Kindler wants to rearrange Sheriff’s Office
Published 9:23 am Thursday, March 31, 2011
Freeborn County Sheriff Bob Kindler is proposing a reorganization of the Sheriff’s Office that he said could bring long-term savings.
Kindler said though the proposed changes may not bring a lot of immediate cost savings, they could bring savings of about $250,000 over a 10-year period, according to estimations using the current hourly rates. This does not include overtime and fringe-benefit savings.
Kindler plans to bring the proposal before the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday for vote before he is authorized to make any changes.
The current organization of the Sheriff’s Office includes 13 patrol deputies, five detective/supervisors and the sheriff. Under former Sheriff Mark Harig, one of the detective/supervisors acted as chief deputy by title though this was not a formal position in writing.
Kindler’s proposal would change the organization to include 12 patrol deputies, two patrol sergeants, one detective, two detective/supervisors, one chief deputy and the sheriff.
The patrol sergeants, who will be promoted from within the department, would be one grade above the patrol deputies, and the detective would be two grades above the patrol deputies. The detective/supervisors would remain at their current grades.
With the conversion of one detective/supervisor position to a detective position without supervisory duties, the savings for this position at the current rates would be $12,000 a year, not including overtime, the sheriff noted.
Kindler said the chief deputy, who would be responsible for the operation of the Sheriff’s Office in his absence and under his direction, would change to being a salary employee instead of an hourly one, which would in itself save $5,000 to $7,500 a year in overtime costs.
“The focus is to become a little bit more efficient in how we’re able to handle our investigations,” he said.
“There’s tremendous cost savings, but it’s not going to happen immediately,” he added. “Long-term is probably the best indicator of how this is going to play out.”
Also on Tuesday, Kindler said he will bring the resignation of former Chief Deputy Gene Arnold before the board. Arnold resigned March 22.