By Don Lehman
The Post-Star
QUEENSBURY — Warren County’s Personnel Committee voted down a proposal Wednesday to add 13 full-time corrections officers at the county jail, instead opted to hire seven officers and review whether additional officers are needed.
Concerns were expressed about the costs of the $1.45 million plan to add staff at the jail and whether the county had done enough analysis of its options to deal with staffing shortages that the state Commission of Correction has directed be addressed.
The nine-member Personnel Committee of the Board of Supervisors discussed the issue for nearly an hour before the proposal to hire 13 -- which was approved last month by the Sheriff’s Committee -- was voted down 4-4, with one abstention.
At the request of board Chairman Kevin Geraghty and county Adminstrator Paul Dusek, the committee then considered a second resolution to add seven officers and review options regarding the additional staff members or other options. That one passed 7-1-1, and passed the Finance Committee later Wednesday as well. It will be considered by the full board on April 18.
Geraghty said he was concerned about the jail’s correctional staff getting burned out when working overtime to fill posts the Commission of Correction has required.
Lake Luzerne Supervisor Gene Merlino said he was told by officers some believed they are working too much overtime, and Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Rachel Seeber questioned the safety concerns of officers having to work too much overtime.
“I’m concerned about our employees,” Geraghty said. “It’s a touchy situation over there.”
The discussion on the hiring of 13 officers started after Glens Falls 2nd Ward Supervisor Peter McDevitt questioned the move and asked a consultant be retained to look at the county’s options.
“This is a million dollar budget-buster coming down the highway,” McDevitt said.
Others questioned how the directive came about.
Warren County Sheriff Bud York said jail administrators were filling security posts with overtime, with overtime doubling in recent years to over $600,000 last year, but the commission was no longer sanctioning that method.
“How have you operated without these 13?” Glens Falls 1st Ward Supervisor Dan Girard asked. “It seems to have operated quite well for these numbers of years.”
Glens Falls Fifth Ward Supervisor William Kenny said he recently obtained staffing analyses from 2004 and 2013 and wanted to compare them, so he abstained from the votes.
He questioned how the county was told when building the new jail in 2003-04 that it would require less staffing with the “pod” system of cells, but now has more officers than the old jail.
York said the setup does allow officers to watch more inmates, but there are more posts that require staffing.
No action was taken on the consultant request, as county officials plan to look into the county’s options to buck the state directive and whether there are independent consultants who could look at the issue.
York and the jail’s chief administrator, Capt. Michael Gates, explained the commission’s directions were state law and the county could face penalties for violating them.
Gates said the commission could go to court to force the county to hire the officers, and could direct the jail not board federal inmates -- a source of revenue -- until its directives are met.
The committee approved the recommendation by the commission that the county add hours or staff members equivalent to 10 part-time officers to fill shifts.
York pointed out his office negotiated the new hires from 21, which the commission had initially recommended, to 13. He also pointed out, representatives of the commission attended a board meeting earlier this year to discuss the directive, and that questions about what was required could have been asked then.
A spokeswoman for the commission said last week its staffing recommendations stem from a months-long study of jail operations.