By Allyson Dix
For Glasgow News 1
Barren County officials are citing cash flow and budget overruns as reasons for not yet considering annual wage increases for employees of the sheriff’s department, a move that the sheriff said is out of the norm.
In the Aug. 18, 2026, Barren County Fiscal Court meeting, Sheriff Kent Keen raised what he called a “contentious” question regarding employee raises for his department, despite his current fiscal year budget taking effect on July 1.
Keen said he had previously submitted different requests to Treasurer Amanda Steger and Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd to bring before the court for a vote.
Byrd said she had previously responded to Keen’s request in July, reiterating her statements in court, explaining that last year the sheriff’s office had budgeted $1.43 million for deputy salaries, but spent $1.51 million. This year, Byrd said, the deputy payroll is budgeted at $1.48 million, a 3% increase compared to last year’s budget.
“I just wanted to get a comparison of your two-week payrolls to see where you’re going to end up at, and just like I told you in the message I responded to on July 25th, based upon the increases, and also the jail requesting the raises as well, that we just need to wait until the end of August, beginning of September, and those should be no problem,” Byrd said.
She also pointed out that, due to an crash, the department purchased three vehicles last year instead of two, also a deviation from the norm. Byrd said funds from the Alcohol Beverage Control account helped to fund the outfitting of the vehicles.
Keen told Byrd he felt like she had spoken on behalf of the court in their private exchanges.
“I felt like you commented for the court and we weren’t in the court, and I was requesting a vote on it for the court,” Keen said during the fiscal court meeting.
Magistrate Marty Kinslow, who is chairman of the Administration and Budget Committee, said that cash flow and responsibilities are important when administering a budget.
“It’s about cash flow,” Kinslow said. “It’s like that in anybody’s budget and it’s like that here…It could look like there’s a lot of money in there today, and tomorrow, it might not be.”
Kinslow, gesturing at the court officials, said it isn’t “technically” their responsibility to know day-to-day cash flow when it comes to the county’s financial administration.
“It’s a little disappointing to me that we’re asked to administer the budget…but we administer it in a general way, not a minute-by-minute, dollar-for-dollar,” Kinslow said.
“So, is it real? Is it fictitious? Is it pretend?” Keen said those are the questions his employees are asking when it comes to the raise.
Byrd said that in the previous four years, the county has increased one line item by $525,000.
Keen said he had heard that statement three times and appreciated it, noting that it has helped with employee retention.
“That’s the very reason I’ve got the employees I have today,” Keen said.
Keen said the numbers do not account for patrolling at Barren River Lake or reimbursements for school coverage, and that the sheriff’s office gave $1.7 million to the court in 2025.
Kinslow asked Keen, “Considering what we’ve always done, do you really have a valid reason to wonder if your guys are going to get [raises] this year? All we’ve done is said we want to look and make sure about cash flow, might have to wait a month or two.”
“It’s a deviation from the norm,” Keen responded. “The norm has been it’s July 1 fiscal year, and we’re past that. The final question: when can I tell my employees to expect an increase?”
Byrd said the county will review everything “but I think that the beginning of September is what I told you.”
She also reminded the magistrates that pay increases are not only up for consideration for the sheriff’s office, but for other departments as well.
“Budgets and accounts are totally different things, the budget is set, but you don’t have to spend everything in your budget, you know that,” Byrd told Keen.
A portion of the discussion centered on jail revenue. If the account for the Barren County Detention Center does not have enough money to cover jail expenses, the county must transfer money from its General Fund.
“It is not the jailer’s fault either, we know that we’re not getting the money from the state like we used to for jail,” Byrd said. “I just needed to make sure everything’s going to line up.”
“And I agree with what you told me, but I wanted to question that before the court because I didn’t know that you had the single individual power to do that. I thought it was a financial decision of the court,” Keen responded.
Byrd then added, “If we didn’t have to transfer it to the jail budget, I could even do it sooner.”
This prompted Jailer Aaron Shirley to address the court with revenue numbers he said were “turned over” to the county totaling $402,000, with the exception of state housing and state highway in July.
“Four hundred thousand to this office? No, we don’t have that. What do you mean?” Byrd responded, while also asking the treasurer in a brief side discussion.
“Well, I’m just telling you what we put in the account,” Shirley said, adding that jail expenses have totaled $331,553 from July 1 through August 11.
This exchange led to a special-called meeting of the county’s jail committee, where Barren County officials and Shirley hashed out details about the cash flow pertaining to the jail.
Barren County Clerk Helena Birdwell shared comments on Aug. 18, 2026, in the Barren County Fiscal Court meeting after discussions on employee pay raises. Allyson Dix/For Glasgow News 1
County Clerk Helena Birdwell approached the fiscal court after the sheriff, noting that officials were unaware of any issues with the anticipated annual raises.
“As [an] elected official also with the sheriff, and I don’t think that you understand where he’s coming from, where we come from…,” Birdwell said. “They look at us for the answers, and we didn’t know there was an issue until past July 1. And normally, that’s not the norm.”
“So, that’s why there’s an upset and a concern,” she added. “And I think that, you know, we owe more respect to our sheriff, to our jailer, to any elected officials, to our employees, who do the work for us every day.”
Byrd told Glasgow News 1 after the meeting that her employees haven’t received raises either, but that Birdwell’s office has due to an early submission of numbers for review to consider annual raises and consideration of the clerk’s budgeting.
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