000 after reducing the county’s overall budget by 5%. Originally approved at $2,440,534.80, the increase will bring the Sheriff’s operating funds available up to just over $2.9 million.

Commissioner Fletcher Hayes introduced the motion, which was seconded by Commissioner Dickson Farrior. Commissioners Hayes, Farrior, Joseph Barganier and Charlie King, Jr. voted to approve the motion. Only Commissioner Robert Harris voted against the proposal.

Harris argued that the budget should be reviewed before being amended.

“If you amend the budget, you’re amending the budget in its entirety,” Harris said. “We really need to look back at the budget to see what’s actually… we are amending that is in the budget.”

Hayes explained that his intention was to restore West’s budget to what the Sheriff had requested.

“What I’m amending is the $500,000 that was cut from the Sheriff,” Hayes said.

According to Harris, a budget review was needed to remind commissioners of what each department had been approved to receive. County Administrator Jacquelyn Thomas explained that all approved amounts remained the same as they had been during the commission’s September reviews.

“The numbers are still the same ones we went over the second Monday [and] the fourth Monday in September and Sept. 30,” Thomas said. “The only thing that changed is the $500,000 and the 5% you took out.”

During the meeting, commissioners also considered a request by West to cease dispensing fuel to the Hayneville Police Department (PD) from the Sheriff’s fleet supply. Because the county has a contract with the Town of Hayneville, under which Lowndes County provides fuel to the town and Hayneville provides water to the county, commissioners did not agree to comply with West’s request in its entirety.

Instead, Thomas suggested that Hayneville PD fuel patrol cars from the highway department supply. County Engineer David Butts pointed out that the highway department is closed on Friday and over the weekend. 

King polled commissioners as to whether they would approve for Hayneville’s police department to receive fuel from the Sheriff only when the highway department was closed, but the commission failed to reach a consensus. Harris and King approved King’s suggestion; Hayes abstained from voting while Farrior and Bargainier declined to give approval without West being present to speak to his concerns.

In other business, the commission:

* discussed ad valorem tax revenue from the Fort Deposit Industrial Park;

* heard highway department road work updates;

* proposed an audit for the commission office but failed to approve the measure;

* received financial reports from the Lowndes County Unincorporated Wastewater Program and the South Central Alabama Broadband Commission; and

* approved a request by West for the Sheriff’s Department to apply for a US Department of Agriculture Grant to fund the construction of additional office space.

The Commission will hold its next regular meeting on Dec. 9 at 10 a.m.