HERMANN – Business has been good for the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department, so much so that the agency’s operating budget is about tapped out of the funds allocated to pay for prisoner lodging.

The anticipated shortfall makes it necessary for Sheriff Scott Eiler to rearrange numbers in his department’s budget to cover the dwindling dollars being paid this year to house prisoners in Franklin and Osage counties. The potential problem was noted Thursday morning by County Clerk Lesa Lietzow to the County Commission.

The clerk, who serves as county government’s chief budget officer, said her office recently paid Franklin and Osage between $27,000 and $29,000 for prisoner lodging. “That line (item) won’t have enough to make it the rest of the year,” she said. Depending on available dollars elsewhere in the sheriff’s office budget, the expected shortfall might have to be made up with general revenue dollars.

Eiler said when he puts together his budget request for an upcoming year, he essentially is taking a guess on how many prisoners will need to be housed. This year, his agency has been busy putting people in jail, he said, noting that Gasconade County had no prisoners in the Osage County Jail at the present time and 16 in the Franklin County Jail.

“He’s not going to make it,” said Lietzow. “He just didn’t guess it high enough.”

His operating budget this year has a prisoner lodging line item of $275,000. But that amount gets eroded relatively quickly with the number of prisoners behind bars and the county being charged $50 a day for each inmate by Franklin and Osage counties. The county clerk said she is anticipating the final amount being spent on lodging this year to be about $300,000.

Here’s another cause of concern for Gasconade County commissioners: Franklin County has started passing along the cost of inmate medical bills to Gasconade County. “That’s something we had never had to pay,” Lietzow said. “Now, out of the blue, Franklin County is charging us.”

Gasconade County taxpayers did catch a major break on prisoner lodging cost the past two years. Franklin did not assess a daily lodging cost to Gasconade for housing Kenneth Lee Simpson while he awaited his capital murder trial. He was transferred from Crawford County Jail to the Franklin County Jail after he was arraigned in Gasconade County for the March 2023 killing of Hermann Det. Sgt. Mason Griffith  and the wounding of Hermann Patrolman Adam Sullentrup.

Simpson was in the Franklin County Jail for two years before he was convicted in February of capital murder and first-degree assault and sentenced to death. After formal sentencing several weeks later, Simpson was transferred to state custody.

Counties are reimbursed by state government for prisoner housing costs. However, the amount the state provides per day historically is significantly less than the actual daily cost paid by Gasconade County. In recent years, the amount the state has sent to counties, about $37 a day, has been significantly less than what is being paid by the counties.

Faced with using between $60,000 and $70,000 of General Fund money to make up the shortfall, the commission directed the sheriff to comb through his entire budget to see if he can find available dollars. “Before we agree to pay it, I want you to see what you can come up with,” said Holland.

Meanwhile, the county clerk said her third quarter review of all departments’ budgets was finished – except for the Road Department. “I haven’t studied Road & Bridge, but for all the other departments, Lietzow said. “I talked to the elected officials I needed to talk to.”

Work on the 2027 operating budgets for the departments will take place in December. The Commission will take most of January to put finishing touches on the new budget. Although the fiscal year ends Dec. 31, third-class counties have until the end of January to adopt a budget for the new year.