Howard takes funding requests to lawmakers
Sheriff Timothy B. Howard weeks ago asked the county executive to budget 75 more jobs for the sheriff's office in 2010.
County Executive Chris Collins, holding the line on new jobs and the tax rate, gave him two.
So Howard today appealed to the County Legislature, as lawmakers reviewed the budget for both his road patrol and the Jail Management Division.
Howard and his chief of administration, Brian D. Doyle, asked for more road patrol deputies, narcotics investigators, dispatchers and jail personnel to help the department further recover from the cuts inflicted during Erie County's mid-decade budget crisis.
Howard, with County Attorney Cheryl A. Green nearby, also withstood a line of questioning from legislators over the lawsuits filed against him over his operation of the Erie County Holding Center in downtown Buffalo and the Correctional Facility in Alden.
Legislator Barbara Miller-Williams, D-Buffalo, who also is a Buffalo police officer, told him that his deputies should treat visitors to the Holding Center with more respect.
She said a deputy treated her rudely when she asked why people must wait outside in order to visit an inmate.
Legislator Robert B. Reynolds, D-Hamburg, chairman of the committee reviewing the Collins budget proposal, said lawmakers would have to find $2 million more in order to meet Howard's requests, and other requests for additional dollars will be arriving, too.
Still, some lawmakers, such as West Seneca Democrat Timothy M. Wroblewski, said they should try to deliver more money for the sheriff's needs.
Lawmakers are reviewing all department budgets this week and expect to approve a 2010 budget in early December.
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