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overtime, and wage increases but Mr. Coffey persisted in his questioning, saying that the public <br />has the right to know how their tax dollars are being used. <br />County Administrator Baird explained further, but Mr. Coffey continued to question <br />while insisting the public has the right to know. <br />Sheriff Raymond repeated his prior offer to go over every part of his budget with <br />Mr. Coffey and stated he had invited an individual from the Taxpayers Association to attend all the <br />budget reviews. He noted that the Citizens Review Committee meets regarding the Sheriff’s <br />budget and they have found the expenditures for the Sheriff’s Office to be reasonable. <br />Commissioner Wheeler believed we definitely need the first expansion, but the <br />process used to allocate the funding for the additional expansion was not done as well as it could <br />have been done. He felt the additional expansion was based on a spike in the jail population and <br />had not really been completely looked at by this Board. He understood Mr. Coffey’s concerns. <br />Sheriff Raymond repeated that Mr. Coffey has failed to take advantage of his <br />previous offers for explanations. <br />Additional discussion ensued. <br />Duane Weise <br /> had prepared a chart comparing FY 2004/2005 to FY 2005/2006. He <br />had also read where Sebastian has cut their employee benefit program and suggested the County <br />consider doing a similar cut in benefits. <br />County Administrator Baird explained that the County must put together the budget <br />each year according to and as required by State law. He specified that the County’s budget is the <br />second largest and that the School Board is the largest and that not everyone pays into all five of <br />the municipal taxing districts. He explained also that Sebastian bid their benefits out because of a <br />large increase by their insurance provider and noted that sometimes newspapers have a problem <br />with math in their reporting. Although the County did not reach rollback, he specified that staff <br />made every attempt to do so. He also stated the County will look at benefits again in the next year <br />or two and recounted that the County is self-insured. <br /> Mr. Weise’s <br />In response to suggestion to examine cost for postage, telephone, and <br />other recurring costs, County Administrator Baird explained that high costs in both items are due <br />SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 3 <br /> <br />