Wilson County commissioners approve surplus disposal and budget moves as sheriff warns inmate medical and transport costs rising

Wilson County commissioners approved declaring outdated computer equipment and a used command-post vehicle surplus and approved year-end budget moves after Sheriff BJ Stafford described rising inmate medical and transport costs and staffing shortages.

Sheriff BJ Stafford told commissioners the county is disposing of “computer equipment” that has been wiped and a command-post vehicle bought used that is “in bad shape,” and recommended selling the items through government channels. “All our computer equipment's been done. There's nothing else on it,” Stafford said as he explained the surplus request, which commissioners approved by voice vote.

The sheriff warned that inmate medical transports and hospital stays are driving higher costs and asked the commission to reallocate funds. “It's been people who've been picked up on warrants all over the state… it's just costing more,” Stafford said when describing an increase in out-of-county transports. He said the jail has logged multiple simultaneous transports and that many hospital stays are multi-day: “These people are staying. 2, 3, 4, 8 days… So it cost. And that's where we're at.”

Staff and commissioners voted to move funds to cover increased transport expenses, including a transfer Sheriff Stafford described as moving roughly $12,000 from in-service training to travel for transports.

The sheriff also discussed unpaid hospital-billing negotiations with the county's local hospital. He said the current informal arrangement reflects the county covering roughly 60 percent of some inmate-related hospital charges and noted hospital representatives had offered a 40 percent arrangement in conversation but had not sent a finalized contract. “Any state inmate that goes to the hospital, we get reimbursed for,” Stafford said, distinguishing state inmates (whose hospital costs are reimbursed) from county inmates. Stafford estimated the county could collect roughly $2,210,000 in state-inmate-related receipts by the end of the budget year and asked staff to review those reimbursements when identifying funding sources for the sheriff's office.

Commissioners approved additional year-end budget adjustments for jail overtime after the sheriff reported persistent staffing shortages in the detention center. “We've been averaging about right now, as of today, we're 8 8 correctional officers down,” Stafford said, and recommended shifting salary savings and other funds to cover overtime. A motion to approve additional jail-overtime funding passed by voice vote.

The commission also approved an allocation to cover overtime for patrol, detectives and other patrol-adjacent units — an amount the sheriff said would be covered by year-end adjustments and would address vacancies that left the department short in roles including a warrants clerk, a dispatcher and deputies. The sheriff said the patrol overtime request would require about $80,000 to cover shortfalls through the end of the year; commissioners approved the request by voice vote.

Commissioners discussed options for lowering transport and hospital costs, including seeking alternatives to distant hospitals and continuing negotiations with regional systems such as Vanderbilt and other providers the sheriff named. Commissioners asked county staff, including Aaron Becker, to continue working with the hospital and to return with any finalized contract or updated cost proposals before further commitments were made.

The meeting record shows multiple voice votes recorded as “All in favor? Aye” on the surplus declaration, the fund transfer for transports, the jail overtime funding and the patrol overtime funding. The items approved were procedural budget adjustments and administrative requests; no ordinance or change to county code was proposed in the sheriff’s report.

The sheriff’s report and related approvals conclude the public safety items on the agenda; commissioners moved on to other business and adjourned the session.