The Red River County Commissioner, on the advice of Sheriff Jimmy Caldwell, decided to end grants for sexual assault investigators at a meeting Monday at the Red River County Courthouse Annex.
Samantha Sellers was an investigator checking sexual assault and domestic violence in the county. However, she got a job at Hokata in November. The grant to fund her position was a 70/30 percent grant from the Violence Against Women Act of 2021.
Mr. Caldwell said he could not find someone to fill the profession and asked the court to terminate the contract.
Caldwell also said his force was still undermanned.
He needs agents, guards and dispatchers, he said.
He asked the Commissioner to allow budgeted but unused funds from three or four vacant positions to be remunerated to staff patrol officers.
County auditor Camille Hines said the amount the sheriff was asking for amounted to $22,000, split evenly among the current patrol staff.
It was noted that this move of funds from the current budget salary line to the supplemental line was not a salary increase, but a temporary subsidy using funds already budgeted.
The Commissioner has approved the line item budget transfer.
The Commissioner will also vote to reinstate the premium payment policy at the Sheriff’s Office for an additional 90 days.
“We’ve had a good response to that,” the sheriff said in requesting the policy to be reinstated.
Last September, Caldwell and Chief Lieutenant Michael Pace raised the need for court attention because of the ongoing staffing issues that run the county jail.
At Monday’s meeting, Caldwell said the policy to help fill shift slots in county jails has served its original purpose.
https://theparisnews.com/news/red-river-votes-to-terminate-grant/article_d50f29b4-9c02-11ed-8b85-fbc2b7ddbb57.html Red River Vote to End Subsidies | News
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