Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider is hoping to rally the community behind a proposal to increase the Sheriff's Office operating budget in 2020.
The Loudon County Commission is holding a hearing Monday evening after delaying their recommendation in light of the sheriff's and others' requests.
Sheriff Guider wrote a detailed post on Facebook describing what was in his request to the county budget commission, asking for the community's support for what he believes will be a minimal tax increase that will lend itself to a larger payoff for public safety.
"If you’ve ever wanted to back the blue, now is the time," he said. "For nearly 29 years, I have been a good steward of our taxpayer’s money. And today I am asking that you trust me to do the job you have elected me to do for almost three decades; to run a professional sheriff’s office that keeps this community the safest in East Tennessee."
The sheriff said he's hoping to obtain the funding primarily to staff a minimum of 36 correctional deputies at a new, larger county jail that's expected to be completed in January 2020.
He also said he wants to add three new patrol officer positions to deal with a rising number of calls, two new SRO positions to have 'floaters' who can work when the other deputies need time off, a new court security deputy, and would also like to have the funding to provide a salary increase for the men and woman of the LCSO to increase officer retention.
"I think its time we address this turnover and the costs associated with losing experienced, trained and certified deputies to other agencies. That begins by paying our men and women a fair and competitive wage for the job they do," he said.
The Loudon County budget commission met on May 30 and was supposed to make their recommendations, but decided to put that on hold so they could closely review the sheriff's proposal and others that had been submitted.