Food deliveries to the Lake County Jail will continue after the county council in a brief special meeting Tuesday agreed to pay the sheriff’s outstanding vendor bills from December.
The measure passed 6-0 with Councilwoman Elsie Franklin, D-Gary, absent. The vote came hours after the first meeting of the new Sheriff and Jail Oversight Committee created at the Feb. 14 council meeting to review sheriff’s department bookkeeping practices.
Council members in the same Feb. 14 meeting voted 4-3 to defer until March a motion to pay more than $170,000 worth of 2016 sheriff’s department bills. The amount included more than $89,000 to various food vendors including Shop Rite of Merrillville. The move prompted Shop Rite to threaten to stop grocery deliveries to the jail.
Councilmen Jamal Washington, D-Merrillville; David Hamm, D-Hammond; Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point; and Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, voted to defer.
Washington said Tuesday some progress had been made at the oversight committee meeting earlier in the day and he was more comfortable with paying the bills after discussions with the sheriff.
“I stand by my vote before,” Washington said, adding he now would support paying the bills. “I believe we are now moving in the right direction.”
Sheriff John Buncich said Tuesday, after the council scheduled the special meeting to reconsider the vendor bills, he was able to negotiate with Shop Rite to keep food deliveries coming, pending the outcome of the special meeting. There was no disruption in service.
He described the problems with the budget and billing as a matter of miscommunication, and said the committee is helping.
“I think we accomplished a lot this morning,” Buncich said.
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
