The Cole County Commission finished three days of budget discussions with department heads and elected officials Thursday.
Among those talking with the commission was Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem who said repairs to the large, main courtroom on the third floor Cole County Courthouse are needed. It’s usually used by Beetem, but other judges use it if they have a trial or other large proceeding.
“There’s paint and wallpaper peeling off the walls, the carpet is worn and the seats in the jury box need to be reupholstered,” Beetem said.
Another item judges would like to get some money for is a detention area for the second floor of the courthouse.
This would be similar to one already in place behind Beetem’s courtroom, where prisoners are held before they come in for a hearing. Beetem said they could remodel an office now used by the court marshals.
“We really have no place to detain people on the second floor if they are arrested while in the associate circuit courts,” Beetem said. “That’s our high-volume area for criminal cases.”
Beetem did not have cost estimates for the work on the projects.
Western District Commissioner Harry Otto said he had talked with a recent potential juror who said he had struggled to climb the hill from the parking lot jury panels use, which is located near Jefferson City Hall, up to the courthouse on Monroe Street. Otto wondered if there was a way to find some parking or give those individuals a ride to the courthouse from the parking lot.
“The hill has been an issue, and at one time we did have some shuttle buses,” Beetem said. “But previous commissions did not want that to continue. If you talk to the people that show up for jury service, you’d find they’d have a lot of comments on what we could do better. We’d be glad to look at reconsidering the shuttle.”
Court officials said two people have had heart attacks while going up the hill, one of whom died, since that parking arrangement began several years ago.
Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher said this was another example of how state government forces county governments to take care of issues he felt the state should pay for. The circuit courts, although housed in county buildings, do fall under state government.
In his presentation, Cole County EMS Chief Eric Hoy said he was looking to add an additional emergency medical dispatcher to his staff, something County Auditor Kristin Berhorst included in her proposed budget. Hoy said this will allow him to move the EMS communications chief position to an administrative role full-time. Previously, the communications chief had been performing administrative duties while also fulfilling a full-time dispatcher position.
Hoy is requesting funding for three ambulances. Two will be a carry-over from the non-purchase of ambulances last year ($390,000 was budgeted for that in 2021). One ambulance would be purchased with money budgeted for this year.
“Due to the factors of the world and the change in type of ambulance we’re looking at, the cost of three ambulances would probably be around $780,000 instead of the $585,000 figure in the auditor’s budget,” Hoy said. “We won’t know the exact amount until the RFP is completed.”
A large portion of the EMS capital requests are for facility improvements, such as new furniture and beds for ambulance crews and interior painting at the headquarters on Southridge Drive.
Hoy also said they are looking at a 20 percent increase in their disposable medical supplies budget due to current market factors.
Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler said he would like to add a school resource officer at Blair Oaks. He said he was approached by the school district about getting an officer and the district would pay half of the officer’s salary, which would be $54,883. That amount includes benefits. He also would like to add a jail detective to the department’s roster to be able to do investigations into potential crimes in the jail, like assaults. The cost for this person would be $56,322, including benefits.
A theme commissioners heard from all those making budget presentations was employees are each department’s greatest asset, and the county needed to make sure it was doing everything it could to keep those employees from leaving.
Berhorst’s proposed budget includes a 4 percent cost-of-living pay raise for all 322 full-time employees of the county. Part-time employees would not get raises.
Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson and Circuit Clerk Dawnel Davidson said they would welcome anything to get more money to employees. Thompson said he had a 50 percent turnover of lawyers in his office this year and wanted to use merit pay to help reward those who have gone above and beyond to keep the office operating.
Davidson said she had 15 people leave her offices this year, but they do have all their 22 positions filled again. However, training those people and then having them leave to go to state jobs wastes their time and resources. She was asking for an increase in part-time hours so they can have those workers relieve some of the burdens her full-time workers have.
The proposed 2022 budget from Berhorst is $115.63 million, which includes money carried forward from 2021.
The commission is aiming to have the budget approved at its Jan. 6 meeting, but Berhorst said they do have until Jan. 10 to approve it.
In other action Tuesday, commissioners agreed they wanted to use some of their federal American Rescue Plan funds for COVID-19 relief to go toward providing premium pay (additional support) for essential workers who are at high risk of potentially becoming infected with the virus while performing their jobs.
Officials with BKD, the Springfield accounting firm the county attained to help advise them on ARP matters, told commissioners they could pay a maximum of $13 per hour and up to $25,000 in an annual pay period. Commissioners plan to make a final decision in a couple of weeks.