“We started the hiring phase before you put that in place,” he told the commissioners during his annual budget hearing. “So a little lack of communication on our part, so we’ll take the blame for that.”
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter told the Journal-News, “I think everybody was a little flabbergasted by it.”
She said normally elected leaders would inform the commissioners if they wanted to make such a move but “sadly he did not choose to do that and apparently they’ve been on the payroll for months.”
The commissioners issued a hiring freeze for the remainder of this year and next in May. Sheriff’s personnel counts are always very fluid but Jill Cole, finance director for the county auditor’s office, said 431 employees were paid on Jan. 3 — 373 were full-timers — and 473 employees received paychecks last week, 419 are full-time.
Vickie Barger, the sheriff’s finance director, told the Journal-News 15 of the new hires are jail corrections officers and the rest are contracted positions, paid for by other jurisdictions and schools.
“They’ve been on the books since the early part of 2025, for the most part it was prior to any hiring freeze,” she said. “We knew or anticipated this influx of inmates through Homeland Security and as such we kind of geared up, because it does take six months or better to get a CO trained. We’re covering them through our current budget.”
In the 2026 budget, Barger estimated boarding of prisoners revenue is likely to jump roughly $4 million to $12.5 million, due to the recently approved per diem rate increase from $68 to $105 per inmate with the federal government. Jones told the commissioners it should be closer to $22.5 million, based on an average 500 federal prisoners.
Commissioner T.C. Rogers told the Journal-News the hiring freeze was instituted due to economic concerns, but the influx of prisoner revenue should cover the new hires.
“I’m not upset that he already made the hires, I’m disappointed that he didn’t have the confidence in us to ask us first,” he said. “I thought we had a stronger relationship than that.”
During the hearing he asked Jones what will happen if the ramped up ICE efforts to corral illegal immigrants wanes.
“I’m thinking after ‘26 there may not be the effort to go out and get the illegals that they are now,” he said asking if there is a plan.
Jones said through attrition they can and will pare down the staff in roughly four months.
“This is a tough business, we always have between eight and 12 vacancies at any given day, we have 33 employees that come and go every year,” he said. “Some people don’t make it in the jail, it’s not the most fun place to work in your life, people don’t grow up and say hey, I’ve always wanted to work in a jail.”
Commissioner Don Dixon said adding all those positions without any explanation “is not a good way to run the budget for the sheriff’s department,” and “we need (him) to be more clear, more specific so we can understand exactly what the purpose is.”
During the budget hearings last October Jones informed the commissioners he’d likely be getting “back into the deportation business” if President Donald Trump was elected. The 2025 revenue budget for boarding of prisoners was $8.5 million and didn’t reflect an anticipatory uptick.
Barger told the Journal-News with the renewed contract they entered in March she expects to collect an extra $3 million this year. At an average salary of $58,500 annually, she said the new hires will cost an estimated $1.1 million including benefits.
“That will more than cover those new hires,” she said.
To prevent future surprises Carpenter said she would like to go back to the practice from many years ago, when the Human Resources Department monitored payroll to detect excess overtime and “any issues that would affect us financially.”
County Administrator Judi Boyko said it is not their job to police other offices and to her knowledge the sheriff hasn’t exceeded his budget.
“No one in the commissioners’ office can monitor the hiring practices of the independent hiring authorities. Payroll information for new hires is submitted by the respective offices to the Auditor’s Office,” she said and later added. “Fortunately, with most offices, there is open communication. I’m not sure why these positions were added without a courtesy outreach to the board of commissioners.”
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