Panel rejects security funding option

The Shawano County Finance Committee this week shot down an idea to use forfeited bail bond money for courthouse security projects.

The resolution, which recommended taking $37,600 from the Maintenance Department budget and an estimated $9,800 to $17,000 annually from forfeited bonds in the future for the new fund, is not dead, though.

The Public Safety Committee recommended the resolution June 11, which means it will be on the County Board agenda when it meets on Wednesday.

Supervisors on the Finance Committee questioned why it was necessary to establish the separate fund, which Supervisor Marlin Noffke called a “slush fund.”

“You set up another account, and it’s one more thing where someone feels ‘That’s my money; I can spend it the way I want,’” Noffke said. “I would rather see, when you get (bond) money coming in, put it into the general fund, and if you need it, then you go to the general fund to get it.”

Approval to use general fund money requires a two-thirds supermajority of the County Board.

Supervisor Rosetta Stern said attempts to create individual funds were “typical” of county officials.

“This account could grow every year,” Stern said. “The county creates something, and then people see that money’s accumulating, and they all want a part of it.”

The bond money is also considered in the annual budget, Finance Director Diane Rusch said, so if it is diverted to courthouse security, some other area of the budget could be affected.

“We would need either another revenue source or to decrease expenditures,” Rusch said.

Rusch noted courthouse security expenditures are handled by the Maintenance Department.