ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County sheriff and treasurer both have won a round with the state to save seven county jobs that had lost state funding.
The state's Compensation Board has agreed to restore the positions of four deputies who helped to staff the county jail in exchange for Sheriff Doug Marrs dropping a lawsuit against the board.
And Treasurer Ellis Meredith dropped his lawsuit after the state reinstated three positions his office lost July 1.
Fighting the Compensation Board, which decides how many positions a county's constitutional officers need to do their jobs, has become a yearly affair for the Sheriff's Office. Constitutional officers, such as the sheriff, clerk of court and treasurer, are directly elected by the voters rather than appointed by the county's supervisors.
On July 1, the compensation board cut four positions from the Sheriff's Office jail staff. The board uses the average daily population of the jail for certain months to decide how many jailers a county needs.
For the last several years, Montgomery has lost jailer positions because the state says the inmate population has dropped at the county jail. Montgomery's jail populations were down during the months that were used to get the average, said Capt. George Keyes, but always went back up in the following months.
The cuts affected extra jail staff given when the number of inmates exceed the facility's state rated capacity, Keyes said.
Montgomery's jail has a rated capacity of 60, for which it is allotted 20 core staffers.
"Once you get above your rated capacity, you can apply for emergency correctional positions at the rate of one per five inmates," Keyes said. The county had 12 emergency positions approved after its new jail was completed eight years ago.
Four years ago, the state took away eight of those emergency correctional positions because the county's average jail population had dropped. The county picked up the tab for funding two of the positions. With attrition and transfers, no one was laid off.
The number of jail positions has fluctuated in recent years. But as of July 1, the county was stripped of four emergency correction positions.
Sheriff Marrs and the county filed suit and in September, the matter was resolved after negotiations with the compensation board.
Three deputy positions were reinstated as of Oct. 1 as emergency correctional officers. Another position was granted for a deputy to handle medical treatment and records, with two-thirds of the salary being paid by the state. The county will provide the other one-third of the salary.
If the inmate population remains at current levels, all four positions would be fully paid by the state next year.
"Basically all they did was give us back what population dictated we were due," Keyes said.
In between July 1 and the settlement, one person had to be laid off, Keyes said, but the jailer returned to the job once someone else left.
The jail's average population for September was 105. So far this month, occupancy rates have varied from 101 to 123.
The county pays for training and equipping jail employees. Keyes worries that the cycle will continue and once these staffers are trained and equipped and in their jobs "next year, you're out of them again."
"It's kind of like the jury system. It ain't the best system, but it's the best we've got. That's their opinion anyway," Keyes said.
County Treasurer Ellis Meredith dropped his suit against the Compensation Board after it agreed to restore three positions that were going to be cut by attrition.
Meredith and the county filed suit appealing the cuts, but in the meantime his office lost two employees, including a delinquent-tax collector who had netted the county more than $500,000. Another person was shifted to that job.
Meredith said the positions were restored after he resubmitted information about his office's workload.
After the Compensation Board notified him the positions were being restored, Meredith dropped his appeal and filled the two vacancies.
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