Surfside deputy hire OK’d

Published 1:12 pm Monday, July 29, 2024

SOUTH BEND — A judge attended the Pacific County Board of Commissioners July 23 meeting in honor of an employee’s many years of hard work and dedication, and a Surfside deputy deal was finalized.

County departments are currently focused on hashing out their 2025 budget requests, which will be submitted at the beginning of August. The county is also engaged in contract negotiations with unions, including the corrections department. More news coverage will be provided once negotiations are complete and collective bargaining agreements are finalized.

Surfside deal is done

A month after the county approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the Surfside Homeowners Association and the Pacific County Sheriff’s Office deputies guild of the Fraternal Order of Police, a deal is done.

The commissioners voted unanimously to contract one road deputy to Surfside, which will add a 14th deputy to the sheriff’s office roster. The sheriff’s office currently has 13 road deputies, two sergeants and four administrators who can perform peace officer duties.

“We are very excited to have this final step done so we can start to hire the Surfside deputy,” PCSO Chief Civil Deputy Hollie Billeci said. “The agreement is mutually beneficial for both the county and for Surfside and will serve the north peninsula residents outside of Surfside, too, and alleviate some of that call pressure from the area up there.”

Sheriff Daniel Garcia added, “I am super grateful to the residents of Surfside for the willingness to pay double, essentially. It’s a small amount for each of them, but it’s a huge payoff for many, many people on the north end of the peninsula.”

Judge offers kind words

The county honored Jared Capps for 15 years of service as a dispatcher at the Pacific County 911 Dispatch Center (PacCom) and Scott Jacot for 25 years as a court administrator at the Pacific County Juvenile Court.

Pacific County Superior Court Judge Donald J. Richter attended the meeting to hand Jacot a years-of-service award. Jacot was not present for the meeting, but Richter took the opportunity to praise his hard work.

“Scott is, quite frankly, an amazing director,” Richter said. “His department runs smooth, and I think he is probably the first person that has his budget turned into you every year, if not the first. The only reason he wouldn’t be the first is he does me the courtesy of putting it on my desk first to give it a review, and I am not as fast at reviewing as he is coming up with the budget each year.

“This is a humble piece of paper that may end up on a wall or in a filing cabinet or wherever it does, but every time he looks at it I hope he recognizes 25 years of helping kids, protecting victims, of service to the community. He has set an amazing standard for himself and the office. So, I hope it’s an injunction to him going forward because he is not done yet,” Richter added.

Richter also went on to add that he hopes Jacot keeps the momentum going.

“I hope … for him going forward to maintain that level of commitment and service, so at the end of his career he can look back and be proud of what he has done because he absolutely should be,” Richter said. “And we are very happy to have him on our team.”