By DANIEL TAYLOR, Correspondent
GUNTERSVILLE — District 2 Commissioner Rick Watson and Sheriff Phil Sims got into a heated back-and-forth during last Wednesday’s County Commission meeting over funding and operations for the county jail.
The issue began with Sims’ request that the Commission approve funding for a senior corrections officer to replace an existing unbudgeted corrections officer position.
Sims said he wanted this position filled in time to train the employee and have them ready to supervise the booking area when the jail addition is complete. He said he already had the money in his budget to cover it — roughly $13,000 to finish out the year.
“How long has this job been unfunded?” Watson asked during the work session. “I thought that after a job stayed unfunded for so many years it went away.”
Ashleigh Bubbett said the position has gone unfunded since at least before she was hired as county administrator in 2021.
“The funding goes away; the position doesn’t. That’s my understanding. It’s on the books right now,” Sims said, adding that he would still need the personnel board’s approval.
“Usually if it’s been open for more than a year, I think at that point we un-budget it for the next fiscal year,” Bubbett said. “Usually we fill our positions, but this one must have been open for a while.”
The Commission approved the sheriff’s request, 3-1, with Watson dissenting.
Following the vote, Watson said, “I should have brought this up in the work session… The senior corrections officer, we know how much that is going to cost today, this year. But we have no idea what it’s going to cost next year because we’re right in the middle of a pay study. Here it is July; why wouldn’t we have waited until the first of the year to try to do this?”
Sims said the booking department at the jail was already overworked, and the position needed to be filled as soon as possible to help relieve pressure and be ready to go when the new jail addition opens.
“We will have to have two booking officers per shift in the new facility,” he said. “So that person that this position will create will already be trained, will already be in position to make sure they transition from the booking here transitions over there smoothly.”
Watson then asked more questions about funding for the jail addition and its 28 new positions.
“Rick, my door is open anytime you want to come talk to me about this,” Sims said. “Talking about the meeting is fine, but if you’ll come to my office — and I’ve extended this invitation, I bet you 100 times — if you’ll come over to my office, let me walk you through our operations with the diagram. Well, see, here’s your problem. You want to sit up here and criticize without coming over and looking at it.”
“I’m looking at what the jail, in overtime, is costing these people of Marshall County,” Watson responded.
Sims later said the jail was currently 17% under budget for overtime.
“It’s the nature of the beast when you’re in law enforcement,” Sims said. “So, if you’ll come and sit down and let me explain to you — please put this in the media… You refuse time and time again to come to my office. I’ve opened the door and invitation many times to come look at our budget, come look at our operations, let me walk you through it so you understand why we spend overtime, why we have to have the personnel we have to have, to understand the operations of the jail because you don’t understand the operations of the jail.”
“I don’t want to come over there,” Watson said.
“There’s your problem,” Sims rejoined.
“No, it’s not my problem. I don’t want to be associated with that. Why don’t you come to my office?”
“I can’t explain my operations to the jail in your office. You got to see it first hand,” Sims said.
Chairman John Young interjected, saying this was part of the process of working out the budget for the new jail addition.
“It’s there. We’re going to have to pay for it. We’re going to have to operate it,” Young said. “That’s why we put budgets together and work on how do we pay for it? We’re certainly not there yet, but we got to face it in order to know.”
“Nobody has shown me on paper how we’re going to pay for that,” Watson said.
“Well, we’re going to get there,” Young said.
Sims concluded by inviting Watson again to his office to discuss jail operations.
“Don’t say I’ve never been there. I have been there,” Watson said. “…And I said I will never go in that jail again.”
“You got an open invitation. I’m not going to argue with you about it anymore,” Sims said.
“Well, I’m not going to argue with you anymore. You got an open invitation from me,” Watson responded.
The $35 million jail addition has been under construction for the last 17 months after falling 75 days behind schedule in March. Project supervisor Kelly Howard said last Wednesday that the project is roughly 53% complete in terms of materials purchased, though much still needs to be installed.
“We’ve paid out just over $18 million so far on the property,” he said.
Sheriff Phil Sims, left, addresses the Marshall County Commission on July 8. The sheriff asked commissioners to approve funding for a jail position that has been vacant for years. Commissioner Rick Watson, third from right, balked at the request, leading to a heated debate between himself and Sims over funding in the Sheriff’s Office. DANIEL TAYLOR | Special to the Leader
