Benton County officials eye personnel requests

BENTONVILLE — Benton County officials on Thursday began reviewing requests to add 21 employees to the payroll.

The Personnel Committee reviewed the personnel requests in advance of the Budget Committee.

The Sheriff’s Office had the biggest set of requests for the justices of the peace to consider, asking the corporals in the field division and jail be graded to better reflect their duties, and for seven new positions in the Sheriff’s Office and seven in the jail.

The seven positions in the Sheriff ’s Office include a software application/ security specialist dedicated to the needs of the office. Sheriff Meyer Gilbert said the office has a number of specialized needs and having a person in the office should improve service.

“I know that we’re one of the few elective offices that doesn’t have this position,” Gilbert said.

The office is also asking for a sergeant, a detec- tive II position, a deputy III position, a deputy II position and two deputy I positions.

Chief Deputy Shawn Holloway briefed the justices of the peace on increases in the workload of the office, including a 14 percent increase in calls for service and a 9 percent increase in the number of warrants. The office has 8,370 outstanding warrants, with about 2,600 of those being felony warrants. Holloway said the office wants to have deputies assigned primarily to serving warrants to reduce that backlog.

“We would like to create a warrants division to go out and look for those people,” Holloway said. “The longer it goes, the less chance you have of finding those people.”

The office also wants to have a new detective position to work on sex crimes and cyber crimes. The cost of the new positions for the Sheriff’s Office is estimated at $410,160.

Gilbert and Holloway also said the jail needs seven positions. Six of those are jailers for the jail expansion the county approved this year. One position is a jail clerk, which Gilbert said would take primary responsibility for dealing with requests for information under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The cost of the jail positions was put at $363,468.

The committee also reviewed a request for adding a building inspector position to the Building Safety Division at a cost of about $48,126. John Sudduth, general services administrator, said the two building inspectors are increasingly tasked with more and more requests for inspections, resulting in delays for builders and increasing costs for residents having work done.

“We have to have another inspector, I feel, or I wouldn’t be here,” Sudduth said.