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Hope that helps!
- Marcus

Dear Carl Cricket,

As you know, the county recently laid off many hard working employees while the cream of the crop continues to conduct business as usual. As a follow up to the budget cut dilemma, we have some additional suggestions that would save “Osceola County Taxpayers” a large sum of tax dollars.

The current jail budget is $ 27,174,547. That is 11.97 % of the BOCC funds from the general fund. That is 8.56 % increase from the 2007 budget of $ 25,030,950, an increase of $ 2,143,597. The inmate welfare fund generates $ 580,293 thousand dollars. These funds should be used to take care of inmate related expenses.

So lets put our heads together for a moment, since Denis Dowd came to our county, we have increased spending by $ 2,143,597, we do not allow inmates to go on working parties which has increased the operating budgets of road and bridge, parks & recreation, neighborhood cleanups, just to mention a few. We have installed phones in their cells, teach women to sow, allow the women to wear make up, we have pizza parties for the inmates, new brown uniforms without stripes, new hats, candies, drinks, and don not forget the super bowl party. We plan to have a larger group this year. You are all invited, please RSVP. But there is more!

The jail administration has duplicated personnel services at an approximate cost to “Osceola County Taxpayers” of; HR $ 80,000, Finance $ 220,000, Director & Administrative Assistant $175,000, Assistant Director & Administrative Assistant
$175,000, and Training $ 225,000, and the new Programs Manager position $ 75,000. A total of $ 950,000, in salaries and approximately $1,050,000, including the benefits package. This is just off the top of our heads.

So now the County Manager wants to shut down the Children’s Center due to a shortage of $ 300,000. Well, lest see, we just found the money that you need Mr. County Manager. Here goes!

1. HR $ 80,000, eliminate the two HR positions. No need to duplicate services since downtown HR can handle this function.
2. Finance $ 220,000, transfer the employees to the county finance unit and eliminate duplication of work.
3. Director & Administrative Assistant or Assistant Director & Administrative Assistant $175,000. Why do we need a Director and Assistant Director with two Administrative Assistants? The Sheriff only has one Administrative Assistant and he is an elected official. Maybe the Administrative Assistants are writing letters for the inmates.
4. Training should be trimmed to reduce the high cost of unnecessary training. Correction Officers have attended training classes at cost to the county taxpayer that have nothing to do with their job descriptions. Denis Dowd has approved these training request. Go figure!
5. Programs Manager Position, with a salary of $ 75,000. The recipient of this position has no formal education and is now supervising corrections professionals in medical, classifications and work release. This person has a high school diploma while the people who work for her have MBA/BA/BS, etc. This person is a close friend of the Peaches. Applicants for this position with MBA/BA/BS were turned down. This position was Jerry Walter’s old position that was supposed to be eliminated when he retired. It was re classified to fit the current Programs Manager. Huuuuuummmmmm??????????

Lets see that’s $ 550,000 savings (Salaries Only) to “Osceola County Taxpayers.” Wow, the Children’s center could remain open with a surplus of $ 250,000 (Salaries Only). Its apparent that this county Manager is not paying attention to Corrections. I am sure he is busy since he has not had time to apply for his Florida tags.

Nevertheless, some of these same people, have take home vehicles and fuel up at our fuel facilities while the taxpayer pays for the air conditioned ride to work everyday. These same vehicles are available to them for emergency purposes. We cannot remember the last time we had an emergency at the jail can you?

Well wait, we let someone out the other night that was mentally impaired in the middle of the night. This person was reported missing. This was an emergency, we did not see anyone show up in their vehicles.

But wait there is more, why not privatize some of the jails functions. For example; Training, and Medical. You could trim the budget down to less than $ 20,000,000. This is what makes sense. Firing the hard working people who spent their lives working for this county is the wrong thing to do. We have provided you with a cost savings of approximately $ 7,000,000. This would save jobs, reduce overall BOCC Corrections funds from 27,000,000 to approximately $20,000,000. A $ 7,000,000 savings. Maybe that is too simple?

Anyhow, we think that the Sheriff should take the jail over. We are sure he can do better! It cannot get any worse.