By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Council agreed Tuesday to seek an audit of a fund at the county jail, after the second consecutive month of having to make an emergency budget move in order to pay the affected jailers.

The council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to loan the jail fund, known as Fund 217, $50,000 from the county’s casino revenues. The casino fund pays for longevity bonuses for county employees, and council members made it clear that the infusion of dollars for the jail will need to be paid back.

Fund 217 comes from fees from housing state and federal prisoners at the county jail, and the fund pays the salaries of about 10 jailers, as well as other jail expenses. But at the start of this year, the Indiana Department of Corrections stopped sending state prisoners to the county jail, citing overcrowded conditions. The only state prisoners at the county jail are those awaiting transfer to other facilities.

The loss of the state prisoners meant the loss of the daily fee paid by the state. Last month, in response to projections that the fund might face a shortfall of $850,000 this year, the county council and the commissioners jointly agreed to transfer $150,000 from the county’s income tax funds as a stop-gap measure needed to keep the fund solvent..

On Tuesday, Porter County Auditor Jim Kopp told the council that he will be unable to meet the next payroll for the jailers because the fund continues to dry up.

Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, suggested a third-party review of the fund. Council member Jim Burge, R-at large, strongly agreed that an audit would provide an independent set of eyes to review the budgetary figures involved and to recommend options.

Some options that have been mentioned in the past have included instituting 12-hour work shifts for the county jailers as a way to save money, or to open the jail’s third pod under indirect supervision, which would require less staff than direct supervision.

The rest of the council agreed by consensus to have Burge seek quotes for the independent audit. Further, the council agreed to tap its casino revenues to shore up the fund temporarily, as well as to direct Kopp to inform the jail not to spend any more from the fund for jail expenses.

County Sheriff Dave Lain was not in attendance at Tuesday’s council meeting, but Council President Robert Poparad, D-1st, said Lain is looking into various options. One possibility is to charge the U.S. Marshal office more than the current $40 per prisoner per day fee; Poparad said some other Indiana counties are getting up to $65 per day for housing federal prisoners at their jails.

Posted 7/25/2008