By Tom Mills
News Editor

Green County Sheriff Tim Stumph chose not to run for reelection to a third term, citing financial pressures on the office as a chief obstacle to the proper running of the office.
“There is  a lack of money to run the office like the voters want it to be run,” Stumph said. “Unfunded mandates from Frankfort also make the office virtually impossible to run.”
Stumph compared the office to a bankrupt business.
“There have been years that I have gone seven months without being paid because the money was not there to pay myself,” Stumph said. “ I loaned my paycheck to the county  just to pay the deputies until the money came in at the end of the year when we get taxes commissions.”
A salary cap prohibits paying deputies comparable salaries to other police departments and many have taken other jobs once their training is complete.
“The state requires all paid deputies — special deputies excluded) — have to go to the police academy for 18 weeks of training plus two or three weeks break time,” Stumph said. “The deputy also has to be sponsored by the department and must be paid while they are at the police academy. That leaves no extra money to pay someone else to work while they’re gone.
“The fiscal court sets the salary cap and you cannot spend over that amount. Until last week the cap was $72,000 (it’s now $80,000) for the three deputies, which means that surrounding counties are paying thousands of dollars a year more than we are. Therefore, we have been paying to train deputies as required, and they have to go to other agencies to make enough money to feed their families.”
Stumph said he has sent five deputies to the academy.
“Some people have said make the deputies sign a contract to work for two years after they are trained, but who wants a deputy working for them that does not want to work for the office?” Stumph said. “I do not believe that person is going to be productive and would possible try to be fired so that they could leave.”
Stumph said the office’s budget is so tight, it has cot him money to be sheriff.
“In the seven years that I have been in office, I have purchased three cars and last year I had to take over $7,000 in taxes out of my own pocket to pay personnel,” he said.
He also said the office is unique in its expectations.
“Many people do not do not understand that the job title is only 25 percent law enforcement and 75 percent administrative,” he said. “The sheriff’s office is not like the state police or any other law enforcement agency being the others do not have all the administrative jobs. The biggest jobs of the office is collecting taxes, court security, serving court papers, election board officer, and faxing tracking and serving warrants.
“When I came into office as Sheriff I had to make a decision weather to have two deputies and a bookkeeper or add a third deputy and be the bookkeeper myself so, I decided to add a deputy and became the bookkeeper and Sheriff. This would allow me to have two law enforcement officers instead of one during the day. This was demanding to work with the books, take calls, and answer phone calls all at the same time so I soon learned that the only way to do the books was to go to the office at 4 to 5 a.m. Sunday morning and do the books, make payroll and pay the districts the tax collections when there was usually not much happening in the county.”
And, Stumph said, the personnel situation is about to get more complicated.
“We now have the new judicial building, which requires the sheriff’s office to hire guards.,” he said. “The guard’s wages $8 per hour — are paid by the state but uniforms, training, and equipment are to be paid by the county. The state wants from three to four guards at the building during business hours, and on court days up to three more. There is to be two at the metal detector one at the cameras and one more if we get an X ray machine. The problem is that the state will not let the personnel be full time. Therefore, by law they cannot work over 100 hours a month which is a 25 hours a week average. This means that you have to have 6 to 8 people in a week just to cover the doors and cameras, not counting the ones in the courtroom on court days. Every time you add another court security officer it cuts down the hours that they will work in a week. The average  hours that they will probably get are 18 to 20 because if they go over the 100 hours a month  they would have to be paid benefits and the state does not want to pay the benefits. They would probably after taxes, at the most make $120 dollars.
All-in-all, though, Stumph said his experience as sheriff has been wonderful.
“The sheriff’s office has been stressful but also a joy at times to work at, with the best being all the people that I have met and associated with while being in office,” he said. “I believe the people of Green county are still the most friendly and courteous people that I have had the pleasure of being around in my soon to be 50 years of life. It has been an honor to serve you as Sheriff.
Stumph also said he would serve as deputy, sheriff..
“I hope to continue to serve as deputy, if my friend and deputy Robby Beard is elected.” Stumph said. “He has been to the police academy and done every job in the office from administrative to law enforcement.”
Stumph is also going through a trying family medical emergency, though he did not say hat played any part in his decision.
“I would also like to thank the people who have prayed, called and gave support to my wife, Amanda,” he aid. “She has had her surgery and the doctor was astounded by how well it went . The doctor stated that the surgery went better than she could have planned it but I know that her leg was saved  because the lord was holding the doctors hand with each cut she made. I know I have witnessed a miracle and its because of all your prayers.”     

Ryan Colvin
Staff Writer

    Students in the Green County school system are doing their part to aid relief efforts in Haiti. Local students participated in a drive last week to collect bottled water for people in the earthquake-devastated Caribbean nation.
  “The Green County Family Resource Center and Youth Services Center collaborated with students in the high school BETA Club in this effort,” said Green County Family Resource Center Coordinator Angie Posey Scott. “Students from the primary school, intermediate school and high school collected over 68 cases of bottled water. We also got lots of individual bottles and bottled jugs of water.”
  On Thursday, representatives of Living Grace Church in Campbellsville stopped by the Family Resource Center’s main office, located in the Green County Primary School to pick up the cases of water.
  “From the Living Grace Church, the water will go on to Miami,” said Scott. “From there it will be put on a ship and sent to Haiti to help the families in need.”
  Haiti has been in a state of emergency since the massive earthquake hit the country on Jan. 12.  The initial earthquake was a magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale. It’s epicenter was approximately 16 miles from the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The city, which was particularly stricken, has experienced a large degree of overcrowding in the past few decades as rural workers migrated to the city.
  The country’s poor infrastructure further exacerbated problems posed by the earthquake. Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has no building codes. The often poorly constructed buildings easily collapsed during the powerful quake. According to the Haitian government, 20,000 commercial buildings and 225,000 have collapsed or been severely damaged.
  In the two weeks immediately following the Jan. 12 quake, 52 aftershocks with magnitude 4.5 or greater rocked the country. After initial rescue efforts, where rescuers searched for people trapped in collapsed buildings, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities in the country.
  Green County students’ efforts to gather clean drinking water for Haitian victims aids an important element of relief efforts, as due to the country’s notoriously poor infrastructure and the massive damage caused by the quake, clean drinking water is incredibly hard to find, especially in the main urban center of Port-au-Prince.
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