Published: July 06, 2008 01:01 am            

County to mull more jail positions, pay

PALESTINE — Anderson County commissioners will consider a trio of items Monday pertaining to the county’s jailers during a special meeting at the Anderson County Courthouse Annex.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. in the County Courtroom.

During the meeting, the court is expected to consider authorizing hiring additional jailers for the Anderson County Jail. Five new jailer positions, in addition to a new records clerk, are included in the 2008 county budget as contingency items.

The positions were placed in the county budget in anticipation that the jail might begin housing out-of-county inmates.

Anderson County currently has contracts with both Smith and Houston counties to house some of their inmates at a rate of $38 per day per inmate. Houston County housed a handful of inmates in Anderson County for approximately one week earlier this year, while Smith County has yet to send any inmates to the Anderson County Jail.

Jail populations, however, tend to increase during the summer months, and Smith County had as many as 300 inmates in other facilities on a given day last year, according to Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor.

Also during Monday's meeting, the court is also expected to hear from Bob Prince, a representative of the private jail firm CiviGenics which operates facilities in Groesbeck, Lufkin, Texarkana and other locations.

“They called me the other day about wanting to house inmates,” Taylor said Friday.

On Monday, the court will also hear from Taylor relating to a jailer pay adjustment in this year’s budget.

Last month, Taylor asked the court to consider increasing the annual starting pay of jailers and dispatchers by $2,000. The sheriff currently pays starting jailers an annual salary of $21,600, while new dispatchers are paid $21,000.

Court members have given a lukewarm response to the request thus far.

“We’re looking to shuffle some of our money (in the sheriff’s budget) around to increase jailers’ pay,” Taylor said.

Other items on Monday’s agenda include:

• CONSIDER budget amendments.

• CONSIDER approving payroll and bills.

• CONSIDER approving utilities crossing county roads.

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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com

        

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