Officials back 16 positions for county jail

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County’s justices of the peace reversed course Monday, voting to approve 16 new positions for the Detention Center over the objections of the head of the Budget Committee.

“We have to have the money first,” Ann Harbison, justice of the peace for District 14 in southern Washington County and committee chairwoman, said during the discussion of the Jail Budget. Harbison challenged the other justices of the peace to find a way to cover the $800,000 cost of the new positions.

“I want a show of hands of every JP who’s going to vote to raise the millage from 4.4 mills to 5 mills,” Harbison said. “We need the money first. If you haven’t got the backbone to pass the millage, you ought not to do the easy thing.”

Harbison has said she wants to initially review the proposed 2020 budgets for the county’s elected officials and departments with no raises for employees and no new positions. Harbison said she wanted the county to set a goal of having minimum of $4 million in reserve and to have that money set aside before considering raises and new positions.

Harbison said she has a budget session set for Nov. 12 to discuss funding for raises and new positions and she didn’t think the Budget Committee would endorse the new positions before that meeting.

“I’m not going to get mad and resign, but I am surprised,” Harbison said after the meeting. “I expect it to be funded now. I think my question was very germane, even though it was called out of order. If they want to do this, they’re going to have to fund it.”

Sheriff Tim Helder was cautiously optimistic that the committee had advanced his budget with the 16 new positions included.

“It’s not approved yet, it just got moved forward,” Helder said. “I think they recognized that it’s a need,