County Commissioners face tough budget choices for 2004

How much money would it take for you to dodge bullets for the residents of Vernon County? This is one of the questions being debated as the Vernon County Commissioners try to hammer out the new year's budget while facing a court order setting the wages of the Vernon County Sheriff's deputies.

Vernon County Circuit Court Judge James Bickel, on the last day of last year, issued a court order entitling Vernon County Sheriffs Department to have 10 deputies and setting salary parameters at $19,500 for a starting salary and $32,000 for a maximum salary. This constitutes a significant raise from the previous starting salary of $17,890.

Commissioners found out about the order when Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman showed it to them during budget discussions on Tuesday. The news was not well received by commissioners.

The County Commissioners are angry about the order for several reasons. They feel blindsided by an order to spend more money as they neared the end of their budget discussions after a less than stellar income year. Northern Commissioner Neal Gerster said that they have already made agreements to how the money will be spent but haven't set anything down in stone yet.

"Had we known, this might have affected some decisions we have made up to this point, regarding the budget," said Southern Commissioner Bonnie McCord.

The other problem the commissioners see is that they do not have the mo-ney for this kind of expansion. "We struggle with the sheriff's budget every year and then he wants us to add another position and increase all the salaries," said Gerster, adding that he was all for an increased salaries -- but the funds simply don't exist.

Peckman feels that it is time to bring county law enforcement wages up to a livable level. He says that Vernon County has good, hard-working deputies but it is hard to keep good help without paying a wage that is even comparable to the city of Nevada. "It's not going to break the county, if that's the case we are not going to do it," said Peckman.

Circuit Court Judge James Bickel said that Missouri law (Section 57.250 RSMo.) authorizes circuit judges to set the number of deputies and their salaries and he felt that, after looking at the wages of the surrounding counties, he was fulfilling his responsibility to keep qualified help in Vernon County. Bickel said that the court order is not set in stone but was intended to provide for the safety of Vernon County by providing their police officers with a living wage.

The commissioners hope to have the 2004 budget done by the 20th of January.

According to meeting notices provided by the commission, discussions relating to departmental requests for funds have already been conducted with representatives of several of the county's offices, including the public administrator's office, the county assessor's office and the prosecuting attorney's office. Talks continue today with County Coroner David Ferry, County Clerk Tammi Beach and representatives from the University Extension Office.