Clinton Fiscal Court held a special called meeting last Wednesday afternoon, July 31, with various items of business on the agenda. Five of six magistrates were present for the session, which lasted approximately 20 minutes.
Magistrate Tony Delk was unable to attend last week’s meeting.
The most discussed item of business was a request for the renewal of quarterly assistance funding for the sheriff’s office.
In 2023, Clinton County Sheriff Ricky Marcum had requested the court help fund additional deputies and equipment for his office in the amount of $106,000, which the office would receive in quarterly installments of $26,500.
The court agreed at that time to approve the assistance funding request and apparently re-visit the program after a year, which apparently expired at the end of July, 2024.
The assistance was in addition to the sheriff’s office regular budget. The extra funds allowed for extra deputies to be hired, providing 24/7 patrolling.
Although all magistrates voiced support for the sheriff’s office and noted they were doing a good job, apparently some court members present had questions and reservations about allotting extra funding to one department.
Magistrate Mickey Riddle said they (fiscal court) had never “bumped a sheriff’s department like this…if we don’t have to give it.”
Magistrate Terry Buster, who was not a seated member of the court when the first year agreement was reached, said he had a concern, that being, “Do we have that much money?”
County Treasurer Cindy Thrasher told the court the county was getting to the end of the ARPA funds and were also ready to make some high amount Occupational Tax refunds to some businesses that had overpaid in some past years.
Magistrate Jerry Lowhorn also said he had checked into possibly using the county’s share of the opioid refund from the state to help the sheriff’s office, but had been told those funds could only be used for such things as patient rehabilitation and counseling related programs.
“I would hate to see the sheriff have to lose deputies,” said Buster, “people are happy with the job they are doing.”
He then went on to recommend the court possibly continue the assistance until the property tax collection season when more revenue begins coming into the office, which is funded primarily through fee collections.
Magistrate Riddle had said earlier in the meeting that if the county continued to give additional funds to the sheriff’s office, all departments and offices would want extra money, which the county does not have.
He added that if the county had to raise taxes to fund other offices, people would “cut our heads off.”
Sheriff Marcum told the court he had looked into the medium wages of deputies with KACo (Kentucky Association of Counties) and had looked for community partners.
In reference to Magistrate Riddle’s comments, the sheriff noted it would be better to have heads cut off “figuratively” than “literally,” if there were fewer deputies on patrol.
Magistrate Lowhorn, who referred to the sheriff as one of his best friends, said that former Sheriff Jeff Vincent only had three deputies and one office person, and still did a good job.
Sheriff Marcum said he had worked himself up to 107 hours in a week at times to assure someone was on duty around the clock.
Magistrate Riddle admitted the county, over the years, may have made a mistake, saying they had not raised county tax rates like they should have to gain more revenue.
However, he voiced concern about giving extra funds to one office but not other entities that provide services, such as the EMS, jail, etc.
Sheriff’s Office Tax Coordinator Randy Jones said that if they did not get their quota by August 1, employees may not get paid, creating a bad situation.
Magistrate Buster said no one should be concerned about re-election right now, but about the people of the county.
Magistrate Jason Pitman asked, “If we can’t afford the $106,000, what is another option?”
Magistrate Buster then asked “would half” of the total amount requested help, or fund the upcoming quarter amount and see if any solutions could be reached after that period.
When no alternatives were brought forth on a motion, Magistrate Buster made a motion to continue with the SO assistance quarterly funding, with Magistrate Pitman seconding the motion.
On a voice vote, the motion failed 3-2 with Buster and Pitman voting yes and magistrates Riddle, Lowhorn, and Gary Ferguson voting no.
The day following the meeting, Sheriff Marcum announced via social media that cutbacks in his office would indeed be necessary due to the assistance funding being cut.
On Monday, both Judge Craig and several magistrates and Sheriff Marcum sat down with the NEWS and voiced their thoughts on the results of the meeting held last week.
“I want to clarify some things that were said,” Craig said. “I want to set the record straight. Last year in August, the sheriff asked the court for additional funding for his office. The court agreed, but cautioned him, they would review it in the next year. Early this year, my office staff and myself, reminded the sheriff that the fiscal court may choose not to renew the extra funds due to budget constraints.”
