Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget And Testing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission reviews budget and testing costs; requests departmental policy manual for test development
Summary
The commission heard a budget update that noted 12.9% of the clerk's budget had been used, reviewed advertising and recruitment expenditures, and discussed testing costs and study materials. Staff requested the sheriff's departmental policy manual by March 1 so Standard and Associates can draft promotion test questions.
Commission staff presented a budget update and outlined recruitment and testing-related costs during the February meeting of the Berkeley County Deputy Sheriff Civil Service Commission.
The clerk reported the civil service budget currently stood at 12.9% allocated for the fiscal year and identified recent recruitment-related expenditures: a newspaper advertisement package costing $710 to run eight insertions in three newspapers and an online job-board posting that cost $210 and runs until the application cutoff. The clerk said two invoices remain outstanding for newspaper placements.
On testing and training costs, staff said the company-recommended testing and training line items totaled $16,500. The clerk also described a distinction between multi-book study materials and a study guide: the study guide compiles which pages and topics candidates should review, while the source books (used to generate test questions) are similar to college textbooks and can cost roughly $500 per book for first-line supervisor materials and up to about $700 for higher ranks. Staff said the county clerk’s budget could not absorb purchasing full sets of source books for large candidate pools (the clerk cited a prior eligibility pool of 28 deputies as an illustrative figure).
To move forward with vendor-led test development, staff asked that the sheriff’s departmental policy manual be provided to the commission as soon as possible and requested a target date of March 1 to send materials to Standard and Associates so the vendor can begin drafting test questions. Staff said the county has budget authority to purchase testing services before the end of the fiscal year (June 30) and emphasized that signing authority for binding county obligations would rest with the county official identified as the principal signer (discussed as “Tony” in meeting remarks).
The commission did not take a formal vote on budget items during the briefing; members asked clarifying questions about study materials, eligibility pools, and the timeline for receiving the sheriff’s policy manual.
Commissioners also noted that the clerk and chiefs from the sheriff’s office had presented the budget request to the county commissioners on Feb. 13 and described the presentation as well received.
