Sheriff ticked off at council’s decision on corrections director’s salary

Jim O’Neal, WITZ AM/FM News Director contributed to this report

“In 2011, I came to this facility and said ‘hey, people aren’t being paid fairly,'” Sheriff Donny Lampert told the Dubois County Council after they voted 4-3 to give the new community corrections director a $5,000 raise.

Lampert unleashed on the council after they approved the transfer of Dubois County Community Corrections Center funds from a vacant administrative position to go to the salary for the newly-appointed director, William Wells.

“Today, I sat in here and heard about one guy and it didn’t matter about anybody else in the county,” Lampert said about Wells. “It mattered what other counties are doing, but nobody gave a crap about my deputies, my jailers and my auditor’s office and the freakin’ health department and all these people out here. That’s horse crap.”

Wells applied for the position and was chosen by the Community Corrections Advisory Board in June. After learning the position required a drop in pay from the $54,680 he was earning as the program director for Dubois County Court Substance Abuse Services, Wells decided to stay in his current position.

Here is a story on Wells’ qualifications and background.

To attempt to bring Wells to community corrections, Dubois County Superior Court Judge Mark McConnell, who serves as the Community Corrections Advisory Board’s chair, requested the council make the $5,000 appropriation to keep Wells at the same pay. The council declined in a 4-3 vote.

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This month, with more clarification from McConnell, and appearances by retired Judge William Weikert and Judge Nathan Verkamp, the council mustered enough votes to push the request through.

Councilmen Nick Hostetter, Greg Kendall and Jerry Hunefeld, who all voted for the increase in July, were joined by Councilwoman Charmian Klem.

She explained that she voted against the increase in July due to a lack of information on an appropriate salary for the position. She explained she had researched similar positions in other Indiana counties and found the salaries were greater than the nearly $50,000 budgeted for the director position in Dubois County.

After the motion passed and the three judges left, Sheriff Lampert returned to the council chambers. “I had to leave here because I was ticked off,” Lampert said. “I was gonna say some horrible words that would make my mom not very proud.”

Lampert then pointed out his department’s chief deputy doesn’t make $50,000. “I tried to keep calm and I apologize, but when you mess with my department and their families, that ticks me off,” Lampert said.

“When I heard someone say there’s no one comparable,” Lampert said about the reason the judges were pushing for Wells’ pay. “A jail commander supervises 18 people and has more freakin’ worries about a lawsuit than anyone in community corrections. Come on people, let’s use some common sense.”

Lampert pointed out that the Interim Director Jenny Fuhs stepped up after the previous director resigned and helped turn the department around. Lampert, also a member of the advisory board, was one of three board members who voted against hiring Wells. He felt she didn’t get due consideration for the director position.

During his tirade, Lampert noted he didn’t have anything against Wells, he just felt that giving him such a bump in pay for the position was an injustice to the other department heads and county employees.

“I am going to voice my opinion for the people of this county. The people who live here and work hard and are getting screwed over,” Lampert said. “Make it fair. Make it fair.”

He vowed to resubmit his own department’s budget to the council as he left.

The council also took the following actions.

–Heard that a committee made up of Councilwoman Klem, Councilwoman Becky Beckman and Councilman Craig Greulich, along with Commissioner Elmer Brames, have begun to perform a pay study for each position in the county. The group plans on administering an anonymous survey that will then be analyzed by Siebert Consulting of Jasper.

–Heard that as the county deals with a $1.6 million shortfall, the county departments had been able to find about $167,940.00 to cut in their budgets. Only one tenth of the total shortfall. Deputy Auditor Sandy Morton reminded the council of the County Option Income Tax. According to Morton, the county has about a $1 million of those funds allocated leaving about $700,000 available to use to fund a county department. In the same line of discussion, Councilwoman Klem reported that Franklin County voted to remove healthcare benefits from elected members of the council and commission save the county money.

–Approved appropriating $170,000 for four new dump trucks for the County Highway Department.

–Allocated $4,215.00 to the Emergency Management Department to upgrade 22 county sirens. Dubois County Emergency Management director Tammy Humbert explained the upgrades were necessary to allow for group activations.