The Cole County Commission plans to have one more meeting next week to discuss budget issues before its scheduled public hearing and potential final vote on the 2017 budget Jan. 10.
At Thursday's commission meeting, commissioners briefly discussed requests for additional employees made by other departments and offices.
The only additional employee in the budget proposed by Auditor Kristen Berhorst is a training officer for the sheriff's department.
Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher said he thinks the sheriff's department could get training through various organizations it works with. Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle said he believed the position may not be needed.
Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said he agreed with incoming Sheriff John Wheeler that the new officer could multi-task and also help in recruiting and retention efforts.
With salary and benefits combined, the total cost to add the training officer would be $54,926.
The commission will look next week at three memorandums of understanding (MOU) in an effort to give offices with special revenue funds the ability to hire more people.
One of those offices was the sheriff's department, which would use money from its revolving fund to pay for one full-time employee and one part-time employee to process concealed carry permits, at a cost of $64,000.
Another MOU would be with the Recorder of Deeds Office to fund one part-time employee to help record documents and help when full-time staff members are on vacation. The money would come out of the recorder's fund and would cost $14.61 an hour, up to 1,000 hours and not to exceed $15,000.
The final MOU would be with the Prosecuting Attorney's Office for a full-time assistant prosecutor and a part-time investigator. The $92,000 for these positions would be paid out of the prosecutor's delinquent tax fund and administrative handling cost fund.
In all three cases, if money from these funds would no longer be available or if a position in these offices becomes vacant or is no longer needed, the agreement becomes null and void and a renegotiation would be required.
Commissioners pointed out no supplemental fund money would be used to fund these MOUs. These funds were created by the Legislature with statutory authority for some county officeholders to spend as they see fit within expenditure guidelines set out in the statutes.
The commission approved MOUs last year after not doing any in 2014. The commission had stopped the practice, saying it ended up helping to pay particular employees' salaries above what the county was paying for them. At that time, commissioners said the supplemental funds had become ways to give raises and led to hurt feelings among others in county offices where no such funds were available.