May 09--RICHMOND -- Sheriff Jerry Combs announced Tuesday to the fiscal court he anticipates a lawsuit to be filed against him by two employees re-instated after he took office.
The cost of the suit, if decided in the litigants' favor, could force the sheriff to cut back on police enforcement, he said.
In January 2010, former Sheriff Nelson O'Donnell fired Nolan Winkler Jr., Evelyn Thomas, Derek Thomas and Randy Worley, in what they claimed was a politically motivated reason.
The four were fired days after the May primary, when O'Donnell lost the Democratic nomination to Jerry Combs.
The Thomases and Winkler allege they were fired for supporting the candidacy of Doug Thomas for jailer, while Worley claimed he was fired for allegedly making comments in support of Combs.
Evelyn Thomas, a former deputy who works as the department's receptionist and deputy Derek Thomas were rehired after Combs took office Jan. 1, 2010.
Winkler and Worley both retired from their positions and are not seeking back pay and benefits, Combs said.
The Thomases now also are asking for 11 months of hazardous duty retirement benefits lost while they were without a job.
Their attorney, Jerry Gilbert, has told Combs he believes the Sheriff's Office is responsible for paying the amount. He sent a letter to Combs about eight days ago, Combs said.
"Their attorney would like something done in the next seven days," Combs said.
Combs estimates the hazardous duty retirement back pay for the two employees could range from $40,000 to $80,000.
"It wasn't my fault," Combs said. "This happened coming in (to his newly elected position). If the money has to come from us, we'll have to eliminate a shift (of police patrol). We have no choice."
A settlement was reached between O'Donnell and the four plaintiffs in March 2011, and federal judge Jennifer B. Coffman dismissed those cases without prejudice, meaning they could be brought back to court.
Madison County Attorney Marc Robbins said he would review the matter and attempt to communicate with Gilbert.
Madison Judge/Executive Kent Clark said he had assumed the previous suit, filed in July 2010, included hazardous duty back pay.
It was not made clear in Tuesday's meeting why the hazardous-duty retirement issue was not covered in the previous settlement.
In other business:
--Three different companies were awarded bids to kick off a year-long project of updating equipment for E-911 consolidated emergency services.
Pomeroy, based in Hebron, CDWG of Illinois, and South Dakota-based GovConnection received bids to begin work on telephone upgrades, according to E-911 Director Wendy Lynch.
The first stage of upgrades should cost about $39,900, which is less than the $46,000 estimate made by Chris Iseral, the county's information technology director.
This is the beginning of an estimated $990,000 equipment upgrade that is long overdue, Lynch said.
Part of the funding is being acquired from the federal government, according to Clark. About $400,000 in federal funding will be re-imbursed to the county for the project and the remainder of the costs will be borrowed by the county, Clark said.
The court plans on having to borrow about $375,000, he said.
The current equipment used for taking 911 calls was purchased in 1998 and 1999 and is not "next-generation 911 compliant," Lynch said at a February meeting with Madison, Berea and Richmond governments.
--The first quarter of 2012 has been a busy one, according to Madison County Solid Waste Director Scott Tussey. Since January and ending April 30, the department had cleaned roadside trash along 261 miles of county roads, yielding 1,425 bags of trash collected by about 543 participants.
The county's Loan-A-Truck (free to county residents) has been used at 63 locations and seven notices of violations have been issued for illegal trash dumps, Tussey said.
The Large-Animal Pickup program has helped remove 597 head of decaying livestock, an average of 35 per week. This is an increase from an average of about 25 per week, he said.
The county's neighborhood recycling program has collected 295,411 pounds of material since the beginning of the year.
--Marcella Hayden and Johnny Webb were re-appointed to serve on the Northern Madison County Sanitation District.
--County Clerk Kenny Barger announced he still is in need of 40 additional election poll workers for the May 22 primary election. Anyone interested can call the clerk's office at 624-4703.
The next fiscal court meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 22 at the Madison County Courthouse.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at [email protected] or 624-6608.
Copyright 2012 - Richmond Register, Ky.
