Scott County sheriff says deputy vehicles may be repossessed, blames lack of funding from council

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Scott County, Indiana, sheriff and the county council are at odds, pointing the finger at one another over a past due bill.

Sheriff Jerry Goodin sounded alarms on Thursday after he said his deputies' vehicles may be repossessed.

Contracts show Goodin purchased three new Ford F-150 police vehicles in March of 2023 with the approval of the Scott County Commission. At the time, Goodin told commissioners he had the money in the budget, and it would be financed over five years. The commissioners said yes, but the council controls the dollars and cents.

"For all three vehicles, it will be five payments spread over five years," Goodin said Friday.

The county is in default to the tune of $33,000 on a $143,000 loan.

"Ford Motor Company is getting ready to repossess three motor vehicles from the Scott County Sheriff's Office," Goodin said in an 8-minute video posted on Facebook Thursday. "Not only is that an embarrassment to the sheriff's office, it's an embarrassment to the folks of Scott County."

Goodin slams the county council for pulling all the money from the Sheriff's vehicle fund, among other cuts in its latest budget.

Council Vice President J.R. Ward said Thursday the money for police vehicles was removed to pay for raises.

"That portion of money was taken, because he said that he had an immediate need to hire full-time deputies. And we had to raise their salary," said Ward. "So all the money we could find in his budget was taken and upped the deputy salary. They were given more of a raise than any other county employee going into 2024."

Ward spoke with WDRB News on Friday. He was asked what happened to the funding.

"It was never relayed to the council during the budgeting process that the money was needed for payment for a loan that he had entered with the commissioners," he said.

But Goodin claims the council removed funding to make the payments.

"When I got my budget back after the first year, guess how much was in my truck payment? Zero. Zero dollars," Goodin said Friday. "We had already made one payment on these trucks, we already paid $33,000 on these trucks, they knew that."

Ward reiterated that the money was taken from the sheriff's budget to pay for deputy raises.

"So we pulled all available funds we could find, which included money for purchasing vehicles out of a sheriff car line, moved it to a deputy pay line to up that salary," he said.

Goodin still disagrees.

"Completely false," he said. "I gave up a road position, a deputy's position, gave it back to them so I could get a pay raise big enough to keep the guys that I had."

Goodin, a Democrat, and the Republican majority council, have been at odds for more than a year. The sheriff said the council defunded his budget by more than $1 million. Former sheriff Kenny Hughbanks' wife, Lyndi, is the president of the county council. (Kenny Hughbanks was appointed sheriff of Scott County in 2018 and served until the end of that year.)

The Hughbanks declined to comment Thursday. They were recently named in search warrants pertaining to the fraud cases involving former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel. The Hughbanks have not been charged.

Goodin said the funding for those vehicles will be addressed at the next council meeting on Tuesday, April 16.

Related Stories: