The Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail Board and administration expressed hope of seeing a better year financially during their regular meeting held Dec. 29, at Pattonsburg.
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"We’ll have to tighten our belts and turn the financial situation around," said Secretary Norma Crabtree. "We’ll have to stay within line-item budgets and not make any new purchases — unless something just throws craps."
Besides having raised the rates and receiving pay in the future for travel and mileage, the jail hopes to make money through new contracts. Lincoln and Pike Counties have expressed an interest in housing prisoners at Pattonsburg and will let the jail know as soon as their own budgets are complete.
The state’s prisons are overflowing and the Missouri Department of Corrections may begin to farm out its parole violators to area jails for 120 day stays. The regional jail has applied to offer this service.
The jail also plans to apply for a contract this summer which would allow law officers from the Department of Immigration along with state marshals to use an IRIS scanner, which the jail has obtained from the Missouri Sheriff’s Association.
All of the jail’s contracts were renewed for another year. All the contracts, except one, have caught up their bills.
The final budget for 2012 was approved. After discussing the possibility of a rise in the cost of gas, the board voted to increase the money budget for fuel from $55,000 to $73,000. That represents an increase of $18,000 for the year. The board then cut the same amount, $18,000, from the HPL Medical Plan in order to balance the budget.
The financial reports showed Sales Tax total for year at $239,804 with December earnings of $91,487; the jail has $5,910 in its operating account; payroll ended with $43; the commissary made $5,283. The jail has $850,000 in CDs.
The board approved refinancing through LJ Hart Company through UMB Bank. Savings should amount to $150,000.
Th board agreed to have Cameron Accounting reconcile the jail’s books every quarter at a cost of $3,200 for the year. Findings will be submitted to the board. The reconciliation is not an audit but would make a yearly audit simpler.
The state’s audit of DeKalb County, which includes the jail, has not been completed yet.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting, the testing of the jail’s whistle to signify an escape by two blasts of the siren still requires a little tweaking.
The board discussed inspections with County Commissioner Carl Carder, a visitor. According to the administrator the jail has a fire and insurance and kitchen inspection, but none of those are state mandated. The board agreed to look into possibly holding an inspection by visiting commissioners from other counties, to view the jail through "different eyes" and gain insight for improvements.
The board discussed the ongoing investigation by a task force and voiced a desire to see results. The investigation was launched by the Daviess and DeKalb sheriff’s offices and was designed to look into financial discrepancies at the jail and has been going on since July of 2011.
The new generator is ready to be installed; only the hook up is left to do. The jail contracted with Thompson Electric for the new generator at a cost of $58,000. All but $13,000 has been paid for.
No new information was received regarding the roof contractor.
The board approved the employee handbook and policies and procedures manual.
The final letter provided by auditor Steve Grant was tabled until next meeting to allow all members of the board to review it.
Present at the meeting were Daviess County Sheriff Ben Becerra, DeKalb County Sheriff Wes Raines, Daviess County Presiding Commissioner Randy Sims, DeKalb County Presiding Commissioner Harold Allison, Jail Administrator Bob Gray, Secretary Norma Crabtree, Daviess County Commissioner Carl Carder. Asst. Administrator Ed Howard was absent.