On Monday members of the Marshall County Council supported the request of Sheriff Matt Hassel’s for additional funding in the Overtime line item in both the Sheriff’s Budget and Jail Budget for additional court security.
In February the current security officer in the County Building used several weeks of continuous vacation. Some employees told the Sheriff they were concerned for their safety without a court security guard on duty.
The sheriff said court security from the Court would periodically pass through the County Building but in reality would only spend 15 to 30 minutes once or twice a day in the building. While he plans to create a job description for a part-time retired police officer to fill the vacations and time off, Hassel said he doesn’t think that will be in place for at least three months. In the meantime he plans to use off-duty merit officers and reserve officers from the sheriff’s Department along with jail officers to cover the vacant time blocks.
Sheriff Hassel asked for and was granted a $10,000 additional in the Sheriff’s Budget and $5,000 in the Jail Budget. While nearly all the County Council members were supportive of the request, Councilman Jon VanVactor voted against the additional because there was still plenty of funding in the Sheriff’s Budget and the Jail budget was going to seek a transfer of funds so he felt there wasn’t an immediate need to seek additional funds.
