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<\/a>TRINIDAD \u2014 Facing a packed spectators gallery, the Las Animas County Commission on Tuesday, December 29, voted 3-0 to transfer over $12 thousand from the commissioner\u2019s budget to the budget of the sheriff\u2019s office in an effort to help the department cover expenditures for the second half of December, and in the process initiated a silent protest from the gallery.A collaboration between EMS and the sheriff\u2019s deputies comprised most of the spectators in the gallery. \u00a0They were attending the special meeting to show support for the sheriff\u2019s office and 14-year veteran sheriff, James Casias. \u00a0Their support was in the form of a backs-turned silent protest aimed at the county commissioners.\u00a0
The protestors felt the commissioners should\u2019ve looked harder to find funds to cover the shortfall of around $100,000, a total that includes salaries for both the sheriff\u2019s office and detention workers. \u00a0Sergeant Reynaldo Santistevan with the sheriff\u2019s office and sheriff\u2019s deputy Matthew Morano said they felt the commission hadn\u2019t been up front with revenues that came to them from outside security work the deputies perform, which amounts to around $53,000, an amount not yet collected by the county.
\u201cTheir decision was to not pay us for two and a half weeks work,\u201d Santistevan said. \u00a0\u201cWe won\u2019t receive a pay check until January 15.\u201d\u00a0
According to Sheriff Casias, the two most expensive items in his budget are vehicular maintenance and overtime pay for his deputies. \u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t know when we will get called,\u201d Casias said. \u00a0\u201cRecently we\u2019ve had the two kids that drowned and a home invasion. \u00a0Those calls involved overtime.\u201d \u00a0Speaking about the county budget, Morano said it didn\u2019t reflect a line item for overtime. \u00a0\u201cThey have nothing for overtime appropriated for us.\u201d \u00a0However when setting up the 2015 county budget, each elected official is required to present a proposed budget for their department to the commissioners. \u00a0That proposed budget should reflect overtime in the salaries line of the proposed budget.
The sheriff\u2019s office provides policing for the largest county in the state, about 5,000 square miles. \u00a0Wear and tear on the department\u2019s vehicles reflect the ruggedness of the mostly rural county.
When property valuations are presented to the county commission by the assessor for the following year\u2019s budget \u2014 for example the 2015 budget was based on valuations from 2014 \u2014 the commission and staff make the appropriations, in a lump sum, to each budgeting office, including the sheriff\u2019s.\u00a0
\u201cColorado budget law states in \u00a729-1-110 that… \u2018no officer, employee, or other spending agency shall expend any money or incur any liability, or enter into any contract which, by its terms, involves the expenditures of money in excess of the amount appropriated,\u2019\u201d according to a press release from the county commission read by county administrator Leeann Fabec into the meeting record.
Other county offices headed up by elected officials were approached by the county commission through the county administrator\u2019s office, seeking any funds they might have available to transfer to the sheriff\u2019s office. \u00a0All but one, the county assessor\u2019s office, stated they did not have funds on hand. \u00a0The excess funds the assessor\u2019s office show have been carried over to the 2016 budget to pay for computer upgrades the assessor started in 2015.\u00a0
So, according to Colorado law and the way funds were appropriated to each budgeted department within the county government, the elected officials in charge of the departments are responsible for those funds and how they are spent. \u00a0Even if a line item for a certain expenditure isn\u2019t shown in a budget, that item may appear under a different account item. \u00a0Overtime pay is folded into the line item total for salaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sheriff department funding is $100k in the hole by Bill KnowlesTRINIDAD \u2014 Facing a packed spectators gallery, the Las Animas County Commission on Tuesday, December 29, voted 3-0 to transfer over $12 thousand from the commissioner\u2019s budget to the budget of the sheriff\u2019s office in an effort to help the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry","rows-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krtnradio.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}