The Clinton County Commissioners agreed to send Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly three documents just two days before their mediation session in Indianapolis Thursday.
The Commissioners sent the Proposed Interlocal Agreement, Commissary Service Contract and Compensation Agreement to Kelly, who said he never received or seen those documents that were suppose to have been sent in 2018.
“I’m happy that I have got them. I’m happy to get a look at them,” said Kelly. “Three years ago, those same agreements should have been sent. I’ve hired my own personal attorney out of my own pocket to pay for that to happen and it never has in the past. I’m glad to see this. I’m glad it’s here. But, as I said, I still haven’t seen them.”
Clinton County Commissioners President Josh Uitts said the contracts were sent to Kelly’s attorney Tuesday morning. He also talked ab0ut what was in the documents sent to Kelly.
“First was the use of funds from the federal inmate program,” said Uitts. “This is basically a three-way interlocal agreement between the Council, the Commissioners and the Sheriff. The reason behind it is that we’ve tied this project to employees. We did that because we wanted to make sure that if someone new came in and upended someone’s career because they had a different view philosophically with the federal inmate program.
“The other two were a commissary contract agreement and a compensation agreement for the sheriff which involves the prosecutor’s salary and tax warrants, added Uitts.
Uitts also said they tried to get these agreements to the sheriff in 2018, 2019 and 2020, but said they never heard back about the contracts.
Kelly said this was a reactive move before mediation talks take place Thursday.
“Since Council was not apprised of the information that a contract had been presented to the Commissioners, I do feel this is a reaction to the mediation on Thursday,” said Kelly.