Fayette County Sheriff's Department Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan did not

leave Wednesday's county budget hearings a happy man.

Jordan was hopeful of adding a school resource officer, two drug agents,

a secretary and a detective to his staff at the Criminal Investigations

Division.

But when the Fayette County Commission refused his requests for the

resource officer, Jordan left the budget hearing by telling the commission

he would solve the problem.

"I'll just fund it myself, and we'll talk about it again

next year," he said.

Jordan wanted the additional resource officer to act in a supervisory

capacity and be able to go to the different schools when the assigned

resource officer was away from the premises.

"But the agreement we signed with the school board said we would

maintain an officer at each school, and that's what we're doing," Fayette

County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn said.

The commission also questioned the cost of the resource officer and

whether they were paying more than 50 percent for the position. Jordan

was seeking $35,000 in salary for the officer, but the commission said

that was only the tip of the iceberg.

"You still have car costs, uniform and training," said Commissioner

Linda Wells.

Finance Director Mark Pulliam said the school system funds $20,000 an

officer, but said the contract could be reexamined with the Fayette County

Board of Education.

Jordan said he could see if the school board would go up to $30,000

an officer, but Dunn said that was not necessary.

"I think it's more of a philosophical question. We said we

would have one officer in each school, and that's what we're

doing," said Dunn.

Jordan was also shot down in his effort to hire two more agents for

the drug task force.

"In 1989, we started with four agents, and we've only added

one new agent," he said.

The County Commissioners did not comment on his request, but before

the meeting Wells speculated other funding could be found for the agents.

"Maybe they can use some of those confiscated funds to pay for

them," she said.