Budget committee backs sheriff's one-time contingency requests including radios, servers and roof assessment

The Pulaski County Budget Committee voted to send two ordinances to the full quorum court with a recommendation of "due pass" that would appropriate contingency funds for one-time expenses in the sheriff's detention and enforcement departments, including replacement portable radios, upgraded camera servers, a roof assessment and drainage work.

The measures (ordinances 25I37 and 25I38) were moved and seconded during the committee meeting and passed out of committee; 25I37 passed the committee roll call 10 ayes, 2 noes and 3 absent, and 25I38 passed the committee roll call 11 ayes, 1 abstention and 3 absent. County staff said the requests are for one-time capital or capital-like items rather than ongoing operating costs.

Why it matters: County officials said many of the sheriff's radios are out of warranty and the jail's roof and drainage issues have produced repeated maintenance problems. If the full quorum court approves the ordinances, the county would move contingency funds to specific, non-transferable line items for those projects and purchase equipment and services described in the ordnance packets.

Details from the meeting - Radios: The sheriff's office told the committee it expects to replace roughly 300 portable radios (about 140 for detention and about 160 for enforcement). The sheriff said the county's existing Motorola radios are out of warranty, parts are increasingly unavailable, and new radios would include officer-safety features such as an emergency distress button and GPS and the ability to use Wi-Fi or LTE as fallback. Motorola told the committee the new radios carry a seven-year warranty and can be placed on a maintenance plan after that period.

- Camera servers and storage: James Kingsbury, IT director for the sheriff's office, said the jail's video system now requires expanded on-premises server capacity. He told the committee the office stores about four to six petabytes of video data, a scale he said makes cloud-only storage more expensive than buying on-premises servers. Committee materials and staff said the server line item is on the order of several hundred thousand dollars.

- Roof assessment and drainage: The committee heard from Chris East of Cromwell Architects Engineers, who described structural and site issues at the Pulaski County Jail including settlement and expansive clay soils that he said have caused roof problems and water infiltration. Cromwell proposed a design and investigation phase — described in committee materials as an assessment and design package — that staff said is approximately $400,000. East recommended phased replacement and heavier-duty roofing for institutional use; he estimated a full reroof could be multiple millions of dollars and said design work would take about three to four months and bidding and construction would follow.

- Washers/dryers and other equipment: The packet and staff discussion listed industrial washers and dryers for jail laundry and other one-time needs to replace aging equipment.

Questions and procurement safeguards Committee members pressed staff and the sheriff on procurement steps, vendor selection and whether the contingency funds could be moved between line items. County staff said the ordinances include a non-transferable clause so the contingency monies must be spent on the specified line items and cannot be reallocated inside the contingency fund without returning to the court. The sheriff and IT director described reasons for on-premises servers rather than cloud storage and explained radio replacement would address dead spots and allow new safety features.

What passed and what's next The committee voted to forward both ordinances to the full quorum court with a due-pass recommendation. If the full quorum court approves, the county's purchasing process will follow state and county procurement rules for professional services and construction, and the design and bidding phases described by Cromwell and staff would proceed.

Ending note: Committee members repeatedly said they would monitor spending closely and expected the sheriff's office and county staff to either deliver the work as described or return with more detailed bids and cost estimates before construction contracts were executed.