The Daily News Journal

MURFREESBORO — The county budget committee cut budget plans to add 19 deputies Tuesday night while Sheriff Robert Arnold faces criminal charges.

Arnold, his uncle, John Vanderveer, and Joe Russell, the Sheriff's Office chief of accounting, entered a federal courtroom in handcuffs in Nashville on May 27 to learn about a 14-count indictment accusing them of illegally profiting off inmates through the sale of JailCigs, an electronic cigarettes business. The three are scheduled for a jury trial at 9 a.m. Aug. 2.

Prior to the charges, Arnold had been requesting dozens more deputies before the County Commission Budget, Finance & Investment Committee agreed to a plan recommended by Mayor Ernest Burgess to give the sheriff 12 more jailers and seven more patrol officers.

The committee in a 4-3 vote decided to hold off on hiring 19 more deputies as well as the training, patrol Ford Explorers and other equipment because of the concerns about the sheriff's trustworthiness, Commissioner Rhonda Allen said after the meeting.

"I've had a lot of people say to me we don't trust him with what he's got now, so why would we trust him with more," said Allen, who seconded the motion to make the cuts offered by Commissioner Shawn Kaplan. "It was pretty much on everyone's mind. Shawn just happened to be the first one to say it. If he was going to be brave enough to make the motion, I was going to be brave enough to make the second."

Commissioner Charlie Baum and Will Jordan, who is the committee chairman, also supported cutting the 19 added deputies to a department with 515 employees, including 418 who are full time.

Commissioners Joe Frank Jernigan, Robert Peay Jr. and Doug Shafer opposed the cuts.

Sheriff Robert Arnold, Joe Russell remain on job despite charges

Although the committee was divided on the sheriff's budget, they all agreed to support the overall budget plan for government and school services and will revisit the deputy issue in August, Allen said.

Before the indictment of Arnold, Allen had been the only one to oppose the sheriff's budget because she thought his office was top heavy.

"I pointed that out again (Tuesday night)," Allen said. "It's not 100 percent honest to say that he's short staffed because of how he's allocated his staff."

Allen, though, said the commissioners are concerned about having enough corrections officers.

"We struggled with this decision because we don’t want to put them at risk, but at the same time we made a commitment to review this in August," Allen said. "So that hopefully if there’s a change in the Sheriff’s Office we can make an amendment to the budget, and we can reallocate those positions back to the person who is in charge. I think the mayor recognized that, and we do, too. We need more corrections officers in the jail because we do have more crowding from time to time."

The commissioners want to address the jail overcrowding with a different sheriff than Arnold, Allen said.

"We are between a rock and a hard position," Allen said. "The only way any of us wins is if he leaves office. We don't trust him to make the decisions. If we passed this (proposal to add 19 deputies), that money would be available in his budget July 1, and we don't trust him with those decisions."

The commission a week ago voted 21-0 on a resolution asking Arnold to resign. Burgess and state Sens. Bill Ketron and Jim Tracy also have requested that Arnold resign.

Commission asks Sheriff Robert Arnold to resign

Reach Scott Broden at 615-278-5158 and on Twitter @ScottBroden.