From:
The Florida Times-Union
August 7, 2007Sheriff may sue county over budget
By Paul Pinkham, The Times-Union
KINGSLAND - A lawyer representing the Georgia Sheriffs' Association has asked the Camden County commissioners to resolve their budget battle with Sheriff Bill Smith through negotiations before Smith files legal action. -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------
"The sheriff has contacted me," said attorney Steve Scheer of Savannah. He said he has done preliminary research into the controversy.
Commissioners plan to discuss the issue in executive session during their regular meeting today at 6 p.m. at the county annex. They also plan to decide whether to take control of seized drug forfeiture money from Smith following recent Times-Union reports about how some of that money has been spent.
According to a letter to commissioners from County Attorney Brent Green, Scheer called him Wednesday to discuss the possibility of negotiating a revised budget. Commissioners voted July 24 to trim Smith's $8.3 million budget request to $7 million.
"Mr. Scheer stated that Sheriff Smith cannot operate the sheriff's department on the current budget," Green wrote.
But Commissioner Steve Berry, the sheriff's chief critic on the board, questioned how the sheriff could make that determination when he hasn't presented a revised budget. Berry cited recent newspaper reports about Smith's spending on take-home cars for employees, gasoline for private trips and questionable food purchases for the jail.
"Bill Smith wants to sue the county to force us to raise taxes to give him more money to fund his fraud, waste and abuse," Berry said.
Berry said the budget is the main reason he put the drug forfeiture issue on tonight's agenda. The Times-Union found Smith used the money - returned to the county annually by the federal government - to pay jail inmates tens of thousands of dollars since 2004, including a convicted methamphetamine maker. County auditors questioned other expenditures they said weren't related to policing, a requirement for the money under U.S. Treasury Department guidelines.
"That's where millions of dollars are being wasted that could offset the rising cost of law enforcement in this county," Berry said.
Smith declined comment through a spokesman. Other county commissioners who voted to trim his budget couldn't be reached Monday.
Under Georgia law, county commissioners set sheriff's office budgets but are required to provide enough funding for constitutionally mandated functions such as law enforcement and housing jail inmates, said Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs' Association. If there's disagreement, the sheriff can go to court and the county pays his legal bills, win or lose.
That can get expensive, Scheer said. He said Camden County isn't unique in its current financial squabble, and he requested that either he or Smith meet with the commissioners to negotiate a revised budget.
"The first thing you should do is try to work it out among yourselves," Scheer said. "You shouldn't try it in the newspaper."
paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4107
This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/080707/geo_189465338.shtml.
"The people of this County do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created." ***The views expressed on this blog are the opinions of the individual that wrote them.
6 comments:
Another fine example of how the sherriff bully's and threatens the good citizens in order to get what HE WANTS. WAKE UP PEOPLE OF CAMDEN COUNTY AND GET THIS MAN OUT OF OFFICE!!! He's telling you that even if he doesn't get what he wants...IT'S GONNA COST YOU!!!
ehdjvIts time to boot him out of office,the fine people of this county are sick and tired and fed up with his BS. Get him out of office, and we would not have to pay for anymore of his mistakes,he runs a ship without a compass, and he can't even get the rudder to steer it on course
How much do the people of Camden County have to endure!! He has not sent a revised budget to the Commissioners, he hasn't eliminated all of the waste, he will not explain why Commissioner Sears was allowed to utilize taxpayers dollars to fund her campaign dinner and he has not explained why taxpayers are funding the taxi service for the trusties to work on private property on Cumberland Island. But he does have time to threaten the taxpayers with a lawsuit. The Commissioners should hold their ground on behalf of the people that they represent. The worst thing that ever happened in Camden County was Bill Smith being re-elected. Now he is going to make all of us pay for the ignorance of a select group of sell-outs!!!!
Before Sheriff Smith sues and before any Attorney takes his case I hope they do their homework. First lets start by telling the taxpayers why they are responsible for purchasing personal vehicles for the Sheriffs inner circle. Then please share with the taxpayers why they are responsible for the gasoline, maintenance, tags and insurance on these vehicles. Then please share who the 27 individuals are who are spending freely on County credit cards. Then explain why Commissioner Sears has been allowed a County credit card, a personal vehicle, free food and tiki torches for campaign, three promotions and all the perks of a mistress at taxpayers expense.
Sheriff Smith should follow that up with a revised budget reducing all of the illegal spending. He should include his plan to reimburse the taxpayers for all expenditures associated with the Cumberland Island project. Then he should inform the taxpayers how much he will receive for selling all of the personal vehicles; minus maintenance, gasoline, tag and insurance cost.
Any resonable Attorney should want the answers to all of this before agreeing to represent the Sheriff against the taxpayers.
As taxpayers we should DEMAND an explaination of all of these expenses, right down to the last tiki torch AND the non repayment of a county credit card by employee for Christmas gifts LAST year! Sounds like she had a better holiday than my budget could afford! I know for a fact we won't have these problems when Tommy Gregory gets elected next year!! This makes me all the more determined to campaign for Mr. Gregory!!!!!!!
What about BTW's waste, fraud and abuse of county credit card, didn't the GTU say he spend over 3000.oo on fuel and expenses, In NJ, and SC. I bet he bought peanuts and heinikin on the taxpayers. He's worse than his female employee buying Christmas presents on her county credit card. Is the county still paying his son's salary? The T&G report last year listed him still getting paid after he's been disable, not job related for over 3 years. He should have been on Social Secuirty disability. If this is for real, theres probally another 90 to 100,000.00 dollars the county has lost.
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