Sheriff may suffer only $3 million trim

County commissioners work out tentative deal

By Richard Locker for The Commercial Appeal
July 9, 2004

Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell and some county commissioners have negotiated a tentative agreement to trim $3 million from the sheriff's original budget request, rather than a $17 million cut proposed later.

But if the agreement falls through and the County Commission follows with more drastic cuts, the sheriff could go to court to try to block them, according to a state attorney general's opinion released Thursday.

It appears that won't be necessary if the full County Commission approves the budget negotiated Wednesday by Luttrell's office and the commission's budget committee, sheriff's officials said Thursday. The budget vote is tentatively set for Monday.

"The sheriff met with the committee yesterday and the early indications are we're going to be asked to cut $3 million. We think we can absorb that through attrition, retirement and eliminating some other jobs that are not law-enforcement critical," sheriff's department spokesman Steve Shular said.

He said commissioners "have received a flood of mail from citizens saying this is not the time to be cutting law enforcement, with crime in unincorporated areas of the county up 10 percent and with homeland security concerns."

When the county's budget process began, Luttrell submitted a budget proposal totaling $137 million for the fiscal year that began July 1, or actual spending of about $131.8 million after personnel vacancies were figured in. .

When county commissioners instructed County Mayor A C Wharton to submit a budget with no tax increase, the sheriff was told he would have to trim $17 million. Luttrell said that would have eliminated the department's gang squad and made deep cuts to other units, including its law enforcing patrol division.

The tentative agreement reached Wednesday would result in a sheriff's department budget of $128.8 million, or $3 million less than the actual budget the sheriff had requested, Sheriff's Department Chief Administrative Officer Harvey Kennedy said.

That will fund a 11/2-percent pay raise for sheriff's personnel and a 4.1 percent increase in fringe benefits.

With the threat of a $17 million cut looming earlier, state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, asked state Atty. Gen. Paul G. Summers for an advisory opinion on whether the commission could reduce the sheriff's department budget without the sheriff's consent "if doing so will interfere with the statutorily mandated duties of the sheriff."

Summers released his opinion Thursday. It concluded that, although various statutes and prior court rulings would have to be worked through, the sheriff could petition a court for additional positions necessary to enable him to carry out his legal duties after the County Commission adopted a budget.