By Bill Dolan, Times of Northwest Indiana
bill.dolan@nwi.com
CROWN POINT | Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez announced Monday he must terminate 16 full-time employees because of budget rollbacks.
They cuts cover seven security officers who guard court building doors and hallways, six jail correctional officers, two employees of the sheriff's animal control shelter and one employee of the sheriff's work-release center. He also is eliminating one job that is now vacant and shifting the salary of one employee in his drug reduction program from local to state funding.
Dominguez said the 18 salaries, uniform subsidies and insurance and pension benefits add up to $775,000, which is more than what County Council demanded last week as his final share of across-the-board 15 percent 2010 budget reductions from this year's spending levels for all county and township offices.
"Cutting these positions was a very difficult decision for me and my staff," Dominguez said. "They represent 16 families who lose income and insurance benefits. I made every effort to avoid this. However, I respect the County Council's authority to mandate the elimination of additional positions from county budgets."
Council members have said state-mandated property tax caps and government revenue losses driven by the poor economy are forcing their hand, and the sheriff's county police, jail, work-release and animal control budgets represent about one in three of the dollars that had to be cut.
The sheriff said the changes won't jeopardize public safety. He said he hopes much of the savings can be achieved through a proposed "book and release" policy for first-time offenders charged with minor nonviolent crimes. They would be tagged with tracking bracelets instead of being incarcerated until they can afford to post a cash bond.
Dominguez said the move could reduce by 30 percent the jail's average population of 950 inmates, realizing operational savings of $1.4 million a year and reducing the threat of overcrowding that might force the county to build another jail at a cost currently estimated at $60 million.
County police Sgt. Dan Murchek, president of Lake County Police Association Local 72, challenged the County Council last week to look into other savings by investigating why two of the sheriff's top managers, Michael Reilly, commander of staff services, and Assistant Chief Joseph Kumstar, have filed for more than 900 hours of overtime this year.
Murchek said this week that although he has clashed with the sheriff in the past, he doesn't believe the sheriff was aware of the overtime.