Craig went on to say the only obligation the court has to the sheriff’s office is the court pays 100 percent of the sheriff’s salary.
“His office is funded by the fees he collects only … the same as the county court clerk’s office,” Craig said.
Magristrate Mickey Riddle said the sheriff’s office is a fee office.
“They have a budget and they run on their own budget,” Riddle said. “We pay for all their utilities, we buy their cars, we buy their equipment, we pay their insurance … all that they have is like fuel and salaries. We give him an advancement to keep from having to go to the bank and borrow money to operate on.”
According to Riddle, Deputy Thomas Pendergrass stated on Facebook that magistrates voted to defund the sheriff’s office.
“We didn’t defund nothing,” Riddle said. “We have to have it to defund it and we didn’t do that. We just advanced them the money to operate on and if we would have had the money, we told them, we would help them in any way we can, but we don’t have the money. That would be taking money away from our ambulance services and other utilities and I didn’t agree with that.  I thought it was pretty bad for them to get on there and say we defunded them. We didn’t defund nobody.”
According to County Treasurer Cindy Thrasher, the fiscal court can’t give the sheriff’s office any money.
“We are not allowed to give them any money at all,” Thrasher said. “We went through this several years ago with another incident. I researched it through the department of local government. We can help them pay their bills, they cannot pay on a reimbursement plan only. Basically what they are asking is for us to give salary for the next year and we aren’t allowed to do that.”
Sheriff Marcum said last year he presented the fiscal court with the plan to give the county something it was never had before and that was 24/7 patrol from the sheriff’s department.
“I took data from KACO  and previous administrations, our call log, because we were overwhelmed, and some weeks I was working 107 hours, which is dangerous, so I made a proposal looking at how two government bodies can provide $26,500 over the course of the year broken into quarters to offset and pay for roughly two of my part-time and bring them to full-time and then establish a full-time to create a 24 hour patrol,” Marcum said. “It was widely supported and Judge Craig has always been so supportive and he is just a wonderful person, and the magistrates supported it. A year goes by and we have to make that proposal again and it was tabled. Then we went into the quarterly monthly meeting and in that quarterly monthly meeting, I had three magistrates who opposed it, two who were for it and one who was not there.”
Marcum said the fiscal court voted not to renew the funding and that it’s hard to have to tell guys their job isn’t there anymore.
“It’s disheartening,” Marcum said. “I had to let go of a project I worked hard to get. It’s not like there won’t be law enforcement, but there won’t be boots on the ground all hours of the day. The PD (Albany Police Department) has that and I feel like the citizens of Clinton County deserve that as well.”
Marcum said he understands they are elected officials and they have to make the decisions they make.
“I respect that they have to make decisions,” Marcum said. “But, we also had other magistrates say it was a bad decision and they have to do that. Their decisions effect, physically, the decisions that I make. In essence it is an investment back into the community. That’s all that it is. All those guys who set in there, I have respect for them and all this has created something I didn’t want to happen, but at the same time the people of Clinton County elected me to be their sheriff and I have to tell them straight to their face … period.”

(A separate article on the sheriff’s address on Facebook can be found beginning on page 1.)
In other business at the special meeting, the court:
* Voted to pay between meeting claims and bills.
* Approved, on separate motions, four cash transfers, all from the Occupational Fund totaling $60,000, including:
— $10,000 to the jail checking account;
— $20,000 to the ambulance checking account;
— $25,000 to the general fund checking account;
— $5,000 to the 911 checking account.
* Approved net profit refunds to two businesses that had overpaid in occupational taxes. One payment was in the amount of $183, while the larger was to Tyson Foods in the total sum of $70,670.00.
* Voted to approve a FLEX fund payment of $132,000 from the state for road maintenance.
* County Clerk Nathan Collins told the court his office had applied for an $8,300 grant through HAVA for 20 Election Privacy Booths.
The court approved the grant application and on a separate motion, a resolution pertaining to the 100 percent funded grant was also approved.
The next regular meeting of Clinton County Fiscal Court is scheduled for next Thursday, August 15, at 5 pm.