Saturday, May 08, 1999
Kenton jailer drops chief deputy
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — The Kenton County jailer announced Friday that he has withdrawn the appointment of Chief Deputy William Schilling because of differences in management style.
Rodney Ballard, a retired Kentucky State Police trooper who has served as the jail's operations officer since January, was named chief deputy, effective immediately.
Jailer Terry Carl said he made the change because he needed a chief deputy whose management style was more in line with his own.
“I have no ill will toward Mr. Schilling, and I wish him well in the future,” Mr. Carl said. “I simply made the decision I wanted someone in the chief deputy's post who had more management experience and whose management philosophy was one of cooperation and teamwork. Col. Ballard brings those qualities to the table, and he will do a great job for the people of Kenton County.”
Col. Ballard referred all comment on the matter to Mr. Carl. Neither Mr. Carl nor Mr. Schilling could be reached for comment Friday.
Mr. Schilling, a former Covington police officer, was appointed chief deputy when Mr. Carl took over jail operations in January. He also man aged Mr. Carl's campaign for jailer last year.
Since Mr. Carl took over in January with a pledge to improve operations in the troubled jail, the new management team has had to contend with a number of problems.
In the past three months, three prisoners have walked away from work details.
In April, a deputy at the jail apparently pulled the wrong file and let a convicted felon go free. The man was later arrested.
The jail's internal affairs department and the Kenton County Police Department also are investigating the death of a prisoner earlier this year, after being restrained at the jail. Jail employees have maintained they acted properly in their handling of Mi chael Labmeier.
“I've not had any problems with Mr. Schilling at all,” Kenton County Commissioner Dan Humpert said Friday. “I think that was strictly (the jailer's) decision. He and Mr. Schilling did not see eye to eye, and they decided to go their separate ways.”
Commissioner Barb Black had recently sided with Kenton Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd in questioning whether proper procedures were followed when jail personnel bought some guns. However, both said Friday that that was not a factor in the management change at the jail.
“It was Terry's call, and I guess he had reasons to do it,” Mrs. Black said. “I don't like to get into the running of the jail because it's not my area of expertise.”
While the fiscal court sets the jail's budget and stipulates the number of employees, its members do not interfere in jail operations, Mr. Murgatroyd said.
In March, Mr. Schilling was a chief backer of a proposal to open a regional jail in Lewis County to relieve crowded conditions in Kenton County's inefficient, multistory jail. The plan called for housing Kenton County prisoners facing sentences of six months to a year in a new jail that would be built in Lewis County, with the help of federal money.
Members of Kenton Fiscal Court looked into the proposal, but later discounted it, largely because of the high costs and the logistical problems involved in moving prisoners to a facility 100 miles east of Covington.
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