Bourbon County sheriff seeks vehicle lease program and a public-safety fund from inmate-housing revenue

Sheriff Martin told the Bourbon County Commission on an agenda-item hearing that he had forwarded a government credit application for an Enterprise Fleet Management leasing program to the clerk’s office and county legal counsel but that the application was not complete and would be returned to the commission after staff filled in missing information.

The sheriff also reviewed a draft resolution meant to identify and authorize use of out-of-county inmate-housing receipts as a public-safety fund and described a proposed split in the draft that would allocate 60% for sheriff operations and 40% to a county equipment/cash reserve. He said he would not begin drawing on the fund without returning to the commission for permission.

Why it matters: The proposal would change how revenue generated by housing inmates for other jurisdictions is earmarked and used, potentially reducing the sheriff’s future ad valorem (property-tax) budget requests if the revenue remains stable. Commissioners pressed for details on sustainability, legal limits and internal controls before any vote.

Sheriff Martin summarized the next steps, saying the master equity lease agreement and the completed credit application were necessary to move the vehicle-leasing proposal forward and that he had sent the lease to county legal counsel for review. He said the credit application stage was an administrative step and that maintenance, mileage caps and dealer approval were material contract terms to resolve before any lease was executed.

Commissioners asked for more detail on projected revenue and on what uses the proposed public-safety fund would permissibly cover. County Clerk Susan read historical reimbursable housing receipts to give context: "In 2020, that fund produced $16,610; in 2021, $41,892; in 2022, $53,491; in 2023, $12,346; last year it produced $133,434; and this year to August it is $265,214," she said. The clerk later noted the county budget planned the fund at $126,000 for 2026.

Commissioner Jeremy Milburn asked the sheriff to identify statutory authority and safeguards and said the commission should be able to adjust the resolution language; he pressed whether the draft would allow future commissions to reallocate funds. Milburn quoted part of the draft and raised concerns that the resolution language in part 3 could be read to require supplanting county ad valorem revenue: "In part 3, it says, in the event of a decrease or absence of ad valorem tax revenue below the previous year mill levy, the county shall supplant such funding with general fund or other funding sources to maintain adequate funding for public safety offices or services," Milburn said.

Commissioner Tran asked for projections and risk analysis: "What is your projection for 2026? How much do you anticipate?" he asked.

The sheriff said he would not use the fund without commission approval and offered a transparency pledge: "I will not take anything out of this fund until I before I come to the commission and say, hey. This is what I'm looking at. Then we have that discussion," he said. "I'm not gonna sit down there on Twentieth Street and start writing checks or putting in invoices to take money out. I'll come up and say, hey. This is a separate thing."

Commission discussion highlighted three themes: (1) volatility of inmate-housing revenue year-to-year, (2) the desire for written procedures and statutory citations to define permissible uses, and (3) whether to create separate funds for corrections and for law-enforcement operating needs. Commissioners asked county staff and legal counsel to return with clarified statutory references, a recommended final draft resolution, and implementation language about approvals and reporting before any action.

No formal vote was taken on the resolution or on the fleet-lease application. The sheriff said the credit application and master equity lease needed legal review and completion of administrative details before the commission could act; he expected to return with a complete packet at a subsequent meeting.