{"id":1241678,"date":"2023-07-07T07:06:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T12:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1241678"},"modified":"2023-07-09T04:31:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T09:31:02","slug":"smith-county-hopeful-2024-budget-fixes-ongoing-staffing-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1241678","title":{"rendered":"Smith County hopeful 2024 budget fixes ongoing staffing problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1241679\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-175x121.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"175\" height=\"121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-175x121.jpg 175w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-200x139.jpg 200w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-504x350.jpg 504w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2.jpg 673w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/>SMITH COUNTY &#8212; Unfilled positions continue to make life hard on local law enforcement. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Law enforcement across the country is shorthanded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sgt. Larry Christian, Public Information Officer with Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office. The problem seemed to get even worse in 2020, according to our news partner KETK. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153COVID hit county jails really hard in the state of Texas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Craig Harrington, Gregg County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office Chief Deputy. The year 2024 is shaping up to be a critical one for Smith County. The county recently released a draft budget for fiscal year 2024 that includes an emphasis on trying to hire more people to fill detention center vacancies. Christian said getting the right budget passed could shape the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is very vital,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel like the sheriff has been working hard on this again and our county commissioners. They have been crunching all of these numbers and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to get this done and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s huge if we can get this passed. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a boom for us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In the draft, the focus will be paying officers overtime instead of comp pay. Christian added that this should make a difference. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also going to attract people to where they can come and apply and come to a job like this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Christian said.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there are 33 positions open. Officials hope these changes will make a dent to bring some of the numbers down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SMITH COUNTY &#8212; Unfilled positions continue to make life hard on local law enforcement. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Law enforcement across the country is shorthanded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Sgt. Larry Christian, Public Information Officer with Smith County Sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office. The problem seemed to get even worse in 2020, according to our news partner KETK. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153COVID hit county jails really hard in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1241678\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Smith County hopeful 2024 budget fixes ongoing staffing problem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1241681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-175x121.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Smith County hopeful 2024 budget fixes ongoing staffing problem","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1241678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 19:15:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/07\/sheriff-smithcounty-2-175x121.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Smith County hopeful 2024 budget fixes ongoing staffing problem","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1241678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241680,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241678\/revisions\/1241680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1241678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1241678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1241678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}