October 18, 2017
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
The Custer County Sheriff has decided to drop his consideration of filing a lawsuit against Custer County.
In a news release issued today (Wednesday) the Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell says he’s dropping his legal action against, specifically, the county excise board.
The sheriff has been frustrated that his department hasn’t received proper funding. It began in June, when Sheriff Tidwell sent a letter to other elected county officials that he wouldn’t be staffing the security station at the front door of the court house due to budget restraints caused by the Custer County Excise Board that handles the purse strings.
The excise board didn’t grant to the sheriff’s department Tidwell’s full request to fund the department for the current year.
Tidwell has alleged that there’s continual, annual under-funding of his department that forces him to use non-recurring cash to operate the office. He says it’s been a pattern and he’d like to see it stopped.
Though a lawsuit was never filed, now, Tidwell says, he has no intention of following through, due to several reasons.
Tidwell says he’s found out that the county and members of the excise board are open to hearing his side of the issue.
Though less than his request, the amount of money granted to the sheriff’s department by the county excise board for the current fiscal year was still higher than what the sheriff’s department received the prior year. Though the amount was less than what Tidwell requested, it was still over $56-thousand more than last year’s budget.
But, it’s a moot point now.
Regardless, he’s made his case known. He’s made his point.
His news release adds that he may retain an accounting firm to conduct a financial analysis of the sheriff’s budget.
Doing so, Tidwell says, the analysis can give confidence to the commissioners and the excise board that his office is being fiscally responsible with the tax payer’s money.
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