Sheriff’s department spreads Christmas cheer

Santa Claus and a toy add cheer to most any child’s Christmas.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office plans to spread that cheer with a family-friendly Christmas event from 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 13 in the chambers room of the Wayne County Administration Building, 401 E. Main St., Richmond. The event is open to the public, and those attending should enter the building’s south doors.

Sheriff Randy Retter received permission for $1,700 in event-related expenditures from Wayne County Council during its Dec. 3 meeting. He plans to purchase $1,500 in promotional items with funds in a donations line item and spend $200 from his commissary fund to buy beverages and snacks for participating staff members.

The morning will feature a visit from Santa, prize giveaways and toys for children. Community donations have provided toys, with the goal of one toy for each child attending.

During its meeting, council members also gave permission for the public defender’s office to implement a new case management system. 

Nine licenses will cost $119 per month, for an annual $12,852 total. The funds will come from the supplemental public defender fund.

Adam McQueen, the county’s chief probation officer who presented the request, said the current system is “clunky.” The new cloud-based system includes features such as a central location for accessing discovery materials and the transcription of videos.

Craig Eason, the county’s information technology director, has seen the system and said it could make the public defenders office more efficient.

Council also approved an interlocal agreement with Milton that provides the town’s police department $9,239 to purchase body cameras and handguns.

The money comes from the county’s opioid settlement money distributed by the state from settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers for their roles in the opioid crisis. A committee scored funding applications and chose Milton as one of the recipients.

Commissioners approved the interlocal during their Nov. 19 meeting.

Fund transfers

During its finance committee meeting, council approved a variety of year-end funding transfers as department heads move money to cover shortfalls.

Among the transfers was a total of $29,515.77 in American Rescue Plan Act money moving into the line item paying for the county’s emergency radio tower project that upgrades communications for volunteer fire departments. The money is left over from completed projects, and moving it to the tower project ensures the county will not have to return it to the federal government.

Coroner Brent Meadows received approval for five total transfers, but one created some discussion. Meadows requested to move $2,800 into his equipment line item to purchase five iPads, keyboards and cases. Meadows said each investigator needs an iPad to access information when families call them and they’re not on duty.

Council member Beth Leisure voted against that transfer. She said council has provided Meadows with extra money from its contingency fund this year and she was uncomfortable the iPads would not be on the county system monitored by the IT department.

“I’m not up here to spend money just to spend money,” Meadows said. “This is a piece of equipment we need.”