By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County's public safety force will be beefed up with six new employees at the Sheriff's Department and five more in emergency medical services for the coming budget year, which begins July 1.

Sheriff Randall Johnson approached the Fayette County Commission Monday morning to request nine additional deputies.

He got the six deputies for certain, with the chance of getting two more to beef up the drug suppression task force. Peachtree City and Fayetteville's police departments no longer participate in the unit, and additional manpower is needed to perform large raids, Johnson said.

Before approving those two new positions, however, the commission wanted to check with the cities to see if they would join the unit again.

“We make most of our busts in the cities,” Johnson pointed out, adding that the city of Tyrone recently rejoined the task force.

Commissioner Herb Frady originally recommended funding the six positions instead of all nine. He said the commission should make sure that departments grow at the same pace as the county, which is currently on a trend of decreasing population.

The sheriff said he thought that was a “pretty big cut,” adding that people in Fayette County expect a higher quality of law enforcement.

Johnson told the board that response times were getting longer due to a larger volume of calls.

“We're about 1,200 calls ahead of last year,” Johnson said. “Our response time is going up considerably.”

One of the new positions approved by the commission was for a juvenile investigator in addition to three patrol deputies and another deputy on the traffic squad. Since the request was trimmed, the commission agreed to allow the sheriff to decide which of the positions to fill.

Commissioners also discussed the use of funds seized in drug raids. County manager Billy Beckett said there was $25,000 in the fund that could be used to offset that amount of money in the sheriff's budget.

Commissioner Linda Wells said she was concerned about a lack of accountability about how the drug funds are spent.

The commission approved the entire Sheriff's Department budget of $9.59 million unanimously after settling the personnel issue.

The commission also approved a proposal to hire five more firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Jack Krakeel, director of fire and emergency services, told the commission that the extra help was needed to respond to emergencies.

At least 12 to 14 people are needed to work a structure fire, he said, in addition to between 10 and 12 for vehicle extrications.

The new employees will also help reduce the need for overtime since they can fill in for others who are sick or taking leave they have accrued, Krakeel said.

The increase in salary for the new positions is expected to be offset by an increase in the ambulance fee the county charges, which is estimated to add $354,000 to the department's revenues next year.

Krakeel also proposed a change in the way firefighters are funded since it currently causes residents of incorporated areas of the county to pay less in fire taxes than those living in unincorporated areas of the county. The difference is almost half a mill, he said.

That's because 15 firefighters are currently funded under the Emergency Medical Services budget, he said. Krakeel suggested that over the next three years, five of those positions be transferred to the fire department's budget.

The commission approved that proposal along with the rest of the fire budget, which totalled $5.39 million and the EMS budget, totalling $1.56 million.

The budgets for the marshal's department ($677,000) and the Emergency-911 service ($1.66 million) were also approved by the commission.