When business drops off...

Most employers, when business drops off, begin trimming expenses and, horrors of all horrors, commence with lay-offs, allowing attrition to cut number of employees, reduce hiring, slow down promotions, cut overtime ... "Down-sizing" becomes the order of the day.

But what if it's the "business" of a government entity that is slowing down; say, number of inmates in a jail...

The McHenry County Jail doesn't just house persons convicted of crimes or even just those accused of crimes. Our jail also serves as a "hotel" for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and for federal prisoners of the U.S. Marshals Service.

There was a day when the McHenry County Jail housed 350-400 in that category; and at a nice daily rate, too. That "income" served the County well for a while. The old "If you build it, they will come" adage played out nicely for quite a while.

The Sheriff bought those big while "school buses" that are parked out front and put an addition on the building.

And now? Rumor has it that the number of contract inmates might be as low as 230. If that is correct, is the Jail (run by the Sheriff - without the help of the Undersheriff (if you believe that one)) cutting back on personnel and expenses?

Is unnecessary overtime schedule? Are certain shift corrections officers (CO) allowed to put in 3-4 hours of overtime when they really aren't needed? Is the over-time pay rate really $54.00/hour? That would certainly fatten up a paycheck. Who monitors that? The Sheriff is supposed to. (Let's say that a CO earns $80,000/year; that $40.00/hour (round numbers). OT is time-and-a-half. $40.00 x 1.5 = $60.00/hour. Four hours of sitting around after a shift would generate $240 "extra" pay!)

These are hard questions that the County Board should be asking. And it should be getting straight answers.

Since the Jail Chief doesn't report to the Undersheriff (you remember that silly news a few months ago), then to whom does he report? If the sheriff isn't around, does Corrections Chief Sedlock have no one to whom he is responsible?

You remember why Undersheriff Zinke is NOT in the chain-of-command from Sedlock to Nygren; right? A little thing called the (Federal) Hatch Act. It has to be with Zinke's already-announced candidacy for Nygren's job in the November 2014 election. In other words, since Zinke is running for Sheriff and the Hatch Act is flapping in the breeze, then Zinke can't do part of his job. Did he take a pay cut?

Or did he get a nice pay raise (same pay, less work) when the Hatch Act got waved in his face? Zinke's pay is $136,021. Doubt it? Check www.bettergov.org/payroll/ for yourself. (Nygren's payroll, before calculation of benefits, is $151,000+.)

The organizational chart of the sheriff's department used to be online. A search today does not result in locating it. If it's really there and I just didn't find it, where is it?