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| County approves Community Corrections plan |
| By leavenworthtimes.com |
| Published: 04/20/2011 |
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Leavenworth, Kan. — The Leavenworth County Commission approved a comprehensive plan for the Leavenworth County Community Corrections Monday that includes, among the expenditures, salary increases for some of the department’s employees. The decision came during the presentation of the proposed State Fiscal Year 2012 Comprehensive Plan Grant Application by Community Corrections Director Kim Hundley. She said the department was cut by 5 percent by the state last fiscal year. This year, she said she the state is asking for a budget with actual operation costs as well as a proposal that accounts for 11-percent in potential funding cuts. If those cuts were to be enacted, Hundley said she would like to absorb them in the department’s resources line items for a total grant request of $153,952, versus the actual operations costs of $172,980. “We cut out a lot of the services, like evaluations, counseling,” to accommodate the requested 11-percent reduction, she said. Cuts in those areas, Hundley said, would allow her to correct an ongoing discrepancy on her personnel side that stems from when the seperate juvenile corrections department was reorganized. “The new juvenile officers that came in are making at least $3 and some cents more than my officers who have been there a lot longer than the juvenile officers,” she said. The discrepancy stems from different pay scales established by the county, according to Wanda Doty, the commission’s executive secretary and a member of the Juvenile Justice Authority. The job descriptions for the adult and juvenile officers, Hundley said, were roughly the same. But because of the difference in pay, she said she was worried that she could lose her specialized, experienced officers. Last year, Hundley said she sought to correct the problem with $38,000 in leftover state grant funds. However, the commission at the time denied the request, and the funds were returned to the Kansas Department of Corrections. “I told them I would fight for them,” this year, Hundley said of her two adult officers. Proposed budgets for both Hundley’s actual operations and for the state-requested 11-percent reduction would include a 2-percent salary increase for those adult corrections officers. Commissioner Clyde Graeber, however, said he had reservations about allowing those salaries to increase. “I understand the problem that this creates, I’m just not quite sure how we’re going to solve it,” he said. Though the funds that would be used for the increase were not county tax funds, Graeber said it could still cause problems for other county staff. “If we give employees within the county no increase, than we know and oversee the increase here, I think we’re just creating a real morale problem,” he said. Commissioner John Flower said the commission would likely create a morale problem either way and that he appreciated the initiative Hundley took to keep her employees “on task” without requesting an increase in county taxes. Read More. |
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