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Sheriff wants a lawyer

Sheriff Charlie McDonald is seeking eight new employees plus a full-time staff attorney, a position the sheriff's office lost in a round of budget cuts in 2010.
McDonald said the department has enough demand for legal services to justify bringing the position back. He told the commissioner he would pay for the attorney position with the money from an unfilled budget manager position and the amount the department now spends on a Greensboro-based law firm.
"The company we use is very good," McDonald said. "They're not there close by and sometimes we have to wait in line a little bit."
McDonald also sought county funding for the Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget for four call takers, who are not yet trained as 911 dispatchers but can take non-emergency calls; a safety compliance officer for the jail, two administrative assistants and a courthouse security officer.
Using existing personnel, McDonald said that he created a domestic violence unit, assigned a narcotics detective to fulltime focus on "prescription drug diversion cases," reassigned deputies to increase squad size to nine deputies and restructured patrol to permanent day and night shifts with a flexible "power squad" answering calls during peak periods.