August 15, 2006 Committee Actions

The Finance Committee met yesterday. How to handle the purchase of uniforms for Sheriff's deputies was on the agenda.

I had an opportunity to more fully present my proposal to save the county and deputies around $6,000 on the purchase of uniforms.

As I explained, the savings come from the simple act of writing a non-taxable check to the uniform company instead of writing a taxable payroll check to each deputy.

With the current payroll check method, taxes and retirement costs have to be paid by the deputy and by the county.

These costs---in the thousands of dollars---can be eliminated by bidding out the uniforms and then writing a check to the uniform company.

The uniform company is not an employee so there are no taxes and no retirement costs.

Choosing the best way to handle the purchase of uniforms will be taken up again in October with a new commission and a new Sheriff (Esco Jarnagin).

I was assured that no payroll checks had been written or would be written for uniforms until the best method for handling the purchase is decided.

My main concern at yesterday's committee meeting was to make sure that members of the committee and others understand that you can save thousands of dollars just by changing to whom you write the "uniform" checks.

You can save money by writing a non-taxable check to a uniform company or you can lose money by writing a taxable payroll check to each deputy.

Having decided not to run for re-election, I won't be on the commission in October when the decision is made, but I will still be watching closely because it's our tax dollars that are at stake!

I know what I would do if it were my money.

I'd save myself and the deputies $6,000 and provide real accountability by being able to show that every dollar intended for uniforms was actually spent on uniforms.