Fayette County commissioners will have to cut $376,000 from a proposed $49 million fiscal year 2000 budget, or else reduce the county's reserve fund, after granting Sheriff Randall Johnson part of his budget request that had earlier been cut.

The Sheriff's Department had originally asked for $8.96 million, a 21 percent increase over its 1999 budget, and county staff had slashed that to $8.15 million, only a 10 percent increase. Thursday, after hearing that calls for service already are expected to increase by almost 22 percent this calendar year, commissioners went halfway and tentatively approved a 15 percent increase in the department's budget, to $8.52 million.

“We answered 40,751 calls for service last year, and already we're at 3,500 a month for this year,” said Maj. Ken Rose, director of field operations for the sheriff's office. “That's not officer-initiated stuff,” he told the commissioners during a budget work session last week.

Although this year's calls are only slightly above last year's for the same period, Rose said the second half of the year is always the busiest. “We easily anticipate a 50,000-call year,” he said.

Most of the increased budget will go to hire and equip more deputies. The department had requested money to hire 14 more people — 12 deputies, one investigator and one clerk. In their initial cuts, county staff had recommended reducing that number to seven, but commissioners last week tentatively approved 10.

“We've only got so much money to go around,” said county administrator Billy Beckett during the budget discussion. “If I had $300,000 more, I would tell you [the sheriff] needs $300,000 more,” he said.

Commissioners decided the sheriff's needs take priority. “The biggest indicator that we have is that the sheriff's numbers historically and to date indicate low crime, and we want that to continue,” said Commissioner Greg Dunn.

The additional $376,000 will have to come from elsewhere in the budget, they said. “We can't adopt a deficit budget on June 30, so somebody better find some more money,” said Commissioner Herb Frady.

County Finance Department figures show a $10.3 million reserve fund at the end of the next fiscal year, and commissioners may reduce that reserve in order to pay for the sheriff's requests. But the county needs at least $7.3 million in reserve just to deal with normal cash flow problems, said finance director Emory McHugh.

And there are more than $8.2 million in capital projects facing the county in the near future, he said, plus others that can't even be estimated at this point.

Shortly after the budget work session, commissioners reduced reserves even further, approving the un-budgeted purchase of new computer software for the Sheriff's Department at a cost of $437,631.

Commissioners also are facing more requests for expenditures not recommended by staff, including the city of Peachtree City's request for $100,000 to help build a football field and track at Riley Park.

Two more budget work sessions are scheduled, with plans to adopt a budget at the commission's June 24 business meeting: today at 4 p.m. and June 22 at 4 p.m. If needed, the group will meet again June 24, before its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Like all commission meetings, the budget work sessions are open to the public.

The proposed budget also is available for public review at the County Administrative Complex.

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