Schoharie County Treasurer Bill Cherry believes a budget officer should advise and counsel the Board of Supervisors, and he has plenty of both to offer.
Supervisors appointed Mr. Cherry budget officer at their reorganizational meeting last week, bringing him back to a job he had held for 14 years till mid-2009.
Paul Brady and Alicia Terry were budget officers for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 county budgets.
In a cost-cutting move, the 2012 budget eliminated county jobs that Mr. Cherry said he's promised to return.
His plan is to get the county jail up and running as soon as possible. Doing so would provide savings that would bring back all employees laid off in the budget, Mr. Cherry said.
"The more we get back, the better off we'll be," he said. "We have to rebuild trust with our county workforce."
He said the flood-damaged jail isn't in bad shape and could be reopened as a 40-bed facility instead of its original 80 beds.
The work could be done in eight weeks, Mr. Cherry said, immediately saving money in unemployment insurance and boarding prisoners.
The county is 100-percent self-insured for unemployment, so it's responsible for paying the out-of-work jail guards. Also, the county is paying $60,000 per month to board prisoners in Albany County, Mr. Cherry said.
"We put the jail guards back to work and we save $300,000," he said. "Then we save $60,000 a month bringing the prisoners back," he said.
"I made a promise to get people whose jobs were eliminated back to work for Schoharie County."
That plan would provide enough savings to bring back the jail guards plus the 15 other county employees whose jobs were lost, Mr. Cherry said.
There's some concern about what the state and federal governments would say about reopening the jail in the flood plain.
Mr. Cherry said that if the heating and electrical systems were elevated above flood level, the jail would be safe.
"We have to stop waiting for some big brother to tell us what to do," he said. "We're waiting for FEMA to say okay or the state to weigh in. Let's just do it."
Supervisors would have to approve this jail plan because the budget officer has no direct authority, Mr. Cherry said.
"The Board of Supervisors is absolutely in charge," he said.