The Elbert County Sheriff's Office garnered $256,593.61 in traffic fines during the third quarter of 2016 bringing the year-to-date collection total to $638,924.78. Monthly collection comparisons with previous years are shown below. As you will see, Sheriff Heap, who took office in January 2010, will break all his previous records.
At the September 27 study session for the proposed 2017 budget, County Manager Ed Ehmann and IT Director Jennifer Grote defended the sheriff's proposed budget stating that all of the other departments had "given up" a little from their budgets so the sheriff would have what he "needed". And even though the sheriff's department is a revenue generating department, it is not even listed as a revenue generator in the county's 2017 budget overview charts, because all of his revenues from fees and fines are returned to his department from the General Fund. Even with the sacrifices from other departments, the sheriff bemoaned that his department was willing to risk inmates' health on weekends by continuing to allow deputies to administer medicines, instead of using a registered nurse. Earlier this year you will recall the sheriff's department tried to make the case for a budget increase based on the need to augment contracted weekday RN services with weekend services.
The proposed 2017 budget shows that the sheriff's budget will require 37 percent of General Fund revenues in addition to all the traffic ticket revenues he is allowed to keep. Also, keep in mind that he has purchased a vehicle for each of his employees and these vehicles are not inventoried. County auditor EideBailly has recommended that an annual audit of county assets be conducted. This has not been done and conveniently Commissioner Rowland and Commissioner Willcox voted to hire a new auditor. Commissioner Ross voted against this change.
* A $10K discrepancy between the 2014 audited revenues and the county's reported revenues was noted last year. In the 2015 audited revenues, there seems to be nearly a $100K discrepancy with what the county reported. Very puzzling. 2015 was the year the Sheriff appeared to be withholding money from the Treasurer in his bid to eliminate his term limits. Those shenanigans may have caused problems in the accounting between the sheriff's office and the treasurer's office. Stay tuned.Source: Elbert County Open Records
-Susan Shick
