By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — An effort by Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith to upgrade the pension plan for his deputies has been an uphill battle, given the county’s financial constraints, but there was a glimmer of good news on Tuesday.
His plan to establish a cost-of-living allowance seemed to gain some support during a joint meeting of the county commissioners and council on Tuesday morning.
Even though both the commissioners and council had already heard presentations on the issue by Smith, they met for more than an hour, much of which was spent looking at how to fund the proposal for current and future retirees.
The sheriff and Captain Chris McKeand talked about the frustrations in the department about spending large amounts of money to train officers only to see them eventually leave for departments that have COLA plans.
Twenty-five of Indiana’s 92 Sheriff’s offices include COLA in their pension plans.
Warsaw Police, Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources offer COLA.
Officials talked extensively about various options that could be made avaibele for both retirees and future retiries, including the idea of providing current retirees with a one lump sum to help reduce the overall cost.
“I’m still optimistic,” Smith said afterward. “I think there’s no doubt that they all agree that this probably needs to happen. They just need to do their due diligence to make sure it’s affordable.”
While Kosciusko County regularly posts live stream coverage on youtube, there was a technical problem that prevented that from happening Tuesday, according to Allysa Schmucker, the county auditor.
For a full recap, check out the story by The Times-Union.
