By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Over 30 people have applied for the position of resource navigator for the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Community Resource Program.
Sheriff Jim Smith reported to the Kosciusko County Council on Thursday, May 2, at its informational meeting the process for hiring the resource navigator position for the Kosciusko County Jail for the Community Resource Program is closing tomorrow, May 3.
“I’m excited to tell you that we had over 30 resumes/applications, so it’s a testament to the community and they see the need for this program and we couldn’t be more excited … to bring this to a close and get the person hired. I felt you guys needed to know that since you guys had a hand in making this happen,” Smith said.
He noted that having over 30 applications is more than the sheriff’s office receives for deputy positions.
To help inmates become a productive part of the community after they’re released from jail — and to help keep them from returning to jail — the KCSO has been working on starting the Community Recovery Program that will use the resources of many community partners. The CRP will be a division of the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, and the resource navigator position is an instrumental piece of the program.
Kosciusko County Human Resource Director Cathy Reed brought to the council a couple recommendations from the county wage committee for them to consider for the sheriff’s office for 2024. No action was taken as Thursday’s council meeting was for information gathering only. The council’s regular meeting is at 6 p.m. May 9.
“The first one is that they’re structuring their department differently. They don’t have the need for a captain position anymore, but they do have a need for a deputy. So they’re requesting to change that captain to a deputy position, which is a much greater need for them right now,” Reed said.
The other request from the KCSO is that they have a sergeant, who is in charge of training, special operations and “stuff like that,” she said, and they would like to change the sergeant’s title from sergeant deputy to a training/special ops lieutenant.
A lieutenant gets paid more than a sergeant, but some of the overage from the captain change — a captain gets paid more than a deputy — will help fund the lieutenant promotion. Reed said there would be no extra money needed for the changes.
“So the wage committee’s recommendation was to approve the request to change the captain to a deputy and to change the sergeant deputy to a training/special ops lieutenant, and to use that overage from the captain position to fund that lieutenant promotion,” Reed summarized.
Smith told the council, “What she’s saying here is, I have a different vision in terms of the structure of it. Things are going very smoothly with having lieutenants running each division. But rather than having a captain — Travis Marsh left our department in September – rather than filling that position, I’d like – and it’s probably the military in me — but I really like having that lieutenant position over those divisions to run.”
As busy as the KCSO teams are, and as important as training is, Smith said the position of training/special ops warrants the rank of lieutenant to go with it.
He said the changes are important to the sheriff’s office. “We technically have a spot we’re trying to fill, but it’s a deputy position and until this is done we’re not able to hire that deputy to fill that spot because the bucket is a captain rank.”
Council President Mike Long said there were no new spots being created, they’re just filling available ones.
County Auditor Rhonda Helser earlier presented a sheriff’s office vehicle replacement insurance reimbursement for $19,881.68.
“We’ve had a few incidents with some vehicles. You know it’s going to happen as many miles as we put on the cars and as busy as we are. So that’s just a reflection of that,” Smith said.
Starting off the council’s meeting Thursday was a preview of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation progress report by interim co-CEO Suzie Light. The report will be given at the council’s regular meeting on May 9 and was given previously to the county commissioners.
“So, great news, KEDCO has a new CEO coming on board mid June. Her name is Margaret ‘Peggy’ Friday. We’re really excited to have her. She has got great experience in economic development,” Light said.
She currently resides in Rochelle, Ill., but has family in Indiana.
“We’re really excited to welcome her,” Light said.
Her hiring was publicly announced Wednesday.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger later added, “I was fortunate to be one of the people who got to interview Peggy, and I was real excited when we were able to interview her. I really think she’s going to be a good fit for our community.”
In other business, the council reviewed:
• A request by Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew for a $27,000 additional appropriation out of the Community Corrections user fees fund. The funds will purchase three tasers and four body cameras.
• Reviewed a request from the county assessor’s office for a $36,000 additional appropriation out of the assessor education and sales disclosure fund for the purchase of a vehicle.
• Reviewed requests from County Health Administrator Bob Weaver for an additional appropriation of $22,402 from Health First Indiana for employee Social Security/Medicare; a $162,094 additional appropriation from HFI for part-time payroll; and four transfers in the HFI fund for $31,674, from part-time payroll HFI to part-time pool inspector; $30,564, from part-time payroll HFI to full-time HFI administrative secretary; $4,523 from part-time payroll HFI to insurance for full-time HFI administrative secretary; and $3,180 from part-time payroll HFI to retirement for full-time HFI administrative secretary.
There were also two salary ordinance amendments —one for an annual $40,872 salary for an HFI secretary full-time and the other for $29.72 hourly for an HFI part-time pool inspector.
Reed said, “The wage committee’s recommendation, that they’ll bring to the council meeting next week, is to approve their request for a part-time/full-time secretary for the HFI grant, with the understanding that if the funding goes away, the position will go away.”
On the other position of part-time pool inspector, Reed said, “It’s called the tattoo, nail, piercing and pool specialist, but the individual that’s going to be doing it is just going to be doing pools right now. The rest of it will come later on.”
She reiterated that the wage committee’s recommendation to the council is to approve one part-time position for the inspector for 2024, and they’ll be starting in May.
“And then the other thing that we have that is not needed right now — we don’t have anybody hired for it but it will be in the future — will be a school liaison/community nurse. So the wage committee recommends the approval of that request for one full-time school liaison/community nurse,” Reed said.
Weaver said if the funding goes away, that position also will go away.
• Reviewed a request from Emergency Management Agency Director Kip Shuter for a $20,304 additional appropriation from the Multi-Hazard Mitigation Grant. He said the match for the grant will come from the salaries from the community stakeholders who will be a part of the planning process to get the plan together.
In another matter, referring to an email he previously sent to the council members and commissioners, Shuter said he received notice from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security that the Emergency Management Performance Grant funds will be decreasing.
“So they already see a decrease of somewhere between 9 and 10% for this year, but the following years, the grants that pay salaries for emergency management — up to 50% — will probably start going down. So, county officials need to know that so that it’s built into the budget,” Shuter stated.
• Reviewed a request from County Administrator Marsha McSherry for three transfers of $6,000 each from maintenance building and equipment repairs, light bulbs and ballasts and repair parts/labor to maintenance of grounds.
The county has contracted with a company to do the ground maintenance at the county’s property, she said, and instead of an additional appropriation they are doing transfers to cover the expense.
