Being Prudent with Your Money

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We all know 2016 is here and January will soon be gone. Just as every January for the last 15 years all the county elected officials have been busy working on their budgets and meeting with the county commissioners.

I am proud to report that 2015 was good to our office in multiple ways. We stayed busy and productive. We helped many people with crimes and other matters. We prospered as an office and made positive impacts on the lives of victims, community relations, law enforcement officers, and even various detainees. Another area we are very happy with is how the Office of Sheriff returned a total of $79,952.77 to the County of Livingston for a carry over into the 2016 budgets.

The county commission has historically noted the importance of having carry-over balances in all the elected official’s budgets for Livingston County. A primary reason is Livingston County has very little if any reserves to draw upon or assist with yearly needs in serving all of our citizens, office holders, and employees. All of our elected county office holders do their best to remain within our approved budgets.

Since starting as your sheriff in 2001, each year our office has returned positive balances to the County of Livingston. A few times we may have slightly been over in one budget but we more than compensated for it in our 8 budgets directed through the sheriff’s office.

Here are the stats on the money returned to the county on each of our budgets from 2015:

Percent Used Returned

County Sheriff: 95.27% $19,004.34

County Jail: 96.32% $17,470

Law Enforcement Sales Tax-Sheriff: 87.45% $19,517.18

Law Enforcement Sales Tax-Jail: 92.28% $19,530.86

Civil Fees: 85.58% $2,724.65

Law Enforcement Training: 99.97% $1.37

Inmate Security Fund: 86.36% $1,500

Concealed Carry: 95.25% $204.37

As your sheriff, I am proud of the work our staff has done and continues with. We know we are not perfect but we make every effort to learn from any mistake and consider how we can provide better customer service to you.

Our Chief Deputy Michael Claypole and Officer Manager/Captain Sindy Fitzpatrick are second to none with their abilities and customer service.

Short term and mid-range goals I/we have for the Office of Sheriff for 2016 through 2020 include (no specific order):

Dual purpose Drug Dog/Patrol Trained K-9 Program.
Additional Deputy Sheriff positions if/when funding permits enabling us to strengthen evening/night shift and enable our detective to do full time detective work instead of frequently working shift rotation.
Continue to receive variety of professional law enforcement training programs for our staff.
Continue and increase community related training and program opportunities for citizens in and around Livingston County. This includes opportunities helpful to everyone from young children through senior citizens, and area businesses.
Additional participation with programs for those struggling with addictions and recovery.
Continue partnering with the Missouri Sheriffs’ Association and other professional organizations in providing law enforcement training and basic police academy opportunities in Livingston County.
Continue our Secret Santa program and expand other areas of community involvement and betterment with all of our staff.

Our staff and I truly appreciate being here and enjoy the interaction with our citizens. We appreciate the citizens we serve and strive to be open and honest. Thank you for your past, present, and future support and for reading this editorial.

Respectfully,

Steve Cox

(Source December 31, 2015 Expenditures Report from Livingston County Clerk)