Thumbnail photo by Ken Lund via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License Though tensions continued on Tuesday with Curry County’s newest commissioner telling John Ward that his constituents have been fearful for the past year, both sides were able to compromise on staffing for the sheriff’s office. Both sides agreed to staff a lieutenant in the patrol division who would oversee four deputies, a forest deputy, a marine deputy and a community resource officer. There would also be a part-time civil service deputy working for the sheriff's office as well as two sergeants working under jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn. The part-time civil service deputy would also handle animal control cases for the Board of Commissioners, according to Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald. Board Chairman Jay Trost said this new plan would cost the county an additional $18,576 and asked Fitzgerald if he could find the funding. “If we can’t find it, I’ll donate my salary to that tune,” Trost said. Both sides committed to meeting as often as possible to discuss the possible hiring of new staff during the 2025-26 fiscal year as well as the need for more supervisors. Finally, Trost and his colleagues Lynn Coker and Patrick Hollinger — who also said they would donate their salaries — asked the sheriff’s office to provide monthly reports on staffing levels, calls for service, including those coming in after hours, cases deputies are following up on as well as those they’ve been unable to get to. Trost said he wanted to determine whether the calls deputies aren’t able to follow up on are related to the self-report forms the sheriff deployed at the beginning of the 2024-25 fiscal year. He also asked Ward if he can provide the Board with an idea of how his office is able to perform when it’s fully staffed versus its current staffing levels. “The reality is this is the most productive conversation we’ve had in over 18 months,” Trost said. “And these are the kinds of conversations that help lead to a more productive output on all our fronts.” Tuesday’s meeting between the sheriff and the Board of Commissioners marks the fourth time both parties have met in the same room since a dispute arose nine months ago prompting Ward to cease communication with the Board. The compromise comes after Ward, at a budget workshop on Thursday, raised concerns about the Board’s plan to employ two sergeants and two lieutenants to supervise the entire sheriff’s office. That plan would have allowed five deputies to patrol 20 hours a day, seven days a week rather than the current 10-hour-a-day, five-day-a-week schedule. Ward said under that plan, he would be expected to supervise almost his entire office on his own. On Tuesday, though they were ultimately able to compromise, Ward reiterated his concern about what he saw as a lack of supervisors within his office. He reminded commissioners that hiring new deputies and getting them through the training process will take time “and sometimes it doesn’t work out.” As it stands three patrol deputies are filling in for vacancies at the jail, though one is expected to return to patrol on July 1, the sheriff said. Ward said his office is also working on hiring people to staff the jail. When Coker said that he and his colleagues could reconsider a supervisory role as it’s “organically needed,” Ward said those supervisors would be paid out of classification for taking on extra duties. “It gets lost in translation a lot. You think you can restructure, but we’ve done this,” Ward said. “The sheriff’s offices have been around for years and years, decades now, so for somebody to come in and think they can restructure and run the department better, without certifications or knowledge, just flabbergasts me.” Coker pushed back, saying that the longevity of the sheriff’s office makes no difference to its effectiveness and efficiency. “Our constituents would say they were afraid last year,” he said. “That was a hard year and leadership got people through the knothole. Organizations arrived here today relatively strong. We’re having a vigorous debate on how to get better.” Trost also reminded Ward that while his job is hiring, firing, promoting and operating the sheriff’s office, it’s the Board of Commissioners’ job to fund it. Commissioners have asked for information on “key performance indicators” from all of its department heads, Trost said, to provide greater transparency to the public. “We’re here, right now, in this situation, because frankly last year you said, ‘Give me the money and I’ll figure out how to spend it,’” Trost told the sheriff. “That turned into what we currently have. What was never explored is the possibility of what could have been and I think at this point, we are exploring that plan that could have been.” Last year, after voters rejected a county-sponsored levy that would have funded a 24/7 sheriff’s office, the Board of Commissioners made cuts countywide and used about $1.8 million in Road Reserve Fund interest to close a $3.8 million general fund deficit. Those cuts included eliminating 17 positions, including 14 in the sheriff’s office. As a result, the sheriff stated his deputies would work from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday and directed the public to a self-report form for most calls for service. Speaking to the Board of Commissioners on July 19, 2024, Ward said his office consisted of three patrol deputies and three supervisors, including himself. On Tuesday, Coker raised the concern that he said came from constituents who were fearful due to a lack of response from the sheriff’s office over the 2024-25 fiscal year. Trost said one reason that he’s asking for data from the sheriff’s office is so that it could be disseminated to the public even if it’s bad news. Fitzgerald told the sheriff that if the information the Board is seeking stays within his organization it’s the sheriff’s problem. “It shouldn’t be your problem,” he said. “We should be figuring out together how to get information out. I think that’s an important thing even if it’s bad news.” When the conversation turned to the jail, Krohn said there are currently four certified deputies staffing the facility in addition to himself. A fifth deputy who had been deployed with the National Guard is expected to return in October, he said. Trost, who had been the director of juvenile services for Curry County, said that while the Board could decide to turn one of the deputy positions into a sergeant position, he’d argue for retaining a second sergeant since the jail is a 24-hour operation. “Having run a secure residential [facility] in my past, I understand the need for supervision on both sides,” he said. Curry County’s total 2025-26 budget, including all revenues and expenditures, is about $64.3 million, according to the budget message posted on the county website. Of that, about $26 million is within the county’s Road Department Reserves, which means the county’s operating budget is about $37 million.