Budget Cuts Force Union County Deputy Layoffs

UNION COUNTY, Ohio -- The Union County sheriff says budgets cuts will force the layoff of 10 deputies at the end of March 2010.

NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS from The Union County sheriff.

Sheriff Rocky Nelson announced Friday he will have to layoff 10 deputies, effective March 26, 2010.

The layoff notices were served this week as a result of the sheriff's salary budget being reduced by $256,446, which includes $243,054 transferred to the 911 salary account and money to address general fund overtime.

It is a culmination of changes to the 2010 temporary appropriations approved by the Union County Commissioners in December 2009.

The cuts were also impacted by the pay raises that were kept by the three labor unions at the sheriff's office. The deputies, dispatchers, sergeants, and corporals are all represented by the Fraternal Order of Police Ohio Labor Council (FOP/OLC).

The unions voted to keep pay increases of 14 percent for deputies, 13.5 percent for dispatchers, and 11.7 percent for sergeants and corporals that were negotiated in a three-year contact that took affect in 2008.

The pay increases were larger in 2010, due to the wage concessions made by the labor unions in 2009.

In 2009, the deputy union voted to take no pay increase, while the sergeants, corporals and dispatchers all voted to take a 2.5 percent increase over their 2008 wages.

The layoffs this year follow six civilian and one part-time patrol deputy position that were laid off or abolished in March 2009 due to budget cuts.

Thanks to federal stimulus funding, the sheriff was able to recall two civilian employees in October 2009 for a period of 18 months.

"This year's budget reduction will be difficult for our office and we have no choice but to discontinue many of the programs that we have worked very hard to develop," Nelson said.

As a result of the layoffs, Nelson will reduce the staffing of detectives down to three and the staffing of community education deputies to one.

This means that community programs and school programs the sheriff's office has conducted for years will be cancelled. Other crime prevention programs, such as Project Life Saver and Neighborhood Watch, will be scaled back or eliminated.

Nelson will also lose a canine and handler with the layoffs, as well as two public-safety officers.

The two public-safety officer layoffs will not affect contracts the sheriff has with many of the townships in Union County and the Village of Milford Center.

Nelson said he will replace laid off public-safety officers with former PSO's that will need to update their training.

"There are no guarantees there won't be any further decreases in our budget. I have to work with the finding the county commissioners decide to appropriate for the sheriffs office," Nelson said.

This brings the number to 15 employees that have been laid off in the last two years.

The sheriff's office cannot fill another eight positions left open due to attrition and a lack of funding, which includes two patrol deputies, two community education deputies, a human resource manager, and three open supervisor positions.

This represents a 32 percent decrease in staffing for the office over the last two years.

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