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Elections, prosecutor, mental‑health and public‑safety leaders press board for targeted funds
Summary
On April 9 several county departments asked supervisors for targeted funding: Elections seeks a CIP storage facility to use a $54,000 grant for security cages; the commonwealth's attorney requested a locally funded paralegal; Western Tidewater seeks an increase in county support for mental‑health service match; the sheriff asked for higher deputy pay to retain staff.
Multiple Southampton County offices and regional partners made separate funding requests at the April 9 budget work session, asking the board to include targeted items in the FY26 plan.
Elections: Lynn Burgess, director of elections, outlined a long‑standing space shortage for early voting, absentee processing and secure storage for equipment. Burgess said her office secured $54,000 of a regional $75,000 grant for election security cages and $14,000 for access control but needs county CIP funding for a modest storage building to meet security and processing requirements.
Prosecutor: Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Cook thanked the board for past support, praised the new courthouse and the county’s treatment court results, and asked the supervisors to fund one locally supported paralegal position. Cook said increased discovery obligations, body camera evidence and a rise in jury trials have strained his office’s capacity and that a paralegal would improve efficiency.
Behavioral health: Brandon Rogers of Western Tidewater Community Services described regional mental‑health and substance‑use services and noted local usage and value. He asked Southampton County to increase its annual contribution from roughly $81,428 to $98,016 to meet state local‑match requirements tied to new program funding and to sustain same‑day access and crisis response services.
Public safety pay: The county sheriff (speaking by role) urged the board to raise deputy pay to keep pace with neighboring agencies, warning that trained deputies tend to leave for higher pay, which undermines recruitment and retention.
What was not decided: These are requests; supervisors did not take votes on the items April 9. Department heads were invited to return with details that could be incorporated into the continuing budget work session on April 16.
Representative quotes are drawn from the presenters listed in the transcript and are attributed to their roles.
