Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/336863
for two new full-time employees was already in the sheriff's proposed Fiscal Year 2015 bud- get of $95,479,334, Knight said it was not. He explained that Owens had called him after he had submitted his spending plan to the county. He could provide a revised budget to Steve Botelho, the county's acting assistant administrator and chief financial planning officer, he added. "Of course, I want to do it," Robinson said of expanding the program. However, she contin- ued, "I want to make sure that we've worked it in appropriately to the budget. … These things make a difference for future years." Maj. Jeff Bell, commander of the Sheriff's Courts/Corrections Division, explained that the money would be used for the salaries of the two full-time employees, an expense of about $89,000, plus one fully equipped vehicle at a cost of about $47,000. Bell pointed out that the county saved about $1 million in 2013 for work performed by people in the program. Since 2010, Bell said, 12th Judicial Circuit Court judges have assigned about 1,200 peo- ple to the program. Although some of them were convicted of felony charges, none was considered violent, Knight explained. A graphic shows the reduction in personnel in the Sheriff's Office since the 2006-07 fiscal year. Image courtesy Sheriff's Office Sarasota News Leader June 27, 2014 Page 34