Community Corrections budget stabilizes

The Dubois County Community Corrections board heard that the department will be operating in the black for the foreseeable future.

Interim director Jenny Fuhs compiled the department’s financial records to give the board a clear picture of the monthly cash flow. She was appointed community corrections interim director in December when the former director, J.P. Weisheit, stepped down.

Weisheit and board president Dubois County Superior Court Judge Mark McConnell had both appealed to the county council to assist the financially strapped department several times in 2013 and 2014. They cited issues in regards to the upkeep of the facility as well as the ever-increasing cost of insurance and employee benefits as factors in the department’s budget. According to the records compiled by Fuhs, employee insurance costs the department $13,102 monthly.

The county approved assuming responsibility for building maintenance. Then, a $20,932 performance bonus and an eleventh hour $157,000 increase in the annual grant from Indiana Department of Corrections pushed the budget into the black. The department received a one-time department of corrections grant of $200,000 in 2014 also.

Despite these increases, Weisheit warned the council that he would likely be back for money at the end of the 2014-2015 fiscal year due to more budget shortfalls. Based on these budget concerns, the board declined to fill two case manager positions that had been vacated. At the time, they also decided to forgo any annual pay raises for the department’s 14 personnel until they had a better idea of the department’s finances.

After being appointed interim director at the end of November, Fuhs compiled the departments profit and loss statements for the first half of the 2014-2015 fiscal year — community corrections’ fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 — and presented the findings to the board on Tuesday.

Fuhs attributed the $206,704 the department held to the additional grants and awards received over the past six months as well as the slow influx of past due accounts being paid.

The department also held $107,300 in its accounts at the end of 2013-2014 fiscal year that carried over into the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

“We basically — for the first time in a long time — had the information to see where we are fiscally,” McConnell said. “This gives us some comfort, I guess, in knowing where we stand.”

Based on these numbers, McConnell averaged that the department was operating with a positive income of $1,800 monthly. He postulated that the department would have about $106,000 in its accounts at the end of the fiscal year based on expenditures compared to savings and income.

The department will also see $66,000 in savings due to Weisheit’s pay reduction that went into effect when he stepped down from the directorship and the board’s intention to leave the two case worker positions vacant.

With a clearer picture of income, the board moved to award the employees a bonus equivalent to the raises the county approved for its employees for the 2015 budget. They approved $10,500 to pay out to employees as a one time bonus with intentions to review the budget again in the future to determine if the department can afford pay increases.

They also approved paying $5,330 to employees who have accrued excessive amounts of compensatory (comp) time due to the additional hours they have worked. The county allows certain amounts of comp time to accrue depending on the regular hours an employee works. It can be no more than two weeks of an employee’s regular hours. The $5,330 will bring those employees with too much comp time back down to half the allowable amount.

In regards to the $600,000 of unpaid fees that have accrued over the years, a collection service has been hired to attempt to collect those funds.